Why the used car could decide the future of the mobile SIM

Jon Campbell of CLX

When the first mobile SIM was revealed 1991, it was the size of a credit card. Obviously phones were bigger then. Much bigger.

All the same, says Jon Campbell, director of messaging and IoT EMEA at cloud communications provider, CLX the subscriber identity module was a welcome innovation. People were starting to upgrade their handsets for the first time, and they wanted to take their mobile numbers with them when they did.

The SIM stored all the information needed to authenticate the user and to connect to the network. And it was removable too. It solved the problem.

In the 26 years since then, the SIM has evolved. It has shrunk to the size of a fingernail. But essentially, the SIM still does the same job.

Now, though, a big change is imminent. And it’s all because of machines.

Any visitor to this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona would know that the most dynamic developments in mobile are not in phones, but in networks. More specifically, the Internet of Things.

Companies in many verticals – from healthcare to finance to farming to automotive – are investing heavily in IoT. They want to turn previously dumb machines, like meters and wearables and cars, into smart ones that can transmit data to improve efficiency, reduce maintenance costs and more.

And they’re looking to mobile networks to help them do it. But not with the traditional SIM.

The ‘fingernail of plastic’ tethered to one mobile network is clearly unsuitable for devices that could end up anywhere in the world.

Take cars. Imagine a manufacturer wants to switch network connections because its fleet has been exported. Can it really be expected to open up thousands of dashboards, locate the SIMs, lift up the trays and replace them?

There has to be a better way. And there is. In October 2013, the operators’ trade body GSMA revealed a new kind of SIM, one that could be soldered in place and then programmed to connect a chosen carrier remotely. This is the embedded SIM – or eSIM for short.

They didn’t take this decision lightly. After all, a programmable SIM makes it easier for users to churn to a new provider.

But the market opportunity persuaded them. The 2016 Ericsson Mobility Report, for example, predicts that 16 billion of the 28 billion devices connected by 2021 will be IoT devices.

Operators want to ensure they are the ones connecting them.

After all, there are alternatives to cellular connectivity. Many IoT devices require short range connections, which transmit small amounts of data and consume little power. Here, manufacturers can choose short-range technologies, which use unlicensed spectrum. They include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and NFC.

Alternatives to cellular for longer range low power connectivity exist, each with pros and cons. Many extol the benefits of lower transmission costs and power consumption, but drawbacks such as lack of standardisation, limited to no roaming capabilities and narrow choices of IoT endpoints mean the total cost of ownership can be far higher than a cellular based service.

Three newer LPWA technologies, NB-IoT, LTE-M and EC-GSM-IoT, have been approved (by standards body 3GPP) for use in licensed spectrum. Mobile operators are now adapting their cellular networks to support these technologies.

For wide-area connectivity where higher throughput is needed (such as streaming video to a passenger in a car), there is 3.5G or 4G. The benefits are obvious: standards-based, interoperable, widespread. And coming soon (around 2020) will be 5G networks that should be able to support billions of connected devices simultaneously.

5G should accelerate the IoT opportunity. But the market is already here. The question for mobile networks is how to exploit it. After all, can an enterprise really be expected to negotiate dozens of operator agreements across multiple geographies?

The obvious answer is to work with intermediaries that are used to dealing with networks on one side and enterprises on the other.

CLX’s traditional specialism is wholesale messaging. We power message delivery for enterprises that want to communicate with customers via text. To do this, we must work with hundreds of operators, run efficient platforms and understand the needs of companies in many different verticals.

It makes sense for us to now transfer that know-how into the IoT space. Which is why we offer our own flexible SIM. Users need only insert the card once, as the operator can be changed remotely at any time across multiple countries.

We’re already selling this solution. For example, we’re helping Swedish transport logistics company Top Fuel to automate fuel tank monitoring and order handling by placing connected sensors in thousands of sites.

Twenty-six years ago, the original mobile SIM kickstarted a market that now supports eight billion connections. Its programmable successor looks set to launch an even bigger opportunity.

The author of this blog is Jon Campbell, director of messaging and IoT EMEA at cloud communications provider, CLX

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

Get a US$50 Amazon voucher for sharing your IoT brand knowledge

Posted on: March 28, 2024

We want to know what you know about the IoT space. Just 3 minutes could earn you a US$50 Amazon digital gift card!

Read more

Enhance EV charging performance with cellular connectivity

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily growing their market share at the expense of internal combustion engine vehicles. The growth is fuelled by several factors. Perhaps most importantly, prices for EVs have started to drop as competition in the industry is intensifying. New players and models are emerging, prompting several established EV makers to lower their

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more