MOVING INTO

THE BILLIONS
CELLULAR TECHNOLOGIES
IN THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Research Director: Jamie Moss

 Moving into the Billions
1. Cellular Technologies world of connected devices, i.e., the Internet
in the Internet of Things of Everything (IoE), is not dominated by
The quantity of connected devices installed cellular, cellular is nevertheless an important
worldwide is enormous. At just under communications option. Of the near 25
25 billion at the end of 2018, there are billion connected devices in use, 5.5 billion
already far more connected devices than used cellular connectivity at the end of 2018.
most people are aware. The technologies Most cellular connected devices, upward of
used to connect the world’s end points 90%, are personal consumer electronics:
vary, from very low range examples like smartphones, feature phones, and portable
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), external modems, such as Universal Serial
through short range examples typified by Bus (USB) dongles and MiFi.
Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, to wide area with cellular,
The IoT is a subset of the IoE; it exists to
LoRaWAN, satellite, wireline, and powerline
enable the interconnection of the underlying
Contents communications. Many devices now contain
fabric of society. It brings together the
1. Cellular Technologies in the multiple connectivity technologies. To
Internet of Things................... 2
realms of public and private devices, beyond
emphasize the level of growth since the
merely connecting them, to collecting and
2. Sensor-Enabled Ecosystems.. 4 turn of the millennium, during 2000, there
intelligently managing the data they generate,
were slightly fewer than 1 billion connected
3. Embedded Connectivity......... 5 and to calculating meaningful actionable
devices worldwide.
4. Original Equipment insights and informed operational decisions
Manufacturer Services........... 6 Different connectivity technologies exist to that have a tangible value net effect. When
5. Reducing OPEX...................... 8 suit devices with different communications these systems are functioning correctly, one
needs. Suffice it to say that not all devices or should not be aware that they are present at
6. Operator Services................10
technologies are equal when considered on all. It is only when they are offline that anyone
7. eSIM....................................11 would notice, i.e., when things are no longer
an individual connection basis. Some, such
8. Cloud Services.....................13 as many RFID-enabled end points, are single- operating as they know that they should.
Network Function use by design and inherently disposable.
Virtualization.......................13 Cellular has much more to contribute
While others are uniquely valuable assets
Application Programming to the IoT. It has only just begun its
Interfaces............................13 within public infrastructure and private
journey of importance as more industrial
Monitoring and enterprises, with potentially a decade of
applications are adopting cellular as a
Management Services.........13 service, that must be monitored not just
preferred connectivity medium. The world
9. Choosing the Right Partner for the information they share, but also for
of connected devices is expected to grow
for IoT Connectivity..............14 the sake of maintenance and management.
to nearly 45 billion end points by 2023.
The bulk of the value that the Internet of
The business-critical domain of the IoT
Things (IoT) brings is for the downstream
will grow to 12 billion connections by the
organizations and municipalities that deploy
same date, with cellular accounting for 2
the necessary enabling technologies.
billion of them. The value for the vendors
For the long-term management of business- that sell the relevant enabling technologies,
critical assets, cellular communication has both software- and hardware-based, will
always been a technology of choice. Marrying be substantial: US$190 billion in cellular
the reliability of wireline, with the mobility of IoT service revenue and US$10.5 billion
satellite and the guarantee of licensed (ergo in cellular terminal connectivity hardware
non-public) mobile data capacity. While the (known as “modules”) annually in 2023. 

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 Figure 1: Global Connectivity: IoE versus IoT versus Cellular
(Source: ABI Research)

IoE Connected Devices, Global Installed Base

50
2023
45 Billion
40

30
(Billions)

