Strategic Business Development Director
For enterprises and device manufacturers, cellular IoT can be fragmented with complex, multi-network and technology set-ups and numerous provider relationships to manage. These organisations are calling for a solution – a single SIM for global deployments – that harmonises the cellular connectivity supply chain so that they can stop worrying about the complexity of connectivity, and instead focus on the success of their projects.
The IoT is growing apace. Last year, IoT Analytics forecast the global number of connected IoT devices to be 12.3 billion active endpoints, rising to 27 billion IoT connections by 2025. It is astonishing growth, and is testament to the innovation of the many companies that make our connected world a reality to enhance businesses, cities, infrastructure and lives.
Yet, growing the IoT has not been without its difficulties. To get the most of cellular technology, device manufacturers need to deal with design complexities at a number of stages including the SIM, the cellular module, antenna design, network bearer services and features as well as their own software stacks on device and cloud. Our team of IoT experts understand these points, technical and commercial, and are on hand to guide customers through these challenges.
At the heart of the issue is the fact that traditional mobile networks were not built with the IoT in mind; they were built to deliver consumer services, and these represent more than 95% of revenue for most MNOs. Maintenance and feature upgrades are designed and scheduled around that; a network upgrade, for example, would typically happen overnight when few consumers are online. This is a big risk for IoT devices which operate 24/7.
Why does the IoT need a dedicated network?
Companies deploying large scale IoT projects face challenges in these important areas:
Procurement, manufacturing, and logistics processes
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and solution providers are increasingly striving to remove any country or regional specific elements from their products because this adds complexity and costs which can run into six or seven figures. Instead, they want to customise or localise using software and network services. Localising also addresses regulatory issues such as data sovereignty and permanent roaming restrictions.
In-life management and optimisation
As the technology, regulatory and commercial landscapes evolve, enterprises need the ability to economise and optimise over time. Switching SIMs, for example, is not a viable option because of the costs and logistical challenges, so network services need to support this capability. Companies can stay in control by using rules-based remote SIM provisioning services in the core network and by designing in the right on-SIM technology.
Industry security and scalability
Security of devices and business or personal data is critical and increasingly enshrined in law, including the GDPR. Enterprises require their suppliers to have rigourous data security processes such as ISO 27001 in place. At the device level, they look for solutions to ensure that only their own devices connect to their own cloud services, but they also want to avoid being locked-in to any single network or cloud service provider. Wireless Logic addresses this at a few levels including through on-SIM technology, which establishes a unique and secure device identity that the mobile core network and cloud services will recognise and authenticate. This is agnostic to any single radio network or cloud provider and is therefore portable and dynamically scalable.
A single integration point to an ecosystem of leading radio network partners
For almost all businesses, the resource, skills, and process overheads associated with the procurement and management of MNOs is a real burden. Wireless Logic provides a single point of contact for procurement, billing, and management services as well as a single network integration point.
Device solutions
OEMs are increasingly seeking to leverage technology to create miniaturised form factors and optimised user experiences. eSIM, multi-IMSI and iSIM technologies are part of the answer, as are smaller footprint, lower power cellular modules. This can be a minefield for many OEMs however and cellular solution support is vital to ensure they get the best out of the available technology.
Introducing Conexa: the network designed and built for the IoT
Conexa is a GSMA certified carrier-grade mobile network built by Wireless Logic just for the IoT. It provides a suite of connectivity solutions, network control and security services built over an ecosystem of leading MNO radio network partners for resilient and flexible connectivity anywhere in the world via all the cellular bearer types from 2G, 3G to the latest 4G, LPWAN and 5G technologies.
Conexa is designed to meet the challenges companies face in IoT procurement, manufacturing, and logistics. It provides single or multi-network options and commercial models suited to both low and high data use, according to application type, for global, national, or regional deployments.
A single global SIM with zero-touch remote provisioning services simplifies manufacturing and operations processes so that solutions can be deployed and activated anywhere in the world.
Cloud Secure establishes secure end-to-end connections, with zero touch provisioning for IoT products and services built on AWS, Google or Azure cloud services.
Advanced on-SIM applications, distributed networking, real time controls and cloud integration take cost out of deployments. Our unique ultra-high availability solution protects business-critical or safety applications through on-SIM control functions which detect and initiate fail-over to an alternative radio and core network infrastructure. This mitigates the impact of network performance issues to protect mission critical applications.
Conexa is designed to provide the flexibility, scalability, automation and day-to-day operation that IoT managers and device manufacturers need. It is secure by design with carrier-grade private networking and advanced on-SIM security for effective device identification, certificate management and cloud registration.
For the IoT to continue to grow, innovate and thrive, companies need a simpler way to deploy and manage their solutions. Conexa delivers this through on-SIM technology, core network services and SIMPro, our industry leading SIM management platform which provides performance insight, diagnostics and device management, all designed and built specifically for the IoT.
For more information on Wireless Logic’s built-for-IoT network, take a look at our dedicated webpage for Conexa. To discuss your IoT needs, please speak to our solution experts.
