Ian Terblanche, Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director at Sigfox

Ian Terblanche Sigfox

As the world moves heavily towards digital inclusion, all aspects of life will become connected, paving the way to a more IoT-fueled tomorrow. A major player within this ring is Sigfox, the world’s leading service provider for IoT services, Inside Telecom sat down with the company’s Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director Ian Terblanche to discuss their solutions regarding this field, and its impact on connectivity.

Could you briefly tell us about Sigfox’s 0G network? 

Our global network allows billions of devices to connect to the Internet, in a straightforward way, while consuming as little energy as possible. Our game-changing approach makes it possible to send and receive data without the need for complex connections or SIM cards. Base stations simply listen in and capture specifically formatted radio messages from around the globe. Devices need something as simple, and as small, as the silicon chip that you find in a remote control.

How do your 0G IoT sensors and connectivity aid in the digital transformation efforts by incorporating real-time alerts about delays and transport conditions?

Sigfox has built a dedicated IoT network across 76 countries to serve 3 market segments:  

1. Security – we provide Securitas with an anti-jammable network for their home alarm service. Despite more people investing in alarm and remote surveillance systems to discourage burglars and enable them to react quickly to any intrusion, those same systems can be faulty, suffer from breakdowns or even jam at the worst possible moment because of a droppage in the GSM network linking them to the security company protecting your home. We also work with Verisure, a Swiss company that specialises in alarms with remote monitoring, to mitigate that potential risk in its own devices and system – by using our 0G network as a backup connectivity which, unlike the GSM network, is less likely to jam. Through 0G network connectivity, communications between Verisure and each individuals’ home virtually anywhere in the world is assured 24/7/365.

2. Asset tracking – we provide DHL with a global asset tracking service with seamless roaming globally. DHL has outfitted around 250,000 DHL roll cages with smart trackers using a 0G network. The result is improved visibility of the essential and valuable roll cages, which are used to transport large volumes of parcels – about five million shipments in Germany alone each working day. 

3. Monitoring – we provide the world’s largest food retailers with full end-to-end cold chain monitoring. This ensures that frozen food, for example, does not at any point in its journey go above the required temperature to keep it viable for purchase once in a supermarket.

In summary, no other network providers offer a single, global, open roaming IoT network that is exclusively designed and built for low cost, environmentally friendly data capture and transfer.

What are the benefits of using IoT to improve goods exchange between the EU and the UK? 

IoT allows both loaders and shippers to identify, track and isolate individual assets whilst digitally linking the required paperwork to the goods being transported. For example, in a mixed pallet shipment, where one consignment has an issue, the entire shipment is delayed. But, with IoT, the individual consignment can quickly be located, isolated and removed. IoT also provides near real time insight which allows decisions to be made quickly and at an individual shipment/consignment level.

What role does IoT play to reintegrate the UK into the European Union?

 IoT, if implemented correctly, provides the missing data to provide a clear consistent picture of cross boarder movement. In most applications, IoT bridges the gap between central data sources and the physical world, and in particular asset tracking and product movement. By strengthening supply chain visibility, IoT can dramatically reduce friction and minimize delays for smoother trade.

What is Sigfox doing to assist a post-Brexit UK to track transit paperwork towards shipment? 

We have several engagements across the supply chain within Europe and beyond. At their core, all of the engagements have the same requirement, to digitally link the physical asset/product to the required paperwork. This allows end-to-end visibility and facilitates near real time correction within the transportation process.

How does IoT implementation across supply chains aid businesses with Big Data? 

We believe that IoT fills a critical gap in the data required to give true end-to-end visibility. Most companies have good data sources within their enterprise estate and often their key suppliers can also provide data inputs. What is often missing is data from the physical world, outside of those companies and their supplier systems. IoT provides that data source to fill in the missing gaps, but the real question is how do companies gather IoT data from many different sources? This requires careful consideration.   

Will you be rolling out the fifth-generation technology to assist your IoT sensors? 

Our strategy is very clear, we work with the world’s largest silicon /semiconductor providers to reach ultra-low cost components that are sustainable and are the platform to facilitate IoT to enable everything. We have a combined roadmap with these suppliers and our eco-system provides the physical device manufacturing capacity to scale as the market adoption grows.  

Can you tell us more about any future plans to expand your services? 

We have many future plans, but not all that I can share right now. One I can talk about though is the strategic initiatives in our vision of open OSS. In response to growing market demand we are re-engineering our OSS to be a ubiquities data capture platform for multiple IoT devices. We see this as a key step to accelerate the entire IoT marketplace and to simplify data orchestration.

Could you please elaborate more on your recent partnerships with telecom operators to improve the quality of your services? 

We work with a number of telecom operators globally to provide a wireless portfolio with 0G connectivity for over 1.3 billion people and 17 million registered devices, and growing.  Our most recent partnership was with Citymesh in June, where Sigfox’s 0G network was selected thanks to our ultra-low consumption combined with low hardware and network costs. We will continue working with telecom operators to further develop offerings based on our 0G network.

As the pandemic slowly subsides, what have been some emerging challenges that you’re currently facing? 

CV19 has been devastating for so many reasons, however many positives have come from it: The environment has become a lot more central to many countries/companies thinking. Having faster visibility of issues and being smarter at making decisions has become even more important and finally the pandemic has totally transformed the historic view of supply chains. IoT adoption has increased, which in turn accelerates supply chains, and minimizes inefficiencies and costly delays.

What steps are you taking to resolve them? 

We have seen a big difference in the impact on different sectors: The logistics firms we work with have seen a massive increase in demand which has placed real stress on their infrastructure and asset management. Whereas in the brewery and retail (physical) sectors we have seen the opposite. What is common across all business sectors is that the pandemic has highlight real deficiencies in current business models which in turn has accelerated digitisation in all aspects of business re-architecting.