20 2018
24 Billion
10 2000
1 Billion

0
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Cellular IoE Devices

8
Unique Connections
8 Billion
Cellular IoT
6 Cellular Other

5 Billion
74%
(Billions)

91%

26%

0 9%
2018 2023

Cellular IoT Revenue

200
US$ 201 B
Cellular IoT Revenue
Modules
150
Services
(US$ Billions)

95%
100

US$72 B
50

4% 5%
96%
0
2018 2023

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 2. Sensor-Enabled Ecosystems M and NB-IoT are Low Power Wide Area
The growth of cellular as a driving force in the (LPWA) cellular technologies. The driver for
IoT will be the availability of new technologies cellular LPWA, particularly NB-IoT, is sensor-
designed for the needs of specific use cases. based end points. NB-IoT allows end points
The IoT had its beginning in Machine-to- of lower intrinsic value and greater quantity
Machine (M2M) communications, the market to be affordably connected in a point-to-point
for the supply of connectivity to machine-type manner (i.e., not requiring a local area hub or
devices, as opposed to person-to-person concentrator) over licensed spectrum: devices
communication. This connectivity piggybacked that are little more than a sensor, individually
on existing network infrastructure and acted as dedicated to determining a threshold event,
a parallel market for cellular network operators. in real time and perhaps remaining dormant
It was a secondary opportunity using sunk for years, like an on-off switch. This would not
cost infrastructure, which helped offset the have been possible with 2G or 3G.
saturation of the consumer mobile broadband Examples of live large-scale sensor-based
market and the incremental commoditization point-to-point connected IoT deployments in
of a megabyte of mobile data. the world today include, but are not limited to,
Today, cellular operators are deploying new the following:
connectivity technologies purposely for 1) Smart Parking: Where each parking bay
connected equipment. While 2G and 3G were
in a car park has a sensor embedded in the
relatively inflexible, 4G Long-Term Evolution
tarmac to show whether it is occupied. Where
(LTE) has proven highly tuneable. Not every IoT
cellular “reserved” (i.e., licensed) spectrum
connection needs to use the full bandwidth
guarantees service availability, which alongside
potential of LTE, leading to vendors developing
a suite of cellular modules, each intended for a its encrypted air interface satisfies business
different set of applications according to their criticality.
functional requirements. There are Cat. 12 (LTE
2) Bicycle Sharing: Where the location and
category 12), Cat. 6, Cat. 4, and Cat. 1 in single-
availability of bicycles for rental by the public
mode and multi-mode variations depending
and maintenance by fleet owners is needed.
on mobility and international connectivity
requirements, as well as Cat. M (aka LTE-M) Where cellular wide area network coverage,
and Narrowband (NB)-IoT. and already existent nationwide deployments,
ensure all assets are locatable.
Machine-type modules are paired-down in
complexity to provide specific performance 3) Track-and-Trace for Low-Value, Highly-
at the most cost-effective unit price. Cat. Numerous, Reusable Assets: These include:
1 was among the first five LTE categories pallets, postal package trackers, privately-
standardized in The 3rd Generation
leased equipment (e.g., tools, appliances), and
Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 8. Although
privately-owned personal items by members
too low in bandwidth to competitively support
of the public, where cellular international
the consumer mobile broadband devices LTE
availability ensures seamless roaming.
was conceived for, Cat. 1 found its niche years
later in lower bandwidth, lower power, lower In all cases, the additional features of LPWA
cost connected devices—especially wearables.
make applications affordable at scale,
Cat. M and NB-IoT are special, however, as
regardless of end point value, providing that
they were newly-conceived in 3GPP Release
the underlying business model is sound. The
13 specifically for Bandwidth-reduced, Low-
potential for sensor-based cellular means that
complexity User Equipment (BLUE).
by 2023, 54% of all cellular modules shipped
Definitionally embodying the IoT-specific
will be LTE-M or NB-IoT. 
demands on cost, coverage, and power, Cat.

