Fidelity ADT have chosen to partner with SqwidNet, the Sigfox operator in South Africa. The use of Sigfox services allows Fidelity ADT to improve customer experience, efficiencies and explore new markets and services, ensuring they are continuously improving for their customers.
“Based on the SLA of 99% and the coverage beyond 85% of the population SqwidNet offers, Fidelity ADT will be able to maintain their geographical footprint across South Africa at a lower cost structure and expand on their service offering,” says Phathizwe Malinga, Managing Director at SqwidNet. “The SqwidNet network meets the communications needs of their current and future services, while also reducing the risk of signal jamming. Additionally, it will give Fidelity ADT the opportunity to develop new services to take to new markets based on the combination of Fidelity ADT’s inhouse capability and skills.”
SqwidNet offers an SLA driven service, with very low power usage which allows battery-powered devices and sensors to last for years and even decades. The network’s deep coverage ensures messages are sent from the device at regular intervals and delivered to the partner’s platform of choice for analysis so that they can act on this accordingly. The manner in which the frequency works, allows for indoor coverage, as well as underground coverage, up to 10 meters.
“SqwidNet now adds a new connectivity option for customers on a digitization journey that is ultra-low cost and is backed by an SLA,” says Phathizwe. “Every technology has its own advantages and often the best solution requires a mix of connectivity options to ensure the client gets the most benefit from the solution. That said, through our low-power, low-cost, wide area connectivity, we enable more data points to be pushed to clients to drive analytics. This allows them to gain better insights and make more informed decisions based on these insights. As part of a global ecosystem, the technology is also extremely easy to integrate into existing environments,” he says.
“Fidelity ADT offers 24/7 monitoring and armed response services for private and commercial premises in South Africa. To enable us to offer these services, we install a range of intruder alarm panels in homes and businesses across the country. The wireless communication devices that connect these intruder alarm panels to our 24/7 monitoring centers, from both a hardware and air time point of view, are a significant cost contributor to the total cost of the solution. From an air time point of view, the SqwidNet network gives us a more affordable alternative,” says Carel Wessels, Group Chief Technology Officer of the Fidelity Security Group. “Whilst the SqwidNet Internet of Things (IoT) network has definite price benefits, it also meets all our security requirements.
“Since we were unable to source suitable hardware, we embarked on a development program to put together a very unique wireless communication device that operates on the SqwidNet network and meets our affordability, security and service requirements. In our field testing, the new wireless communication solution based on the SqwidNet network and custom developed hardware, absolutely exceeded all expectations and plans are now underway to enter full-scale manufacturing. Soon Fidelity ADT will be installing these new devices in customer premises.”
“Now that we have SqwidNet with a fully deployed SLA driven LPWAN in South Africa, we can primarily focus on innovative solutions for our customers. The SqwidNet team’s drive and support has also made it very easy for us to deploy services in parts of South Africa to test. From here we will move to a national roll out. This is the beauty of using Sigfox. Conversion costs are low and existing hardware can be easily converted to communicate into the backend systems of Sigfox to receive sensor data,” concludes Wessels.
