Research from Inmarsat, a global leader in global mobile satellite communications, reveals that despite the accelerating speed of Internet of Things (IoT) adoption during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, poor connectivity or unreliable is a key barrier that limits success. of IoT projects for most organizations in the electric utility sector.

According to the research, ‘Industrial IoT in the Time of Covid-19’, 76% of all electric utility companies experience connectivity challenges when testing IoT projects and 78% do not believe that public terrestrial networks are fully suitable for your IoT needs.

For most utility companies, the success of IoT projects depends on connectivity being reliable, available, and responsive enough to deliver actionable data at the right time and at the right cost to deliver a strong return on investment. .

IoT is a network of networks, therefore reliable connectivity is essential to enable business-critical IoT projects, particularly in some of the most remote locations in the world, where terrestrial connectivity, such as cellular or fiber, is limited or non-existent.

When this is the case, power company respondents prioritize safety (56%), reliability (42%), and network coverage (36%). The industry is incredibly cybersecurity conscious due to its position in the critical infrastructure backbone of a country, so it is not surprising that the industry prioritizes secure connectivity over any other attribute. That your second priority is the reliability of IoT connectivity is also significant.

Overall, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done to improve IoT connectivity strategies, with only 37% of all utility organizations using some form of backup connectivity to continue collecting IoT data in remote areas far away. of terrestrial communications.

Encouragingly, more than four in five (81%) of all respondents agreed that since solving their IoT connectivity challenges, they have been much more successful with their IoT projects, and 64% agree. agree that satellite connectivity provides critical support to your organization’s IoT communication networks.

Commenting on the IoT connectivity challenges in the electric utility sector, Inmarsat’s Damian Lewis said: “Our research findings reveal that connectivity remains a key barrier to the adoption of IoT in the electric utility sector. . This is increasingly true as the industry works toward increasingly smart grids, balancing intelligence at the edge with centralized monitoring and control to cope with growing demand and other emerging challenges, such as fluctuating source inputs. renewable energy.