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 Figure 2: Sensor-Centricity: Module Shipment Forecasts by Category
(Source: ABI Research)

Sensor-Centric Cellular Module Growth, Global

Cellular LPWA Modules 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G Modules

100%

80%
Annual Shipment Share

60%

54%
40%
43%

31%
20% 23%

14%
8%
0%
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

3. Embedded Connectivity (and re-programmability) of the International

Embedding connectivity into an IoT device is Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number
physically accomplished through integrating necessary to authenticate a connection on a
modem and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cellular network. A SIM may be a physical card
hardware in a device. And more crucially by (1FF through 4FF), a chip (MMF1, MMF2), or
embedding the service of connectivity, having a logical partition within a general-purpose
it pre-provisioned and latent from the point secure environment, and still be an eSIM.
of manufacturing and ready to activate when Similarly, a SIM may be embedded in form
required. Embedded SIM form factors, aka factor (i.e. MFF1 or MFF2), and yet not be an
M2M Form Factors (MFF) MFF1 and MFF2 eSIM. We should effectively consider eSIM as a
(socketed and soldered, respectively), have software feature.
been standardized since 2009. Their existence
eSIMs allow connectivity to be built into a device
was demanded by IoT-specific needs, at
at the point of manufacture. Connectivity can
the request of the automotive industry, as
be designed in with embedded SIMs being
ruggedized, longer-lasting, non-removeable
just one more component on a Printed Circuit
alternatives to the plug-in SIMs used by mobile
Board (PCB), containing all the authentication
phones.
information necessary to connect a device
The embedded cellular connectivity approach once it is ready to be used. This allows for
known as Embedded SIM (eSIM) came later, centralized manufacturing, using a single
specified by the GSMA in 2012. The term eSIM Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). A device with eSIM
denotes “embedded SIM”, but confusingly does can be distributed globally and activated
not refer to the physical form factor. It refers locally. If the country of activation is known in
to the Over-The-Air (OTA) programmability advance, the SIM can be pre-provisioned with

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 the credentials of the manufacturer’s carrier When a connected device needs to cross
partner in that country. borders, an eSIM can change its IMSI to that of
a new local carrier to avoid roaming costs and
When the country of activation is not known
ensure the enterprise owner is always billed
in advance, and/or when a connected device
at domestic rates. In practice, this requires
is expected to travel across borders during
a lot of carrier collaboration. In addition,
its lifetime, eSIM comes in to play. In the first
carriers tend to only allow such switches as
case, the SIM, embedded in form factor or not,
a last-ditch solution, if a connection becomes
is pre-provisioned with a bootstrap IMSI that
too expensive to provision. In this case, it is
will allow it to connect to a local network, to
better to use eSIM to provision a device on a
remotely register and authenticate itself. The
virtual network, operated by a service provider
device may then stay on that network for the
that can provide international connectivity,
rest of its operational lifetime. Or it may be re-
using aggregated wholesale agreements with
provisioned to a new network at the end of its
domestic carriers. Staying on the same virtual
contract, at the approval of the serving carrier.
network operator’s IMSI at a single price per
This is very useful if a device manufacturer
megabyte, regardless of location, and only
changes the local carriers with which it has a
being switched to a local partner carrier if local
partnership.
regulation precludes permanent roaming.

Figure 3: Devices “Born Connected” with eSIM

(Source: Tata Communications)

4. Original Equipment Manufacturer sold allows OEMs to advise owners on wear,

Services and to offer support services. The OEM
Embedded cellular connectivity and the use of stays in active contact with the customer,
eSIM in IoT devices benefit Original Equipment building a better after-sales relationship.
Manufacturer (OEM) services in three ways: The OEM might not be able to charge
any more for its devices and connectivity,
1. OEMs will no longer be selling units of and this new dimension might not even
equipment, the usage of which and the directly improve an OEM’s turnover or
owners of whom they lose sight of after profit margin. But the perceived increase
purchase. Monitoring the status of devices in product quality and resulting customer

