Addressing the risk of permanent roaming through network localization

Over the past few years, operators and regulators in major countries around the world, including Brazil, Canada, China, India, Australia and the U.S., have become increasingly unfriendly to permanent roaming. This has created significant challenges for IoT device operators who rely on a single mobile network operator (MNO) or mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement to connect devices outside of their home network.

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Permanent roaming

For those unfamiliar with the term, "permanent roaming" occurs when an IoT device connects to a network located in a geographic area outside of its "home" market or country. While historically many networks have supported permanent roaming, devices roaming in hostile networks or countries are now at greater risk as operators and regulators take a stab (no pun intended) at unwanted permanent roaming traffic.

Safety

Security is a major factor here, as many regulatory bodies require that the identity of the SIM and data from IoT devices terminate within a country’s borders to meet security requirements.

In addition to the security-related risks, roaming is often an expensive option for IoT devices with poor application performance, as most IoT applications do not require a data routing architecture.

Fortunately, eSIM/eUICC technology has the potential to solve these problems through network localization.

Network localization

Network localization eliminates the risk of permanent roaming and improves performance by downloading local network credentials to devices over-the-air (OTA). For example, in the past, when devices were deployed using off-the-shelf SIM technology in a non-home network, the device would roam into that network, incurring expensive roaming charges while suffering from poor network performance.

However, by swapping out an off-the-shelf SIM card with certain eSIM/eUICC technologies, the same device can now download local network credentials OTA, minimizing the security risks associated with permanent roaming while addressing network performance issues and reducing costs.