It’s always useful to read about how the large global connectivity providers are preparing for IoT and M2M - and looking to eSIMs to provide connectivity.    We recently saw a document written by Zain outlining its plans; Zain provides mobile, voice and data services to 48 million subscribers in seven countries in MENA.

The document contains lots of information about the IoT market in MENA and so we picked out the bits that we found the most interesting:

• “Until 2018, consumer IoT accounted for most IoT connections in MENA, driven by the adoption of smart home and home security systems.

• In 2019, the consumer and industrial IoT segments had equal shares of total IoT connections.

• An early-adopter mindset, aggressive plans for smart cities, the rollout of 5G networks, and strong growth in IoT connections to date make MENA one of the world’s most active IoT economies.

• However, industrial IoT is where most growth will occur in MENA - anticipated to reach 57% of actual connections by 2025 - driven by an increase in smart utilities, smart retail, and smart city deployments.”

Zain’s report says that its primary focus is on the industrial IoT market and that multi-national companies will want to have “a single IoT connectivity offering, irrespective of where their customers are”.

To achieve this single offering, Zain will be using eSIMS so that its customers will be able to purchase a single SIM that will function throughout the MENA region.

Only in MENA, we thought! 

In April we announced that eSIMS are now available for Telecom26’s global roaming service. This was followed swiftly by our first big customer win with GlobalmatiX, choosing Telecom26’s eSIMs to provide mobile connectivity for its in-car fleet management systems – used by global car rental firms including Enterprise, Alamo and National.

The Telecom26 eSIM provides connectivity to our Global Roaming Service which spans 1100 cellular networks from over 650 mobile operators in more than 220 countries.

Telecom26, our eSIM global roaming service - and our customers

The team of experts at Telecom26 expect demand for our eSIM service to come from a variety of sectors:

• organisations with employees who frequently travel overseas and need roaming services but with no bill shock at the end of a trip.

• eHealth - we will start to see physical SIMs be replaced by eSIMs in a variety of IoT networks used by digital health programmes such as SystemOne, Telecom26’s customer across Africa.

• Shipping, freight and logistics sectors including cargo companies which will use eSIMs to track vehicle movements and maintenance as well as the condition of goods.

Telecom26’s Global Roaming Service provides organsiations using both physical and eSIMs with a number of new features not available from other operators including:

• Full control over connectivity. For example, a real-time service which provides immediate data over the fastest networks is available as well as a package for which Telecom26 can provide optimised least cost roaming and routing.

• Full control and management of eSIMs through a customised service portal

• Maximum security through the use of Virtual Private Networks

For more information about how Telecom26’s eSIMS, IoT portfolio and experience as a global connectivity providercan help your business please contact us: https://www.telecom26.ch/about/contact-sales