Colombia and digital transformation: what is happening with IoT in utilities, energy and logistics

Colombia is not a market waiting for IoT to arrive. It is a market where IoT has already landed, is operating, and in some sectors is changing the way essential services are delivered to millions of people.

The challenge is that this is not always visible from the outside. Digital transformation in utilities, energy and logistics in Colombia happens quietly, buried in tenders, regulatory rulings and infrastructure contracts that never make the headlines. But the volume of what is happening is significant.

Energy: Colombia Inteligente already has a roadmap and dates

Since 2018, Colombia has had a regulatory framework for the massive rollout of smart electricity meters. The goal is clear: by 2030, 75% of users in the country must be connected to AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) networks with smart meters capable of transmitting data in real time.

We are halfway there, and concrete projects are already in execution.

The most visible case is EMCALI in Cali. The utility awarded a contract worth more than 215 billion pesos to install 100,000 smart electricity meters in the city and its area of influence. The main goal is to reduce energy losses, which generate cash flow impacts of more than 40 billion pesos every year. With the meters installed, EMCALI can automatically detect tampering attempts, automate reading and connection processes, and give users real time visibility into their consumption.

Each of those meters needs to transmit data. To do that, it needs a SIM that works at the exact location where it is installed, does not depend on a single operator, and can communicate continuously and securely with central management systems. That is exactly where IoT connectivity designed for smart metering comes in.

EMCALI is not an isolated case. It is the model being replicated in other cities under the Colombia Inteligente program, with implementation phases running through 2030 that will eventually cover residential, commercial and industrial users across the entire country.

Logistics: GPS tracking as the backbone

In logistics, Colombia already has one of the most active IoT markets in the region. GPS tracking has become an essential tool in the cargo transport sector, and adoption grew 35% in active customers in 2024 alone, according to industry data.

There is a concrete reason: Colombia faces one of the biggest cargo security challenges in Latin America. Truck hijackings in transit are a real and significant cost for logistics companies. In that context, IoT is not an optimization option, it is an operational survival tool. To understand the most common failure points in these deployments, it is worth reviewing how to prevent connectivity drops in GPS trackers in Colombia.

One example illustrates the level of sophistication that already exists: Alpina, one of the largest food companies in the country, receives information every thirty seconds from the trucks that pick up milk at farms. The system detects speeding, temperature variations in the load and engine overheating, all in real time. That is not a pilot or an experimental project. It is the daily operation of a company moving temperature-controlled critical cargo across the country.

Multiplied by the dozens of logistics, refrigerated transport and distribution companies operating in Colombia, the volume of connected devices that rely on reliable connectivity for GPS trackers is already enormous. And it keeps growing.

Water utilities: the natural next step

If electricity has a clear regulatory framework and projects in execution, water is the next sector in line.

The logic is the same: Colombia has significant losses across its water networks from undetected leaks, unmetered consumption and fraud. Smart water meters solve exactly the same problem as electricity meters: they enable remote reading, detect consumption anomalies and allow utilities to act on every point of the network without sending personnel to the field.

EMCALI is also moving forward with the modernization of its water meters in Cali. The process follows the same logic as electricity: replace traditional meters with devices that can transmit data, integrate with management platforms and give the utility real time visibility into what is happening at every point of its network.

The difference with electricity is that the water regulatory framework is still maturing. But the direction is clear, and the companies building IoT connectivity capacity for utilities today are well positioned for the projects ahead.

What ties these three sectors together: the connectivity challenge

Energy, logistics and utilities share something that does not always appear in digital transformation conversations: their devices do not operate in controlled conditions.

A smart meter in a peripheral neighborhood of Cali can sit in an area with patchy coverage. A cargo truck running between Bogotá and Cali crosses mountain regions where one operator's signal can fail for several kilometers. A sensor in a rural water pipeline can be kilometers away from the nearest piece of network infrastructure. Reviewing real coverage by country is critical before any rollout.

In every one of those cases, a SIM locked to a single operator is a single point of failure. If that operator has weak coverage at that specific spot, the device stops transmitting. And when a device stops transmitting in critical infrastructure, the impact is not only operational, it is financial and, in some cases, a safety issue.

Multi-operator connectivity that automatically switches between available networks is not a luxury in these sectors. It is the minimum requirement for projects to work in the reality of Colombian territory, with all its geographic diversity and coverage variability. For utilities that also need to isolate their meter traffic, Orion Private & Dedicated Network adds a private network and dedicated VPN layer on top of that multi-operator connectivity.

Why Colombia is a reference market in LATAM

What is happening in Colombia in utilities, energy and logistics is not a regional exception. It is a preview of what will unfold across LATAM in the coming years.

The combination of an active regulatory framework (Colombia Inteligente), real market pressure to digitize logistics, and a base of utilities with investment projects already awarded makes Colombia today one of the most concrete and actionable markets in the region for IoT in critical infrastructure.

It is not a market of promises. It is a market where contracts have been signed, meters are being installed and trucks are already transmitting. What is often missing is connectivity that lives up to what those projects require.

Do you have IoT connectivity projects in utilities, energy or logistics in Colombia? Tell us where your devices are and what you are managing today, and we will explore together how to make sure connectivity is not the weak link.