Internet of Things providers who offer a ‘thing’ and a paired thing service will often deploy their globally delivered or traveling smart devices with a standard or “roaming-only” global SIM capability. With a roaming-only global SIM, data must originate and terminate from the network of the “home” mobile network operator. This is the mobile network operator whose network credentials are currently being used to connect to the foreign mobile network. As a result, data that is generated by a connected device can be routed across very long distances before it is consumed for use. This can result in poor user experience and high cost.
With the next generation SIM capability, the credentials of a mobile network operator in the country or region can be dynamically downloaded to the smart device allowing for data access in the local area providing for a lower latency and therefore improved user experience.
This iBASIS whitepaper on this topic will look at the characteristics of the Traditional, Standard SIM and of the Next Generation SIM and explain how they are different and the resulting benefits of the next generation of SIM technology.
Roaming Consulting Company, ROCCO, recently asked this question as part of their 2017 survey to rate IPX vendor performance. The report shows that the top 3 requirements are; VoLTE Readiness, LTE Roaming Reach, and Troubleshooting response time.
iBasis is focusing on meeting your needs: we successfully interconnected and carried commercial international VoLTE traffic. We are ready to deploy and support all roaming models. Our reach has increased exponentially and now covers more than 500 LTE Destinations in 170 countries. Moreover, our award-winning data analytics cloud platform is constantly evolving to troubleshoot all types of traffic ensuring fast resolution.
iBasis is honored to be recognized as a top tier one provider ranking first in the General Rating portion of the ROCCO report. With all the turmoil in the roaming market, our customers need a partner that is extremely flexible technically, operationally and commercially.
Our investments in capacity, quality, analytics and IoT capabilities, enable us to leverage IPX opportunities as Roam Like Home and IoT proliferates. We are also able to provide the flexibility you’re looking for with our combined offering of Voice, Roaming and IoT, which is bringing new revenues.
We thank you for the great feedback we received through this report. We are pleased that the results confirm we are on the right track to meet our commitment to provide our customers the Partnership, Adaptability, Excellence – to help you succeed.
The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a technological and business revolution. We are still in the early adoption and adaptation stages of this revolution while standards and methodologies continue to evolve. Only a small percentage of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and even fewer businesses have achieved the progress and successes planned in this new business revolution.
Many strides in technology, including the specialization and reduction in size and cost of wireless and sensor technologies, have allowed manufacturers to make ordinary “things” smart connected devices. The promise of the Internet of Things is also to provide companies the opportunity to undergo a digital transformation from equipment/device manufacturers to service providers (IoT SPs) – providing a thing + a thing service.
As we have discussed in a recent post, one of the strides in technology is the reduction in size and standardization of the mobile subscriber identity module (SIM) – to the embedded SIM or eSIM. Just this week we have seen the launch of the Apple Watch Series 3 with embedded programmable SIM technology allowing for fully untethered operation following earlier mobile connected and untethered watch models from Samsung and LG.
For smart connected devices that require connectivity in global locations, the eSIM solves many challenges for IoT Service Providers:
• The logistics behind shipping, testing and activating millions of SIMs around the world requires significant orchestration and resources. With standard SIM technology, an IoTSP needs to order and stock SIMs from multiple MNO partners around the globe. When shipping their connected devices to customers, the IoTSP must be cognizant of the delivery destination and insert into the device the correct SIM card for the desired regional mobile operator. With eSIM technology, the SIM is a single programmable SIM that can be incorporated as an integrated circuit chip on a device circuit board or can be a commercial pluggable (e.g. 3FF or 4FF) or ruggedized (e.g. MFF1 or MFF2). With the eSIM, the IoTSP can insert the same eSIM card in every device delivered and program the card, or embedded chip in the device, to the correct regional mobile operator when the device is turned on in the delivered country.
• Negotiating with mobile operators across the world for IoT rates and coverage is typically not a core competence of IoT Service Providers. IoTSPs would rather be creating new, innovative, smart, connected “things” than allocating resources to become experts on the mobile connectivity market. In order to cover the globe, IoTSPs must become knowledgeable about the mobile network operator ecosystem and choose the right partners with the right technology and the right roaming agreements for their smart connected device service… Whew! This is difficult enough for companies that are in the mobile business. There has to be a better way for IoTSPs to navigate this landscape.
• IoTSPs must select and negotiate among the mobile data plans offered by the MNO when MNO agreements are made. Unless the MNO offers flexible plans and their OSS/BSS systems can support those, IoTSPs may end up paying many times the data used for big buckets of data use vs. actual use. IoTSPs are most often nimble, innovative companies that would like to see the same flexibility their MNO partner.
• With standard SIMs having a single set of mobile operator credentials, IoTSPs do not have the ability to choose which MNO is used even if there are multiple MNO’s providing coverage in the area. There are providers that offer fixed multi-IMSI technology that can help alleviate this problem, however, the industry standard programmable eSIM technology provides the most flexibility, interoperability, and future proofing in this area. With an eSIM solution and a suitable number of MNO partners, an IoTSP can define selection criteria to select, download, and enable the best operator credentials that meet the smart device’s needs for data rate, quality, and coverage among other parameters.
• IoTSPs will often deploy their globally delivered or traveling smart devices with a standard or “roaming-only” global SIM capability. With a roaming-only global SIM, data must originate and terminate from the network of the “home” mobile network operator. This is the mobile network operator who’s network credentials are currently being used to connect to the foreign mobile network. As a result, data that is generated by a connected device can be routed across very long distances before it is consumed for use. This can result in poor user experience. With the next generation eSIM capability, the credentials of a mobile network operator, in the country or region, can be dynamically downloaded and enabled on the smart device, allowing for data access in the local area, providing a lower latency and therefore improved user experience.
