**Borderless IoT: Unlocking Africa’s Intra-Trade Growth by Fixing Connectivity Gaps Along Critical Freight Routes**
Intra-African trade has the potential to double by 2035. However, legacy approaches to connectivity along key road freight corridors are hampering delivery by Africa’s logistics providers. According to Peter Walsh, Managing Director of IoT connectivity service provider CommsCloud:
“From Durban to Lusaka and beyond, Africa’s trade corridors keep economies moving. Yet for years, the critical IoT devices tracking cargo, fleets, and goods—and enabling real-time communication—have been hampered by network challenges, blackouts at borders, unreliable roaming, and high support requirements.”
### The Cost of Downtime in African Logistics
Walsh emphasizes the risks associated with downtime in African fleets and logistics:
“For African fleets and logistics, downtime isn’t just an inconvenience. It creates supply chain blind spots that can result in lost revenue, customer dissatisfaction, and could also pose business and safety risks. Fragmented data streams also impact AI and analytics, which thrive on uninterrupted data flows.”
### IoT: Crucial for Africa’s Road Freight Market
Africa’s fast-growing cross-border road freight transport market is currently valued at USD 9.81 billion, according to Mordor Intelligence, and is expected to surpass USD 12.02 billion by 2030. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will significantly boost intra-African trade, further increasing the demand for efficient, digitally enabled road freight solutions.
For fast-growing sectors such as wholesale and retail trade, precious metals, and temperature-controlled freight, digital integration is vital. It ensures accurate tracking, enhances cargo security, and provides real-time temperature monitoring to maintain product quality and safety.
### Closing the Connectivity Gap for IoT Devices
Beyond tracking location and temperature, there has long been a market gap for SIM cards capable of managing high data IoT requirements. Applications such as dashcams, push-to-talk radios, and video streaming demand robust connectivity across borders and networks.
Typically, truckers rely on a limited number of mobile operators within each country and switch between networks where coverage is patchy. Walsh explains,
“A truck might use a dual SIM with access to one national network and one global network, but if either of those core networks goes down, the vehicle could be offline. For uninterrupted connectivity, they need seamless access to multiple core networks.”
### The Need for Seamless, Borderless Connectivity
“To enable pan-African trade to deliver on its potential, African logistics corridors need infrastructure that supports borderless, high-data IoT,” Walsh asserts.
### Network Integration on the Move
Walsh suggests that the solution lies in effectively integrating mobile networks across key African trade corridors using SIMs that automatically connect IoT devices to multiple mobile networks and regions.
“This is achieved by using multi-IMSI, multi-core network SIMs to overcome the challenge of patchy connectivity,” he says.
Unlike legacy SIMs that rely on a single International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)—a unique, globally recognized number linked to one core network or roaming agreement—multi-IMSI SIMs provide autonomous failover across multiple core networks. This ensures devices stay online even when crossing borders or traveling through remote logistics corridors across Southern and Central Africa.
### CommsCloud’s Innovative Approach
CommsCloud, in partnership with global data network provider floLIVE, is implementing this approach to ensure connectivity doesn’t stop at the border. The company has also partnered with carriers like MTN Bayobab and Telecom Italia Sparkle to leverage buying power and commercial agreements. These partnerships facilitate roaming agreements in all African countries, localize data traffic, and offer high-data volume plans at highly competitive rates.
Walsh concludes:
“Africa’s trade has become borderless, and we believe connectivity on these trade routes should be too. Modern logistics demand that a truck leaving Lusaka and arriving in Durban stays online throughout the journey, with no resets or roaming bill shocks. This enables logistics organisations and customers to enjoy real-time visibility of cargo and assets, experience fewer support escalations, and focus on their operations.”
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*By embracing borderless IoT connectivity, Africa stands poised to unlock significant growth in intra-continental trade—transforming logistics and driving economic development across the continent.*
https://iotbusinessnews.com/2025/10/23/african-trade-routes-need-borderless-iot/