SqwidNet, the licensed Sigfox Internet of things (IOT) network operator in SA, claims it now covers 83% of the South African population with its network.

With over 90% and 75% coverage across municipal and national highways respectively, the company says it has become the fastest growing IOT network in SA.

Since its launch in late 2016, SqwidNet has partnered with over 30 of ICT service providers who are at various stages of deploying IOT solutions across a number of industry verticals.

The partnerships will ensure the country and the continent at large will reap the benefits of inclusion, participation and improved quality of life enabled by IOT, the company says.

According to Reshaad Sha, CEO SqwidNet: "IOT and specifically digital transformation journeys that companies are embarking on are expecting to realise tangible benefits either through cost savings or revenue enhancement. We are working closely with our partners and their customers to help realise those benefits."

SqwidNet with its partners are working on some projects that have entered commercial deployment, these include air quality monitoring around a waste management facility where the customer wants to ensure that they operate responsibly by monitoring for gases such as hydrogen sulphide and volatile organic compounds.

The objective is to ensure that the facility is able to proactively take action when these gas levels start approaching that of potentially impacting the community around them.

Another notable project is to detect intrusion at thousands of facilities that belong to a customer with the benefit of optimising maintenance and associated service delivery. Asset tracking, be it from a location perspective or associated asset usage is a popular customer request resulting in the deployment of solutions today that are able to track both high value and just valuable goods. Within the asset usage space, we have customers that have adopted solutions that enable them track and monitor driver behaviour which then ties back closely to their own asset management plan and associated service delivery.

"Customer demand for the type of connectivity and associated devices that we enable has been unprecedented. This demand comes from a wide variety of industry verticals and this in turn has triggered further development in the IOT ecosystem that we participate in." says Sha.

Our global partner, Sigfox has established a network presence that now reaches 45 countries, covering 803 million people with a footprint that exceeds 3.8 million square kms. This rapid global expansion of the Sigfox network has further fuelled the growth in device and platform development which is a key contributor to the availability of solutions that drive digital transformation in businesses.