Next week we’ll discuss these challenges from the point of view of the MNOs. Stay tuned!
IoT, or Internet of Things, is the concept of connecting devices to the internet. This can take the shape of any device, such as watches, refrigerators, headphones, vehicles, and even tennis shoes. By nature, these connected devices generate data about user activities and events, thus allowing strategic data to be mined by IoT service providers (those creating the connected devices). In turn, this enables service providers to improve user experience and customer satisfaction. According to the June 2017 Ericsson Mobility Report¹, a good portion of the connectivity for these connected devices can be via wide-range radio or cellular.
Challenges related to world of IoT
For Mobile Network Operators (MNOS), or the networks providing internet connectivity for connected devices, IoT connectivity, either locally or via roaming, presents many challenges:
1. Providing coverage assurance: while some devices only communicate sporadically, others send data and can make calls constantly, making it difficult to anticipate, and therefore assure, necessary coverage
2. Competition for the same customer (the IoT Service Provider)
3. Roaming bill shock when sending traffic to roaming partners
4. Inability to guarantee connectivity and user experience of traffic from a partner network
For IoT Service Providers the challenges are around:
1. The logistics behind shipping, testing and activating millions of SIMs around the world
2. Negotiations with mobile operators across the world for IoT rates and coverage, which is typically not the core competence of IoT Service Providers
3. Paying many times for big buckets of data use vs. actual use
4. Ability to control which MNO the IoT Service Provider uses when given a choice of many MNO’s
5. Data that is generated by a connected device can be routed across very long distances before it is consumed for use. This can result in poor user experience
The embedded SIM (eSIM) stands to improve these scenarios and make the objective of more reliable connectivity a possibility. By allowing a single device to switch to multiple local SIM profiles, based on location of use, allows for the reduction in roaming costs.
What is an eSIM?
While historically connected devices have required either a wireless signal or a SIM card to stay connected, the development of the eSIM card has the potential to improve the capabilities of these connected devices. While a normal SIM is restricted to one network profile, thus complicating the ability of a device to stay connected once the user has moved from their home network, the eSIM allows for several network profiles. Any device using an eSIM card has the ability to switch as many domestic network profiles as possible, allowing the user to use a local signal with any of these embedded profiles. With multiple network profiles to choose from, roaming rates may no longer apply while traveling.
It also removes the necessity of switching out SIM cards within the device, as the eSIM essentially makes the switch for you. User experience and customer satisfaction is vastly improved via the direct processing of the data close to the user, therefore resulting in an overall user experience that is lower in roaming costs, greater in coverage, and improved in ease of use.
Next week, we’ll discuss how eSIM can actually solve the challenges we have mentioned above.
The Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a far-reaching concept. It is revolutionary in several areas for roaming services and is changing the landscape with new requirements and needs from MNOs. iBasis recently had the opportunity to present at WASL WG, a GSMA organized event for LATAM MNOs in Panama City on in April 26th, 2017. The topic: our strategy to provide worldwide reach for IoT devices and help MNOs to grow their revenues with new businesses at a global level. Here are some observations and experiences shared by the MNO participants.
MNO Challenges and Opportunities with IoT After presenting the iBasis strategy on how we work together with and support MNOs, we were able to validate and conclude that this topic is still very new. IoT can generate a new revenue stream that not only affects roaming departments, but also other local M2M groups within the MNO. If we focus on the roaming groups’ concerns as of today, we notice that the main concern is about how they should adapt the roaming rates based on the new behavior of devices or “things” with SIMs when they are roaming. Since most of the time these devices consume low BW and generate high volume of signaling, the current roaming agreements are not adjusted to this reality. An additional concern is the fact that some international devices become permanent roaming elements due to the international deployment of a device that is not going to move once it is deployed on-site. This creates issues when permanent roaming is not allowed.
In both cases, the major challenge of the MNOs is to identify these “things” or devices in their networks, become aware of their behaviors, prevent extra costs in their network services, and generate sufficient revenues to maintain productivity in this new reality. In order to help MNOs do this, we need to provide the tools that will faciliate their adaptation to this changing technological environment.
New IoT Business Opportunities for MNOs are in Early Stages Another topic that is important to MNOs is understanding the new businesses associated with the “Internet of Things”. Previously we were trying to identify how they could adapt their current services to fit this new environment. It is just as important however to create new business practices and services to engage. After discussing this with several MNOs, we concluded that the understanding of the their potential revenues and their role in the global environment is still in an early stage. A couple of facts make these changes problematic for MNOs.
First, MNOs tend to focus only on the local or domestic environment where they have permission to operate. Second, the devices or “things” are no longer equivalent to individual subscribers as they previously were. Third, devices can be manufactured in one country and deployed in others. Lastly, there is much variability in the likelihood for those devices to travel or not travel. The combination of these things means that MNOs are facing a unique challenge that will require help from other players in the industry to ensure their continued growth and that they take advantage of the global nature of this new system with more transnational relationships.
iBasis’ Role in IoT iBasis’ new role in the Internet of Things addresses the challenges MNOs are facing and at the same time help IoTSPs to take advantage of all the benefits available from the variety of MNOs around the world. iBasis IoT network services reduce IoTSP and MNO costs as well as increase the revenue for all the players involved. This will help the “Internet of Things” grow faster and expand its global reach.
Complete the form below to request a copy of the recent WAS Panama presentation on “The Rise of Internet of Things” by Vanesa Matamoros.
