Vodafone emerges as first IoT mobile provider

India's second largest telecom service provider Vodafone emerged as the first global Internet of Things (IoT) mobile provider to exceed 50 million connections.

The company is adding around one million new connections a month, with particularly strong performance in the automotive, healthcare and utility sectors.

Gartner and Machina Research have recognized Vodafone as the worldwide leader in IoT services and managed M2M services respectively, for the year 2016 and this is the fifth consecutive year that Vodafone has been the leader in this report.

Vodafone's range of IoT solutions includes Vodafone Location Tracker, Automotive Telematics, Remote Asset Management, Managed IoT Connectivity Platform, Wireless Payment solutions, Security & Surveillance solutions, Smart Metering solutions and Special SIMS designed for operating in harsh conditions.

Nick Gliddon, Director - Vodafone Business Services, said, "Crossing the 50 million mark and being a global leader in IoT solutions is a testimony to Vodafone's commitment and continued focus on innovation in the rapidly growing and dynamic IoT sector. We thank our customers for supporting us and helping us achieve this significant milestone."

Ritesh Sutaria, CTO & Co-Founder, Prompt Softech - "We're working on the world's largest IT integration project, and I expect the Vodafone managed IoT connectivity service to comprise at least 60 percent of this project. We have 1,000 villages already connected, and we'll reach 18,000 within three years. Vodafone gives us the ability to scale quickly."

Chintan Soni, Founder & CEO, Ecolibrium Energy - "I come from a telecoms background so I know the Vodafone quality and philosophy. The things we can do with the Vodafone IoT platform make it inevitable we'll transition everything across. We can manage the entire estate from one place."