It’s 11:55 pm on a Monday night. A young David Farquharson sits bent over a stack of hard drives. Four hours earlier, a panicked client called with a knotty technical challenge that needed resolving – it’s complex but not impossible. David works on, undeterred by the late hour, zeroing in on the details. By 2:35 am, he’s found the solution. Tired but satisfied, he knows the customer's relief will make the after-hours effort worthwhile. This relentless customer focus would become the foundation of iONLINE Connected Networks, the company David launched in June 2005. This is the story of iONLINE’s journey from startup to global player.
From the Ground Up
Founded in South Africa, iONLINE began as an ambitious vision: to become the country’s leading internet service provider (ISP) for corporate clients. With fewer than 30% of South African small businesses surviving past five years, reaching the 20-year milestone is a testament to iONLINE’s resilience and ingenuity.
With a modest initial investment from trusted friends and family, David launched his fledgling business from the loft office of his home. He spent the days cultivating customer relationships and the nights strategising for growth. The turning point came in 2014, when iONLINE released its proprietary connectivity management platform, CloudAPN. The portal’s advanced functionality quickly caught the attention of a major mobile network operator, which licensed the platform for its own clients. Rebranded as CentralFlex, it became the cornerstone of iONLINE’s suite of connectivity solutions now deployed worldwide.
Today, iONLINE is an international ISP, with offices across four continents. Its enterprise IoT connectivity covers 220 countries and territories, integrating with more than 700 networks.
To mark its 20th anniversary, iONLINE refreshed its company vision: to connect one billion devices. But CEO David Farquharson sees it as much more than a number.
“One billion devices isn’t about the figure for us. Each represents a problem solved, a community connected, or a business thriving,” he explains. “Setting such an ambitious target pushes us to keep innovating. It’s a rallying point, uniting our team, partners, and clients around meaningful impact.”
The Customer Always Comes First
It’s 7:45 pm on a Tuesday evening and David has convened his senior team for an urgent call. The situation is serious: an employee of a client has just been carjacked and abducted. By activating location-based services on the employee’s SIM card, the team can relay his position to emergency responders, who rush to the scene and successfully recover him. A collective sigh of relief rings out across the still-active Teams call, and David is grateful for his team’s responsiveness to clients at critical times.
David’s guiding principle has always been to deliver value through trust and clarity. “Richard Branson’s philosophy of saying ‘yes’ to opportunity really resonates with me, and this ideology is deeply woven into how we do things at iONLINE. Our starting point is never ‘no’ – we always ask, ‘How can we make this work?’ That agility and genuine understanding of our customers is a key differentiator.”
For David, the most rewarding part of the journey is witnessing what clients achieve with the right support. He shares an anonymised client case study for a point-of-sale company: “When we first got involved, their system was suffering from high latency, which was really holding them back. We helped them to reduce transactional latency from 150 milliseconds down to 30, and scale from 10,000 to over half a million devices – without downtime. That infrastructure enabled them to expand rapidly and reach a billion-dollar valuation. While results like this are immensely gratifying, what I value even more is the partnership – we were right there in the trenches with them.”
Adapting in a Transformative Industry
Over the past two decades, the connectivity landscape has completely transformed, David says. “We’ve moved from simple cellular networks to complex, global IoT ecosystems that demand constant uptime and tight security. As technology has become more accessible, the old ways of competing just don’t work. That’s why we put so much of our energy into being flexible and really focusing on our partners’ success – staying ahead by supporting them for tomorrow’s challenges, not yesterday’s.”
Yet, David maintains, innovation alone is not enough. Collaboration is the real catalyst for industry change.
“What really makes the difference is the power of partnership. Every major shift – from the rise of cloud connectivity to the explosion of IoT – has been driven by people working together, sharing a vision, and enabling one another. That’s the source of real, lasting change.”
A Milestone for Many
It’s 5:15 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, and David has just finished up at MWC Barcelona, where he presented iONLINE’s solutions to a curated audience. As the space clears, he reflects on the importance of exchanges like these – where ideas are so freely shared – to bring the future closer and into sharper focus.
David is quick to credit iONLINE’s network of clients and partners for its success. “The 20-year milestone belongs as much to them as to us. Our legacy isn’t measured by years or awards, but by the privilege of supporting clients and being part of their stories," he reflects.
Looking ahead, David says he is “genuinely excited” about the growth of IoT across so many areas – from smart cities and logistics to healthcare and beyond. He says: “It plays to our strengths and gives us a chance to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems. I’m motivated by the incredible impact connectivity can have, bridging digital divides, supporting sustainable development, and opening up possibilities in places that were once out of reach.”
While the sheer size of the world’s telecoms industry is its greatest advantage, to properly harness its potential requires creativity and agility. Even as iONLINE’s global profile rises, David remains focused on a central goal: to meet the ongoing demand for reliable and secure connectivity – that’s also measurable, manageable, and scalable.
“My vision is for iONLINE to be the driving force behind the world’s boldest connectivity projects. To be a company known for moving fast, earning trust, and always putting the customer first,” he says.
