The exponential growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) presents a significant opportunity to bring South Africa into the “digital era” as it pushes new frontiers in production and efficiency.

With the desired outcome an ecosystem that benefits all, the development of the IoT is an important phase in society’s evolution, Telkom chief commercial officer Dr Brian Armstrong said on Monday.

Telkom was positioning itself to leverage the opportunities available in an industry that was expected to realise value of between $10-trillion and $20-trillion by 2025, he told delegates at the Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference 2016, in George.

“If we do it right, this can transform South Africa in many ways. It can really make a positive impact,” Armstrong said.

The potential for disruption and opportunities is considerable, with 20-million to 30-million devices, machines and objects expected to be connected to the Internet by 2020.

“The principle of connecting things is not new,” he commented, pointing out that, in 2008, there were more things connected to the Internet than people.

However, in the past five years, business has significantly sharpened its focus on the interoperability of the technology that will have a profound impact on the global economy.

The benefits cut across sectors, with visible potential impacts seen in education and skills development, unemployment reduction, crime curtailment, enhanced healthcare supply chains, rural healthcare improvements and active citizenship.

Civil society, government and business can all leverage the savings, efficiencies, convenience and productivity IoT brings.

Armstrong cited the exponential rate at which asset-light Internet platforms were reaching the $1-billion valuation mark, with Uber, which now had a value of $62.5-billion, having marked its first $1-billion within two years.

Google’s $1-billion milestone took eight years to achieve, while Facebook, now valued at $357-billion, reached that point in five years.

Snapchat and WhatsApp surpassed $1-billion within one and two years respectively.

“This is the new norm,” Armstrong commented.

However, he cautioned that the “rise” of platform businesses introduced new challenges and unintended consequences, such as unsustainable “growth at all cost” models, inflated expectations and a skills disruption with computerisation, automation and geographic decoupling.

The integration of the underlying capabilities of IoT is required to create new value across the data, physical asset and technology factors, with deliberate choices having to be made in terms of a business’s role in the IoT value chain.

Armstrong outlined the value chain as connected devices, consisting of intelligent devices, sensors and meters; connectivity, including telecommunications and managed services; the ecosystem and platforms to host and manage service interoperability; data integration and analytics in the form of collections and storage; content and applications, through content solutions, entertainment and user applications; and industry solutions, including vertical and customer service.

With Telkom making a “choice to play, where to play and how to play”, the telecommunications giant is currently tightening up its capabilities to support the growth of IoT in South Africa.

Openserve is focusing on platform and connectivity solutions, supported by data analytics, application, industry and platform solutions from Telkom’s Business Connexion unit.

The group will provide further support in data analytics, applications and industry solutions.