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 satisfaction will enhance an OEM’s brand long-term costs is too risky, making leasing
reputation and make it more likely that a preferred option for buyers.
customers will continue to buy from them.
3. An OEM is not limited to just selling the
2. An OEM’s products no longer need to be utility that a product possesses on delivery.
sold at an upfront sticker price. Products Connectivity is two-way, and the benefit of
can be leased to customers at a rate an uplink for monitoring, plus a downlink
dependent upon their level of usage. In for updating is that hardware vendors
many cases, this will provide a more cost- can become Value-Added Service (VAS)
effective deal for the customer, while providers. OEMs can provide supplemental
allowing the OEM to commercially engage services to customers, based upon those
with a wider range and greater number of identified as most appropriate for the
customers, who may not have been able to customers’ needs and circumstances. The
afford the original upfront fee. Intelligently VAS may have been developed by the OEM
leased products can provide OEMs with or may be resold from a strategic partner
more predictable recurring revenue and represents a brand-new revenue
streams and an easier upgrade path for stream. The additional utility of the VAS can
customers. In uncertain economic times further cement the aftersales relationship,
when companies need to be agile, being making a customer that much more
over-committed and tied to expensive dependent on the OEM.

Case Studies: Hongdian and LiveCare

Hongdian Manufacturers Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and Virtual Private

Network (VPN) routers. Its ATMs use embedded 3G and 4G modems, making them
cheaper to install and maintain. Data are securely transported and monitored in
real time to facilitate the management of the equipment. It is not an Operational
Expenditure (OPEX)-reduction exercise; although downtime is reduced, repair costs
remain the same. It is not a new service either in that nothing is being billed as a
value-add, instead it is a new level of quality of service. It augments the reliability
and customer experience of an existing OEM product—both the experience of a
bank operating a network of ATMs, and the experience of the members of the
public that make use of the machines. http://en.hongdian.com/

LiveCare is an Information Communications Technology (ICT)-based livestock

farming system from UlikeKorea. A bio-capsule containing measurement sensors
and an LPWA communication module is settled in the ruminant stomach of
animals. Changes in an animal’s body temperature and activity levels are
important indicators of health issues, from disease to birthing. Biometric data
are being collected from herds of cattle worldwide and routed in real time for use
by farmers, via a mobile app and the Internet. Capsules last for 7 years and send
data up to 300 times per day with a hardware unit cost and a monthly service fee
per animal. LiveCare determines cattle status using Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based
analysis and is a service that only exists thanks to global connectivity and cloud-
based data management from an IoT service provider. http://www.livecare.xyz

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 Figure 4: Hongdian ATMs and UlikeKorea LiveCare Capsules
(Source: Tata Communications)

5. Reducing OPEX specific operational bottleneck, by returning a

The principal benefits for the enterprise predictable and guaranteed result. The cost of
customers of an OEM’s connected products IoT systems must not only be lower than the
and services are greater effectiveness and OPEX savings of the enterprise, but as low as
enhanced efficiency. Customers can run possible, so as to scale as effectively as possible
their businesses with less wastage and less and be usable for as many organizations as
downtime, hence lower costs and higher possible.
margins. Customers might conduct no more
In the case of public service contracts, OPEX
business than before, but will carry out their
savings for municipalities enable public money
existing business more profitably. Enterprises
to go further, expand existing schemes, or fund
might also now be able to expand their
new ones without having to find additional
businesses, lowering prices thanks to reduced
budget money from taxes. Operational
OPEX, improving affordability and scalability,
savings are something that, once gained, an
resulting in a better profit margin for their
organization cannot afford to do without. This
products and services. The streamlining of
is unlike VAS, which may be of intermittent or
operations lets an organization do just what it
marginal usefulness, a “nice-to-have” that is
did before, albeit much better.
disposable if need be. This most fundamental
Operational efficiencies are not limited to the benefit of embedded connectivity within
enterprise customer. In the IoT ecosystem, a municipality’s operational infrastructure
the mantra of effectiveness and efficiency secures the OEM provider of that equipment
is crucial to all players at all points, for them as a strategic, long-term partner; a platform
to be as profitable as possible. IoT solutions on which larger, mutually-beneficial financial
should provide the maximum possible arrangements can be built.
improvement on margin, through solving a

