Latin America. The company Alai Secure held the fourth edition of the event with the aim of analyzing the possibilities offered by 5G to the Latin American industry.
The IoT Alai Summit took place for the first time in Colombia, after the editions in Lima, Santiago de Chile and Madrid, allowing attendees to take the pulse of the market, share knowledge between industries and network.
Juan Carlos Buitrago, CSO of JSC Ingenium, a company also belonging to Grupo Ingenium, described how connectivity is driving the current digital revolution and the leading role played by TelCo. "There is an immense opportunity that we must not miss to start venturing into the IoT world," he said.
In Colombia, between 2023 and 2028, the IoT market is estimated to grow by 13.6%, which will mean an increase of 5.3 to US $10 billion, according to Statista.
Next, Rafael Escobar, IoT/M2M Channel Manager at Alai Secure, defined 5G as a generational race.
"We have the technology, we started to develop it, but we need to be able to grow in 5G when 4G is still taking off in some countries. According to the GSMA, the 5G penetration rate is less than 20% in Latin America, with the exception of Chile, where it is close to 40%. Will we reach this rate to cover more than 90% 5G coverage by 2030?" he asked.
The industry has played an important role in the democratization of the 5G network. This network makes it possible to manage large numbers of devices, guaranteeing immediate, stable wireless and real-time connections.
"Thus, virtual private networks become something concrete and specific for your business, from connecting large factory plants; through underground mining or drones that send and collect parcels in urban environments; even in the field of security at festivals or football stadiums where an incident occurs and the lines are saturated," Escobar concluded.
IoT applied to industry
Alai Secure's customers presented their success stories with practical examples where IoT has contributed to improving their businesses in sectors such as telecare, GPS and PTT (Push To Talk).
"More than a million older adults live alone in the most remote areas of the world.
country. Thanks to our Cuidante device and Alai's M2M/IoT SIM, we have coverage, flexibility and availability of the service throughout Colombia. Mobile networks and IoT allow the creation of solutions with greater flexibility and coverage, 5G, through LTE-M and NB-IoT lower latency, longer battery life. There are an endless number of operators, but the big ones are not focused on connecting machines," explained Óscar Méndez, CEO of Cuidante.
Later, it was the turn of Diego Castaño, manager of SECOM, a company specialized in the GPS sector. His company was born with the aim of preventing car thefts and thanks to IoT technology, present in Alai, he was able to expand his business.
"We are no longer a technological tool, we are software developers. We don't just cater to B2C, as we did at the beginning, but now also B2B – fleets and
trucks, machinery or passenger transport. We are competing with multinationals that at the beginning did not allow us to enter the business and we achieved it thanks to going with a strategic partner like Alai," he said.
Subsequently, María Cristina Arteaga, Commercial Director of ISEC, and Orlando Martínez, Sales Manager of Motorola Solutions, presented Wave PTX, a success story to which Alai Secure has contributed.
WavePTX is a Push-To-Talk (PTT) instant communication service that employs the cloud to connect your various workgroups across different devices, networks, and locations for greater clear, immediate, and seamless communications coverage for multiple industries.
"Before going hand in hand with Alai, we had a big coverage problem. Alai helped us to solve this problem and provided us with added value through its self-management platform, to keep control, in real time, over the devices deployed," said Arteaga.
The module of success stories ended with Gerónimo Aristizabal, CEO of Isaga, who shared the Safe Route project, the platform for transformation
of any transport company – access to routes and transport of cargo and employees. "We help optimize the routes and measure and improve the service they are providing. With Safe Route we have reduced calls from parents to schools by 90%," she said.
Round table
Moderated by Rafael Antonio Padilla, President of the Colombia Chapter of the World UAV Federation, the round table discussed issues such as data consumption, coverage, security as a pillar in M2M/IoT communications, the integration of 5G and migrations, artificial intelligence (AI) and the need to respond in an agile way to cybersecurity in order to be competitive.
In addition, a call was made to advance in a unified regulation with Europe, which allows the use of the same devices and easier access to the market.
"The Alai Summit was born from a dream based on the experience of our day-to-day lives. Alai is present in many countries in Latin America: Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. And this gives us a great advantage: we are at the center of many industries – GPS, PTT, telecare, etc. – which allows us to see that there are common problems that are reached by different paths," concluded Carlos Valenciano, CEO of Alai Secure.
