Mobile Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) service provider Eseye reports good growth in demand for its connectivity solutions in Southern Africa after it opened local offices in the region, says Eseye Southern Africa regional manager Jeremy Potgieter.

The UK-based company has been providing its IIoT connectivity services in Africa for many years, and its local presence has resulted in its gaining new business in the markets it traditionally serves, including for fleet management, cross-border logistics, cold-chain logistics and asset monitoring and management.

“Eseye manages the connectivity continuity for the IIoT devices that our clients use. “Specifically, we manufacture and provide a card with multi- international mobile subscriber identity module (SIM) functionality to manage connectivity to a device using any available network. “In essence, this is like having lots of mobile network operators all on one SIM card, with Eseye managing the different charges and network administration for clients.”

The industrial-grade AnyNet and AnyNet Secure solutions SIM cards enable clients to leverage available commercial networks for IIoT data, typically sent over second-generation Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) spectrum, and overcome the shortfalls of single mobile networks to provide constant connectivity.

The single SIM solution also means customers can manufacture devices in one location and deploy them elsewhere without the need for on-site configuration. Further, IIoT data connections are not very bandwidth-intensive and the costs are low for GSM bandwidth.

“Our solution provides connectivity to 400 networks globally; however, each client uses an average of five to seven different networks for their operations. “Additionally, because we are physically integrated into the cores of these networks, we can run a single access point name for the IIoT device, irrespective of the network it uses to connect to the client’s back-end systems,” he explains.

The integration enables Eseye to meet exacting service-level agreements, including for sensitive cold-chain applications, such as medical materials and vaccines. Multinational companies and cross-border fleet or logistics companies are established clients, but industrial clients aiming to centralise their mobile and fixed IIoT management systems are also starting to use Eseye’s services, says Potgieter.

Eseye is alive to IoT device security and has recently developed and launched the new AnyNet Secure SIM, which offers a range of enhanced remote provisioning and certification features for customers. Eseye’s services security is accredited to international cloud standards, including that of cloud partner Amazon Web Services.

“Further, most of our clients provide services for their industrial clients, which means that providing security as part and parcel of the IIoT connectivity service is crucial. Authentication of the SIM cards and, hence, the devices that they provide connectivity for can be done automatically. “The communications and authentication requests are also encrypted and allow for easy deployment of secure connectivity solutions.”