Many will recall the graphic footage that went viral last year, involving a Ugandan house-girl caught on hidden camera cold-bloodedly brutalising an 18 month-old child left in her care. The footage, which went viral after being posted on the Internet last November, shows the maid hitting the child when she resists feeding and then throwing her to the floor, beating her with a torch before stepping on her and repeatedly kicking her. The child’s father had installed a camera in his home after noticing his daughter was bruised and limping. It was only after he got home and extracted the film that he viewed the shocking footage. Had the technology been more amenable, he would have installed the camera and hooked it on the Internet to monitor the goings on in real time, from his computer or smartphone. Olleh Rwanda Networks (ORN), a public-private partnership on the 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology, has just launched a product that will allow one to monitor their homes and offices on their phones and computers. Such monitoring through the Internet is already common fare in Nairobi with the high uptake of 3G, and as the 4G technology takes a broad and firm hold in the Kenyan capital and other major urban centres. It is only inkling, but it is how the Internet of Things (IoT) is finding its way in the region. IoT is a computing concept that describes how everyday physical objects are connected to the Internet and are able to identify themselves to other devices. The practical applications are virtually endless. A thing, in the Internet of Things, can be a person with an implanted medical chip, a washing machine and lights, or the endangered black rhino somewhere in the region with an ankle collar that relays movement and exact geo-location data back to anti-poaching teams that can quickly act if poaching is suspected. This is already happening. The IoT is significant because an object that can represent itself digitally becomes something greater than the object by itself. No longer does the object relate just to you, but is now connected to surrounding objects and database data. Although the concept wasn’t named until 1999, the Internet of Things has been in development for decades. It is reported that the first Internet appliance was a Coke machine at Carnegie Melon University in the early 1980s. The programmers could connect to the machine over the Internet, check the status of the machine and determine whether or not there would be a cold drink awaiting them, should they decide to make the trip down to the machine. Carnegie University, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, was earlier this week conducting a workshop in Kigali for regional participants on how IoT can provide sustainable solutions in development. Connected patient systems are already allowing healthcare providers to track the health status of outpatients and adjust treatment or send help where necessary. It is remarked how every area of life – from work, to transport, healthcare, government service delivery and entertainment – stands to benefit from the innovations and efficiencies possible in a fully connected world The impact IoT will have in every sector is, therefore, already being anticipated. Globally, it has been projected that IoT will comprise 26 billion computerised units by 2020, of which 50 billion “things” will be connected to the internet by 2020. 3G and 4G LTE are still in early stages of deployment and stabilisation in Africa and the region. Some estimates suggest that internet penetration in Africa will be just over 50 per cent, or around 600m people, by 2025. But even before 4G has taken hold, 5G technology is already under development. Several public-private partnerships and individual companies in Europe and America are embarking on research and trial initiatives. First commercialisation of 5G technology is expected in 2020. 5G is expected to be a simultaneous outcome, and driver, of the Internet of Things, which many see as the future of connectivity and economic activity. The first 5G full system prototype field trials are expected to start in 2017. I look forward to it, as the world gets even smaller in impactful ways.
