The central neuro system of the Internet of Things: smart device connectivity service with eSIM technology as a breakthrough.
In the past two years, the big moves about the Internet of Things industry has been overwhelming around the world: In July 2016, Softbank Sun’s acquisition of the British chip giant ARM for a premium of 31 billion US dollars was completed, he believes that based on the prediction from one single company as ARM , the shipment of the IoT chips will exceed 1 trillion yuan in the next 20 years; In October of the same year, Qualcomm acquired the global car chip maker NXP (XPP) to promote its dominant position in the Internet of Things and automotive electronics; in March 2018, at the Yunqi Conference · Shenzhen Summit, Alibaba announced that it will start to invest the IoT field and aim to achieve 10 billion connected devices in five years. According to the GSMA, the number of mobile Internet devices in the world will reach 10.5 billion in 2020, far exceeding the global population.
With the Internet of Things (IoT) emerging as a hot topic, eSIM has gained more and more attention. At the same time, thanks to the launch of international roaming functions in Apple Watch 3, Google Fi, Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi etc, eSIM has become the new favorite star of the consumer electronics field. Hundreds of millions of smart terminal needs to be connected, making eSIM more popular rather than just a name familiar to information communication industry.
First, the stormy growing trend: from the one billion SIM card to tens of billion eSIM connected terminals.
If the SIM card came in the mobile Internet era of the “People’s Network” in the past 20 years, then eSIM is a new companion tailored for the era of the Internet of Everything.
eSIM is the abbreviation of embedded SIM. It integrates SIM card capability into various IoT chips. Users don’t have to repeatedly insert and remove SIM cards, using software to interact on a global scale, connecting the terminal smart device to the desired network so that it can always be at high speed and superior coverage. Simply put: 1. It is a SIM card integrated with the terminal devices; 2. It can support remote management and provisioning of the SIM Profiles.
As is well-known, the traditional SIM card is inserted into the terminal devices, and need to be bound to the network of only one single operator. In the case of subscription of a new carrier’s network, it requires a new sim card from the operator, plug out the old card and replug in the new one. This complicated procedure will become more of an issue with the large-scale commercial use of the Internet of Things industry.
Taking the SIM card application in vehicle as an example, first, the traditional plug-in card may loose up in harsh environment like bumpy road conditions or collision of the vehicle, and there is no guarantee that the platform can perform stable communication. eSIM can solve this problem as an embedded integrated chip; To be exported to all parts of the world, the car factory needs to estimate the shipments of each market in advance. If the SIM card of one single carrier network is preset, once the goods need to be transferred, the whole process will be quite complicated. The remote provisioning and management capability of eSIM can solve this problem, and as a small component, the cost is very low for the whole vehicle; third, the vehicles may go far away, even in the same country, there are different network situation in terms of signal strength with different operators covering different regions , some good some bad, if there is a case that SIM card got no signal from an operator and there is no alternative network, device information is then unable to send the data feedback such as the location of the vehicle, and eSIM can solve this problem.
In addition, some IoT devices need to operate in the field all year round, facing harsh environments such as sun, rain, high temperature or low temperature. Some devices, such as photovoltaic devices, have a longer life cycle than the SIM card itself. eSIM does not occupy space, does not need to change cards, boosting high security, and can remotely manage SIM profiles which are some straits SIM card can’t compete with. In the future, in such a large number of network connections, the dominant role of device identification and connection will no longer be a SIM card, but an eSIM.
Second, from SIM to eSIM: meeting new opportunities for system collision.
First of all, in terms of the physical form, eSIM emergence means a card slot for SIM card will disappear, enabling a thinner and lighter body for the device, which is more attractive to terminal manufacturers in terms of hardware design. Moreover, its ability to remotely manage SIM profiles over the air will allow more flexibility for many of the restricted applications and services, and the business development is more sustainable. Third, the chance for the development of the IoT industry driven by eSIM technology is that Carriers and communications filed now gains new incremental markets, driving growth opportunities in data operation and revenue generation from data service.
