Internet of Things (IoT) is set to play a vital role in enabling consumers to monitor and manage their consumption, ultimately reducing costs
In South Africa’s eight major metropolitan municipalities alone, there are more than 3.5mn water meters, accounting for 40 per cent of the country’s total tally.
Lesira-Teq smart water meters share data from meters to consumer, billing and management systems, simplifying one the most tedious revenue collection processes for the municipalities.
SqwidNet managing director, Phathizwe Malinga said, “The digital journey of connecting the physical world to share data to a platform or application, is becoming well understood in most of the sectors we operate in. In the utility space, it is becoming increasingly powerful and valuable as a tool to notify individuals of consumption anomalies.”
Lesira-Teq CEO Edwin Sibiya said, “We transformed into digital reading in 2006, and for the first time in history, consumers were able to monitor their consumptions in Rand and cents at the palm of their hands. We realised the lives that we were changing and have never looked back. Our latest partnership with SqwidNet, the Sigfox operator in South Africa, means that we do not have to continue rolling out our own network, saving us capital, giving us the possibility of scaling our services into the whole of South Africa and allowing us to focus on what we do best - manufacturing.”
He added that while the SLA gives them peace of mind, the continued technical support from SqwidNet and competitive pricing allows them to give the best value to their customers.
“As a company with strong roots in the smart metering industry, we pride ourselves in being the first global, black-owned IoT enabled Smart Prepaid Meter Manufacturer. It wasn’t so long ago when we launched our first Water Management Unit, a logger with consumption reporting and leak detection technology, and thereafter a Water Management Device which adds water flow control functionality. In the past 2 years, we have also invested in the development of gas and electricity metering products. We have successfully rolled out Sigfox enabled smart meters nationally, with Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal leading in the adoption,” concluded Sibiya.
