New IoT use cases are changing the game for global connectivity, and today’s enterprises won’t settle for yesterday’s solutions. Nir Shalom, CEO, floLIVE, breaks down the existing choices and paints a compelling picture for what comes next.
For enterprises that are adopting new IoT business models, connectivity is everything. But while connectivity solutions have been in place for decades, IoT is a new beast with its own needs. I believe that making the wrong choice at this critical juncture could prove itself to be a stumbling block that is difficult to recover from. Understanding your choices for IoT connectivity is, therefore, a foundational step in getting up and running.
Grappling With the Complex Puzzle of Multiple Local SIMs
We all understand local connectivity. A mobile operator has coverage in a specific region, and your devices connect via that operator. For every territory that you want to cover, you need another local agreement with the relevant operator. Of course, where you don’t have an operator agreement in place, you’ll see coverage gaps or poor reliability for your IoT devices.
For a global enterprise or even the IoT solutions provider in the middle, this is just the first problem. Even if you create multiple relationships to ensure full coverage, the complexities of managing multiple operator relationships are extreme. Each profile will rely on a new integration, and each will be entirely siloed from the rest. That means its own view, parameters, actions, states and plans. It will be impossible to get a single view of your devices and their activity, so if a customer has a problem to troubleshoot, you’re left struggling to get answers. There are also logistical overheads to consider when it comes to physically manufacturing, shipping, and provisioning devices and integrating through multiple operators.
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Seeing Through the Short-Term Benefits of Roaming SIMs
Many enterprises consider that they have found the solution to these problems by onboarding a single roaming SIM, usually via a large global mobile operator. The operator has their own roaming relationships all over the world, and in theory, at least, IoT devices can obtain connectivity through these.
Unfortunately, while roaming is a great solution for mobile users enjoying a 2-week vacation, there are serious limitations for IoT devices. Permanent roaming restrictions put a cap on how long devices can connect while on a specific network, and as data is forced to travel long distances to the home network, performance is often sub-par. To get the most out of IoT devices, latency needs to be kept at a minimum, so limiting the distance that data has to travel should be at the top of your list of requirements. Lastly, but perhaps most critically, many compliance regulations mandate that data doesn’t leave the country of origin, so roaming SIMs for IoT use cases may leave you non-compliant.
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Finding the Gaps in a Modern SIM-profile Solution
It’s clear that enterprises need a way to obtain local connectivity, both for compliance’s sake and the performance of their new business models. Roaming just won’t cut it. More recently, the trend has been towards SIM profiles – multiple IMSI profiles all accessed from a single SIM. This certainly solves some of the logistical issues of manufacturing devices and shipping physical SIMs, as these SIM profiles can be provisioned over the air. It also means that your IoT devices will be compliant. And with SIM profiles able to autonomously switch to another IMSI when facing low coverage or availability, your reliability and performance are also at a great standard.
However, if you look closely, you’ll see that this solution doesn’t solve the complexity or the lack of visibility. You will still need multiple MNO relationships, and this can’t help but impact your relationship with your end-users. Without being able to see all IoT devices in one place, enterprises will always remain two steps behind, reacting in troubleshooting mode to try and understand where a problem is happening and how they can solve it. In addition, if devices need anything specific in terms of security or availability, this is out of your hands. These factors will limit the SIM profile’s longevity as a legitimate solution for IoT use cases.
Demand More From IoT Connectivity
If we accept that local SIMs can only cover their own footprint, roaming SIMs don’t suit the global requirements of IoT, and SIM profiles can’t offer the visibility and control that today’s businesses need, what will support IoT enterprises in thriving in this new industry? I see four must-haves.
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- Â A single vendor integration: Without cutting out the MNOs, enterprises will never get the seamless global connectivity they need. Enterprises need to be able to take charge of their own connectivity with a single vendor relationship that allows them to cover the world. This speeds up troubleshooting, lowers the total cost of ownership, allows for a single governance strategy, and makes it effortless to scale.
- Â Local connectivity, everywhere: The right IoT vendor will have a system in place to access truly local connectivity anywhere that an enterprise wants to do business. This lowers latency and throughput, seamlessly adheres to any compliance regulations, and ensures the best possible performance. As this is done through a single vendor integration, more regions doesn’t equate to more complexity, even as the enterprise scales and expands to new locations.
- The whole technology stack: To make this happen, enterprises will also need their single solution to own it all. By that I mean, include everything from the core network and the SIMs through to a robust BSS platform so that they can see in real-time the usage and activity of their devices globally. This approach will allow enterprises to track changes or spikes in performance when they happen, get ahead of customer queries, and start moving proactively rather than reactively to make smart decisions based on business analytics.
- Flexibility for specific use cases: Any solution that includes multiple stakeholders inhibits an enterprise’s ability to be flexible, so this goes hand in hand with a single vendor solution. While an MNO might have a highly secure core network, what happens when you’re relying on roaming agreements or profiles elsewhere? If your IoT business has critical requirements of availability, how can you ensure the same quality of service across multiple providers? Today’s enterprises need the freedom and control to make granular decisions about how their devices will function and embrace future business models that they might not even be considering yet.
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Don’t Inhibit Your IoT Progress With Yesterday’s Approach to Connectivity
The evolution of global connectivity has been exciting to watch, but now is the time for action. As IoT needs have become clearer, stakeholders are realizing the necessity of a solution that offers the benefits of local connectivity, but on a global scale.
The winners of the IoT race will be those who take their connectivity needs into their own hands, onboarding a single solution that covers the entire tech stack and that keeps their options flexible and open for the opportunities that are right around the corner, whatever they may be.
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