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 Case Studies: Trimble and Scania
Trimble is a global vehicle tracking provider. In its India market, there is a mandate
that all public service vehicles must have built-in connectivity for both tracking and
public safety purposes, and they must support multiple-carrier access, as well as
the ability to switch between carriers. Trimble’s communications service provider
provides connectivity, cloud-based management software, and communication
hardware with eSIM functionality, which includes data pooling and billing. The
operational savings that result come from simpler and cheaper scalability, as
public vehicle fleets are expanded. Additionally, future-proofing and the maximum
simplification of future connectivity negotiations are enabled, should a change of
carrier be necessary, without the need to replace any equipment. https://www.
trimble.com/

Scania is a truck, coach, and bus manufacturer. It is using eSIM in combination

with a global cellular connectivity aggregator to equip its vehicles with fleet
management, remote control, predictive maintenance, and OTA firmware updates.
Scania’s large, specialized and expensive vehicles are often leased as managed
fleets, and this telematics system allows fleet operation to be carefully optimized.
Repair costs become lower for Scania, as can the rental costs for its customers.
When Scania’s customers purchase vehicles outright, the system becomes an
OPEX saver for the customer, and a value-added service differentiator for the OEM
instead. Scania used telematics services before adopting eSIM, but eSIM elevates
their effectiveness and availability by making the system globally-assured through
a single Stock Control Unit (SCU) design. https://www.scania.com/

Figure 5: Trimble TMSI-17D Vehicle Tracker and Scania Connected Services

(Source: Tata Communications and Scania)

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 6. Operator Services even if individual service providers are, by far,
Carriers can seek to serve global connectivity the best in their domestic market, they can still
needs directly. They can have networks in miss out on business. OEMs want a partner
multiple countries, which they can bolster that has already solved all such international
through strategic access partnerships and logistics for them, and that can cover any future
wholesale roaming agreements. A global SIM need for geographic expansion. Some MVNEs
using the non-geographic 901 Mobile Country currently offer products explicitly designed for
Code can facilitate a single phone number carriers that do just this.
with a customizable, guaranteed rate for calls,
Once a carrier has established the competency
avoiding any roaming bill shock. However, few
to serve global connectivity, it has numerous
carriers can negotiate low enough wholesale
service revenue opportunities. The most
rates on a global scale. Those that can tend to
obvious is revenue from pure data transport
be very large carriers that every other carrier
at a rate per megabyte. Supplemental to this
has little choice but to interconnect with, or
are: network service revenue (aka connectivity
very small carriers that others need to work
management), device and application
with to fill the holes in their global connectivity
management revenue, and data and analytics
map.
service revenue, as well as security services
Even though 901 SIMs have no home country, and professional services revenue. Each of
using them may still cause problems in these, except the last one, is provided by
countries where permanent roaming is not software platforms that can be licensed by
allowed, as they do not use domestic IMSIs. carriers directly from individual vendors, or
This is a problem that eSIM can be used to delivered as a modular, managed service from
resolve. There are only a few truly successful an MVNE that has already aggregated all such
examples of a 901 strategy, but smaller vendors and services.
carriers can benefit from the need for global
The functional enhancements that IoT
connectivity, by wholesaling their connectivity
connectivity platforms provide on top of
to Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE)
data transport can be used by carriers
brokers and aggregators. MVNEs will package
to generate direct and indirect revenue.
connectivity up and re-sell it to Mobile Virtual
Platform services may be priced as modular
Network Operators (MVNOs) and OEMs; re-
functional enhancements that OEMs can
selling connectivity on the serving carrier’s
add to their IoT connectivity needs. The
behalf that it could never have sold directly to
pricing varies by platform type: it may be
those customers.
per million transactions, per device, or as a
The flip side of carriers selling capacity to custom revenue share. Alternatively, platform
MVNEs, is buying back an MVNE’s aggregated functionality can be used as a differentiator
capacity to use themselves; to enable a carrier to win more IoT contracts not specifically
to launch an MVNO sub-brand and to serve charged for. This is most typically the case for
OEMs that have global connectivity needs, connectivity management platforms. By 2023,
which the carrier could not do business with more than US$190 billion will be generated
otherwise. OEMs prefer to work with a single annually in IoT platform service revenue by IoT
service provider, instead of having to negotiate service providers.
and manage multiple access agreements, so

