Poor connectivity is hindering IoT's adoption in mining

Despite growing demand for IoT in mining, poor connectivity is stopping the industry from taking full advantage of the technology, Inmarsat research has found.

Around 85% of mining organisations struggle to access connectivity for IoT projects across their mine sites and almost half (45%) say this stops them from gathering reliable data.

This problem is widespread with 65% of respondents fully deploying an IoT project currently, and 33% trialling one. Just 2% of the 130 respondents have chosen not to adopt the technology altogether.

Joe Carr, Director of Mining, Inmarsat, said that data reliability is the cornerstone of IoT’s value, and that proper connectivity is vital for achieving this.

“Although our research has indicated that the global mining sector is undergoing an upswing in IoT adoption, reliable network connectivity is still clearly a sticking point that Inmarsat can help alleviate,” Carr said.

“To gain value from IoT-enabled projects, the right data must be where it needs to be at the right time, otherwise insights and return on investment cannot be delivered.

“The research points to a clear correlation between connectivity and those respondents who have fully deployed IoT projects.

“From our work in the industry, we see that poor connectivity can hamper getting a project fully deployed from a proof of concept into mainstream business operations.

“However, we also see from the research that for many who have fully deployed IoT projects, connectivity continues to be a challenge.

“Inmarsat’s highly reliable L-band BGAN connectivity is helping organisations across all stages of their IoT journey to get the reliable connectivity needed, to ensure they can generate, analyse and action the necessary data and improve the way they operate.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Michael Evans