Telecoms.com periodically invites expert third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Ahmed Khattak, CEO, US Mobile shares his thoughts about eSIMS.
eSIMs are probably not as flashy or as hyperbolic as 5G with ludicrous speeds or movie downloads in seconds. eSIMs are the nascent/quiet revolution in telecom, as significant as streaming was to music. In fact, the impact is likely to be much more meaningful because connectivity is more ubiquitously embedded in our lives—our phones, cars, security systems, wearables, laptops. Envision a world where you can scan a code and connect your phone, watch, drone, or grandma’s iPad from across the country.
The connectivity potential will enhance the impact of eSIMS that the proliferation of 5G is unlocking. With 5G, the density of devices that can connect is magnitudes higher than 4G, and consumers and brands will be looking to tap into that. Building and connecting those devices is not feasible for all the devices that 5G has the bandwidth for.
Right now, manufacturers build SIM-less devices, deliver to brands, then brands (or consumers) get SIMs delivered from carriers, insert them into the device, and repeat the last 2 steps if they ever want to change plans. This sort of deployment already resources intensive as is. For example, think about foot-traffic sensors for stores—if GAP wanted to install sensors in all their stores, they’d have to receive a batch of devices from a manufacturer, a batch of SIM cards from a carrier, install the SIMS, and then ship them back out to stores.
With 5G stores, we can and will want to connect 10X more sensors, but without eSIMs, that deployment will be nightmarish. Making any changes also becomes exponentially large in terms of cost and time. With eSIMs, on the other hand, the manufacturer would embed the eSIM into the device, ship it directly to the stores, and plans can be provisioned remotely. If GAP ever wanted to change their connectivity provider, they could do it from a dashboard.
It’s the same thing for consumers as well. Imagine having to replace SIMs in dozens of devices like the one in the dash of the car, the SIM in that wire-free camera on the roof, or the ten iPhones and tablets that a family has spread out all over the house. Physical SIMS doesn’t have a future in the modern digital world. While 5G vanguards the connectivity revolution, eSIMs will digitize that connectivity and spark new ecosystems of connected devices and services that will transform the way we live and work, similar to how the internet digitized and democratized retail.
As a carrier built as a technology company with a customizable platform, US Mobile was built from the ground up to meet rapidly changing and diverse needs. eSIMs shed the physical and logistical constraints of SIM cards from devices—and our Connectivity OS is the most natural, most modern, most user-friendly, and the most advanced platform that can tap the openness of this new eSIM enabled hardware ecosystem.
We’re delighted to announce that our brand new global Esim platform today gives our users the ability to instantly buy data plans for any eSIM enabled device in more than 150 countries instantly.
Ahmed will be speaking at the upcoming MVNOs North America Digital Symposium, you can register your place here.