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 Figure 6: IoT Service Revenue Opportunity, Globally
(Source: ABI Research)

Annual Cellular IoT Revenue, Global

200

180 Network Security

Connectivity Professional
160
Data and Analytics Device and Application
140
(US$ Billions)

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

7. eSIM by cloud-based platforms. Popularly known

We have seen how eSIM is useful for OEMs, as subscription management platforms, they
as devices can remain disconnected until they are sold to carriers and MVNOs by SIM card
receive a wake-up message. eSIM allows an providers and specialist security software
OEM, through an MVNE partner, to become developers. The most popular include
a VPN operator itself, delivering connected Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, IDEMIA, and
services to its customers. This may be for Safran. ABI Research forecasts that 880 million
providing new value-added revenue streams eSIMs across all form factors will ship annually
on top of an initial hardware purchase. Or for by 2023.
hardware to be leased on a self-monitored
Choosing eSIM leads OEMs to the question of
usage basis, transforming an OEM into an
with which service provider it should partner.
“as-a-Service” business. While any type of
When the country that a device will be in for
connectivity can theoretically accomplish this,
the duration of its lifetime is known, it can be a
eSIM supports cross-network functionality
simple matter of choosing one domestic carrier.
to guarantee that services are connected
In this case, eSIM cannot be used for solving
seamlessly, anywhere in the world, wherever a
roaming and cross-border requirements;
product is sold or is required to operate.
instead, it will enable the on-demand activation
Although not synonymous, embedded SIMs of devices and allow the OEM to change its
and eSIM are highly mutually-complementary, carrier partner over time without affecting the
one greatly helps to unlock the market potential future connection of unactivated device stocks.
of the other. But it is the innovation of eSIM Following a partner change, cooperation from
that provides true flexibility. And that flexibility the outgoing serving carrier will allow already
originates in the fact that remote provisioning connected devices to be ported, with eSIM
and re-provisioning are functions performed ensuring flexibility and future proofing.

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 Figure 7: eSIM Shipments, Globally
(Source: ABI Research)

Annual eSIM Shipments, Global

1,000

900

800

700

600
(Millions)

500

400

300

200

100

0
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

A VPN model enabled by an MVNO or MVNE Not all MVNOs or MVNEs are equal, the
may be the right choice for an OEM, even if its best will have the strongest possible
eSIM-enabled devices stay within one country. cloud competency. Tying together many
A smart MVNO will be able to access multiple international wholesale agreements into a
national wholesale agreements for the sake of single global service is a big logistical exercise.
redundancy; allowing the OEM to receive the And interoperating between the different
strongest possible signal regardless of which connectivity management, subscription
provider has the best coverage. It also gives management, and other IoT platforms used by
the OEM more flexibility in the future if it enters carriers means supporting them all. Supported
new geographic markets, so that it may not by a dedicated core network to optimize the
need to source additional connectivity service routing of IoT data, this is a lot of back-end
providers. When OEMs have international eSIM plumbing. The cloud, and therefore an eSIM
requirements, the virtual network operator provider’s cloud competency, allows diverse
model can be the best choice, with access to assets to be centralized and offered remotely
multiple local networks, rather than a single as a seamless, managed service that simply
domestic carrier. works, anywhere in the world.