The trend we could predict is that the boundaries between the communications market, the terminals market, and the Internet market are blurring. There are more cross-border alliances between operators, hardware vendors and OTTs, and Google’s $1.1 billion acquisition of HTC. The Pixel team expanded its advantages in consumer hardware to China Unicom and Tencent to launch the Internet SIM card “Wangka”, providing free traffic to apps in the Tencent system, and traffic with user traffic. These interesting cases allows us to see that as the entire format becomes more and more integrated, cooperation is becoming more open and diverse, and of course more benefit for users.
The three major operators are also increasingly embracing eSIM and have made some moves. China Mobile is the first to launch the “4G+eSIM” chip. China Unicom has launched the “eSIM Industry Cooperation Alliance” program. In the first member list of its alliance, OTT, including BAT, and major OEMs have emerged. SIM card vendors, chip and module manufacturers, and connectivity solution providers represented by Black Tea Mobile and Guotong, because in this cross-border and joint mobile system, user traffic means value, and connectivity means User traffic.
Third, the value of equipment connection service providers: to achieve low-cost, efficient one-stop connection capacity distribution.
The Internet of Things industry has a large market. It is worth noting that the fragmentation of technology and applications is still very serious. How to realize the massive IoT connection is a huge challenge as well as a great opportunity. At present, IoT equipment manufacturers need to spend their time separately in module purchasing, SIM cards ordering, and traffic operation. If the additional integration of eSIM is added, it will have an impact on equipment costs and existing production lines and capacity. This is also the reason why the terminal’s transformation to eSIM is insufficient.
Therefore, as a third-party device connection service provider, the value should be the bridge between the network operator and the terminal device, providing a comprehensive solution from network traffic, hardware, system integration to service, and opening the device connection. Upstream and downstream. Low-cost, high-stability, highly integrated ‘one-stop’ solutions, even ‘closed-loop’ solutions, can help smart device manufacturers increase productivity, so they don’t have to follow up every step of the connection, nor do they have to worry about the cumbersome and complicated implementation, so as to promote the IoT application at a large scale as soon as possible.
Taking Reatea Mobile as an example, since 2015, since the mobile phone brand has provided international traffic services with wide penetration in the mobile phone market, in the near future, it will integrate its upstream carrier traffic resources and product operation experience in the Guoman market, based on its own eSIM. The connection technology enters the Internet of Things field with the attitude of “smart device connection service provider”, focusing on low-cost, high-efficiency one-stop connection capability distribution.
Fourth, the future of the Internet of Things and eSIM: Connectivity as a Service (CaaS).
How to achieve low-cost, efficient connectivity capacity distribution?
This year, Reatea Mobile also launched the RedteaReady service in the industry. By cooperating with mainstream IoT module manufacturers, all the basic performance related to data network connection is packaged into a service conforming to the eSIM standard communication protocol, integrated into the Internet of Things module. In this way, the equipment provider can easily obtain the data network connection by using the eSIM module integrated with RedteaReady service, realize the networking anytime and anywhere, and can view and manage the owned equipment and orders in real time through the user background. This service is widely used in vehicle networking (smart mirrors, ODB, car wireless hotspot devices), translators, Mi-Fi, smart headsets, smart meter reading, Tracker, DTU, shared bicycles, advertising machines, video surveillance and other application scenarios. To alleviate the “fragmented application” of the Internet of Things in different fields.
At the same time, this way, through the way of bundled sales with hardware modules, it can also change the single business model of the hardware and hardware of the current module manufacturers, and create the ability of them to operate based on traffic and generate revenue.
CaaS’s imagination space is far more than this. For example, based on the connection module (software or hardware module) and standard interface provided by Redtea Mobile, third-party developers can choose which carrier resources to use to provide data services in the future. The requirements of quality, network delay, etc. can also be customized, and can also be switched to other available carrier resources when the default carrier resource signal of the device is not good or unavailable. In the form of standard services, CaaS gives developers more autonomy and flexibility about connection management for Plug&Play Connectivity and Always-on Connectivity.
In this great era of the Internet of Everything, do something interesting and meaningful, and everything just started.
——This article is first published at the Asia-Pacific MVNO Industry Alliance