Vodafone Idea says IoT is a strategic focus area; eyes market leadership – ET Telecom

NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea said that the Internet of Things (IoT) is a strategic focus area for the company, and it is working towards further strengthening its market leadership in the segment and other emerging technology businesses.

“In Business Services, your Company will increasingly focus on new and fast growing segments such as Cloud services and IoT. To further drive the digital agenda, your Company will look for deeper integration opportunities with its partners using its platform capabilities to provide a differentiated telco++ experience and value for partners as well as customers,” the telco said in its annual report.

The telco added the Integrated IoT offering is designed to simplify and accelerate the digital transformation journey for enterprises. The business has always been ahead of the curve & built the edge over competition in implementing large and complex IoT Projects serving enterprises across India.

Vodafone Idea said that its enterprise business has successfully implemented Smart Mobility, Smart Infrastructure and Smart Utility IoT solutions across use cases, including Automobiles, Electric Vehicles, BFSI, Logistic & Transportation, Energy & Utility and Manufacturing.

“Our Integrated IoT solutions have been deployed in varied use cases like Smart Cities, Smart Lighting, Weather Forecasting, Electric Vehicle (EV), Battery Management Systems, Agriculture, Solar & Water Management and more and have delivered business impact to the enterprises,” it added.

The company is also confident of capturing growth by focusing on innovations like eSIM and IoT Smart Central.

“We are the first Telco to commercially offer GSMA-SAS certified eSIM and the first telco to provide eUICC e-SIMs having one of its kind devices assisted switching capabilities. IoT Smart Central is our all-new connectivity management platform that puts customers in control by giving a comprehensive view of all of their IoT devices,” it said.

The telco’s bigger rival, Bharti Airtel, also sees the Internet of Things (IoT) emerging as a massive opportunity for the telco’s enterprise business, especially in automobile, fintech and utilities (smart meter) domains.

Harish Laddha, CEO – Emerging Business, Airtel, said that the telco has cornered around 52.8% market share in the IoT market, with nearly 19 million devices connected on its Airtel IoT platform. “IoT is a massive opportunity. But the largest use cases are vehicles, FinTech, and smart utilities [smart meters]. The automotive segment is amongst the top three for us, and we are fast-growing,” he told ET.

Airtel said more opportunities are emerging within the automotive or electric vehicle segment.

“One is that all the new vehicles launched have a device where you can manage the telematics besides providing some consumer services. The second big opportunity is AIS 140 vehicle tracking as mandated by the government. With its AIS 140 product, Airtel is making deep inroads with partnerships with manufacturers,” he added. “We have new vehicles expected to come with the IoT SIM inbuilt into them, which will drive the growth.”

Companies like Lumax ITuran, Loconav and e-Trans have already adopted Airtel’s AIS140 solution. Airtel has also bagged a deal from two-wheeler EV startup Matter Motor Works to deploy Airtel’s IoT solution in the latter’s EV motorbike, Matter AERA.