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 8. Cloud Services understand, and make requests of one
Network Function Virtualization another. This allows plug-and-play specialist
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is functionality. APIs are important for eSIM, as
software-abstracted networking. Software subscription management platforms are built
implementations of network functions run with a suite of API calls to allow other network
on generic hardware, removing the need for equipment to reach out to it, requesting the
expensive application-specific equipment. execution of its specialized actions.
Network capabilities can be provided at a
APIs unleash the power, flexibility, and
lower cost and greater scale, with shorter
control that eSIM brings, by enabling self-
product cycles and more frequent upgrades.
management. OEMs can plug their back-end
Virtualized infrastructure can span multiple
systems directly into cloud-hosted services,
locations, so it can be cloud-based, residing
including the various types of IoT management
wherever it delivers the most value and/or
platforms, seamlessly integrating the two as
the least cost. It is easy to chain Virtualized
if they were one purpose-built system. The
Network Functions (VNFs) together to build
OEM can control what it wants a subscription
sophisticated services, while an orchestration
management platform to do, as outlined in the
layer manages the interactions between VNFs
terms of its contract, without having to rely on
at the individual customer level, billing them
the responsiveness or manual intervention
for modular, highly-customizable services.
of a third party. This is a better model for the
Flexibility and affordability are greatly service provider, too, as it is a more efficient
increased with NFV and these are tenets way to run its service, i.e., with less expense
that are eminently applicable to, and fully and greater profitability.
aligned with the needs of, the IoT. Dropping
Monitoring and Management Services
eSIM into the domain of highly scalable,
Monitoring and management services for the
individually customizable, lower-cost network
IoT have been both hosted and cloud-native
communications services helps to unlock its
since inception. A proprietary monitoring
potential. eSIM functionality can be easily
and management system developed in-
added to existing service orchestrations at the
house might make sense for vertical specialist
service provider level, and then at the OEM
service providers, but not for general-purpose
or enterprise level as and when it is needed.
providers like carriers, who want to apply
eSIM implementations can just as easily be
themselves horizontally and maximize their
removed, decreasing the risk associated with
enterprise customer base. Cloud-based
the decision to deploy a new technology and
management platforms are independently
making it easier to trial with confidence.
accessible by carriers and their customers,
Application Programming Interfaces so that each may manage the devices under
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) its domain only; across all enterprises for
abstract underlying code as standalone, yet the carrier, and across all carriers for the
fully-fledged functional objects. APIs can be enterprise. Subscription management is a
used to introduce new processes into a system natural extension of connectivity management,
without the developer having to know all the so eSIM fits perfectly into this existing mode of
details of how that process operates, or how to cloud-based IoT service delivery.
code for it. In this fashion, the enabling features
of one system or platform can be plugged
into another, allowing them to communicate,

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 Figure 8: Tata Communications MOVE MVNE Cloud Stack
(Source: Tata Communications)

VALUE ADDED SERVICES - STEERING, ANALYTICS

OSS/BSS - CHARGING, POLICY, BILLING

DATA TRANSPORT VOICE MESSAGING

SBC SMSC HLR/HSS IN

PCEF PGW STP/DRA VoLTE

TRANSPORT - SIGNALING, GRX/IPX, MPLS

SIM TECHNOLOGY - PHYSICAL, eSIM, MULTI-IMSI, ETC.

ACCESS - MOBILE, WIFI, LoRa, NB-IoT, ETC.

9. Choosing the Right Partner flexibility is critical to organizations

for IoT Connectivity embarking on an IoT strategy for the first
For OEMs, enterprises and carrier, choosing time, as they are still learning what they
the right connectivity service partner to make need.
their IoT plans become reality involves a check
• The right partner should be able to handle
list of requirements. It should always be borne
all billing for all service functions, regardless
in mind that the connectivity service partner’s
of the number of partner suppliers being
role should be about simplification:
assembled. Billing should be a single,
• The right partner should be able to simple contract.
manage all connectivity-related needs for a
• The right partner acts as a gateway
customer anywhere in the world. It should
provider to access other players in the
be able to present a plug-and-play system
IoT ecosystem. Even if the partner does
that can be up and running as quickly as
not offer something itself, it knows the
possible.
right place to turn to, to sell through to
• The right partner should have already done its customer in tandem products that are
all the back-end work needed to tie together already aligned to support one another.
all the necessary regional spectrum-owning
• The most critical role of the connectivity
entities and enabling platform providers,
partner is to help a customer know what
even if not all of them are required by a
they need: to help a customer identify
customer right away.
business problems and to assemble the
• The right partner should provide the correct suite of features needed to deliver
customer with the flexibility to add features a guaranteed outcome.
and capacity at will to the service supplied;

14
www.abiresearch.com MOVING INTO THE BILLIONS: CELLULAR TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INTERNET OF THINGS
 Published November 7, 2019
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