Bharti Airtel hooks up 20 million IoT devices

Indian operator Bharti Airtel has connected over 20 million IoT devices via its B2B division Airtel Business, as the country’s 5G surge rolls on.

The operator flogged this vast haul of asset tracking, vehicle telematics, industrial asset monitoring, smart metering, and other types of IoT gadgetry through its Airtel Business’s integrated IoT platform which uses 5G, 4G, NB-IoT, 2G and satellite to pipe the connectivity through.

It highlighted key recent wins as propelling it to cross the 20 million devices milestone, such as a deal with Secure Meters for the deployment of 1.3 million smart meters in Bihar on NB-IoT, one with TP Western Odisha Distribution Limited for the deployment of 200,000 more Smart Meters, and one with Matter Motor Works to hook up 300,000 bikes through cellular IoT.

We’re told the Airtel IoT platform also offers firms the capability to manage all their connected devices through a connectivity management portal called Airtel IoT Hub, which provides analytics tools such as diagnostics, live session checks and real-time data-usage monitoring.

“IoT is a key pillar in India’s digital growth journey and, as a brand powering this journey with our future-ready technology solutions for connected devices, we are delighted to achieve this significant milestone of 20 million connected devices on our platform,” said Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO, Airtel Business (India).

“With efficient and cost-effective automated IoT solutions, we are at the forefront of empowering enterprises to extend their reach to the remotest parts of the country on our secure platform as they scale their businesses. We will continue to partner with enterprises to enable their digital transformation journey with our innovative IoT solutions”.

It goes to show just how big the IoT market is getting if a bellwether from one firm was needed, with the demand for hooking up everything to the internet in part driving the massive global demand for chips – something addressed in the recent US-India pact.

It can also be seen in the context of a surging 5G buildout in India, which was reflected in the recent financials of kit vendors Ericsson and Nokia – the latter of which experiences a YoY net sales jump of 333% for Q1, whereas by comparison North America sales fell 42%.

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