China continues to drive global growth in IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are fast becoming an indispensable tool to redefine the global strategy of businesses of any scale. China is a major figure in this development, with 80% of players in this sector being present domestically.

What are some real practical uses of IoT?

The global pandemic and the need for social distancing has accelerated certain use cases. There have been transformative IoT healthcare solutions in recent years, benefiting both patients and staff – with devices allowing for hospitals to track patient’s conditions remotely and receive real-time feedback. This patient health analysis reduces the need for hospital visits and also increases overall operational efficiency.

IoT devices are also enabling supply chains to optimise their end to end processes to reduce costs and ensure product availability. Connected shelving automatically alerts a business to empty space, allowing for instant restocking. It is also being used to monitor the quality of goods being delivered, preventing spoiled products from ending up in the hands of consumers.

These are just a few examples. IoT is becoming essential for many businesses in the logistics, transportation, retail, health, energy and telecommunication sectors.

Where can a business start to utilise IoT across their global operations?

IoT is not all opportunities and growth. For a firm that operates across regions, attention has to be paid to the differing standards and geographical constraints that exist. For example, in Europe GPS is commonly used to track parcels due to its precision, whereas in China preference is given to NB-IoT (Narrow Band IoT), a technology that provides an efficient connectivity with a low bandwidth. Packages are fitted with a solution no larger than a business card – once opened, the device emits a signal that is detected by the manufacturer that the package has successfully been delivered and opened.

Local telecom operators provide many IoT solutions that can support businesses to create real IoT use cases. However, for a firm that operates between regions it is best to rely on an experienced partner. China Telecom (Europe) operates the world’s largest IoT network that is fully GDPR compliant in its use cases across Europe and has partnered with hundreds of hardware and software vendors. We have decades of experience working with our partners operating between Europe and China to create tailor made packages and ensure your compliance with data protection regulations across Europe and China-APAC.

Find out more about our IoT solutions.

Or view our IoT whitepaper written with the Economist Intelligence Unit.