The telecom sector is one of the top spenders in IoT (Internet of Things) technology. Investment in the IoT sphere is gradually becoming the core strategy in the digital transformation journey of many telecom operators.
The global connectivity provides a strong foundation for telecom companies to venture into verticals as follows:
- Design and development of IoT supporting applications
- Tracking and monitoring of the products (transportation)
- Tracking the end user lifestyle (wearable/security)
- Measuring the state of machines (connected cars, industrial equipment
- Tracking usage of any services (smart metering).
However, to enable it in a seamless and secure way, there is a need to ensure that the connectivity between IoT and communication service provider (CSP) must also consider the following aspects:
- Customer centricity
- Speedy provisioning and flexibility
- Global acceptability and standardisation
Various industry players across the globe, such as top telecom operators, SIM & IoT device manufacturers and the GSMA came together to define telecom connectivity with IoT devices using embedded SIM (subscriber identity module) specification and remote provisioning mechanism.
The e-SIM allows IoT devices to latch onto the telecom network and facilitate over-the-air profile installation of available operators for device-to-gateway communication. It is little different from the traditional SIM and is soldered onto the IoT devices.
As the GSMA reports, there are more than 800 mobile operators and over 250 companies which have come forward to support this new standard technology that assists communication server providers venturing into other verticals such as healthcare, transport, wearables, utilities, smart city, media, and so on.
All IoT services providers have to have their customer subscription, services and location information intact which makes telecom operator a perfect partner to marry IoT/M2M device manufacturer and providers.
The IoT device manufacturers, in turn, benefit greatly from an eSIM integrated approach as it addresses their biggest challenges. These are:
- Managing huge data transmission
- Exhaustive processing in near real time
- Analytics and Insight generation
This right partnership of the device manufacturers and telecom operators thus provides an end user or an enterprise a unique digital experience.
In the diagram below, we could see the telecom data monetisation opportunities in different industry verticals.
Analysing IoT-generated data helps various companies to reduce OpEx / CapEx costs, generate more revenue and enables them to transform the value proposition of their product and services by means of data insights.
It is critical that telecom and other industry verticals foresee the advantages of adopting the e-SIM technology to create a flexible global product distribution channel of their products and services.
The author of this blog is Arun Rishi Kapoor, business consultant of Tech Mahindra. He is a business consultant with Tech Mahindra with 10 years of experience in telecom consulting and managed services. His focus area is on providing business process and IT transformation.
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