Edwin Haver, CIO
What is the difference between the consumer and M2M market?
There is a distinct difference in the GSMA specifications for the eUICC remote SIM provisioning (RSP) for consumer and M2M devices because of the way they are triggered. The consumer eUICC will utilise a pull-mechanism, enabling the consumer to select an operator themselves and pull information about subscriptions and packages offered. The M2M eUICC will have a push-mechanism, where the business entity will select a network provider for a contractual period, and the operator will then push their profiles to the device(s).
Which IoT sector should operators explore first?
Many operators seem to be most interested in the consumer market because the Apple Watch is a leading product within this market. But for revenue opportunities, it is expected that the M2M market will grow more substantially as it offers the most immediate opportunity (1-2 years) in IoT whereas we expect the consumer market to follow a little later (3-5 years). The reasoning behind this is that there has been a slower rate of development of the GSMA’s eUICC remote SIM provisioning specification for the consumer market.
The consumer specification is still developing protocols for network discovery, number portability and subscriber registration, which means that it is not yet stable and is still expected to undergo significant changes. In fact, all development on the customer specification is currently on hold due to a Department of Justice investigation into possible collusion between the GSMA and US operators following complaints from device makers. Without standardization, any solutions that are built now may face interoperability issues or require costly retrospective changes as the specification evolves. On the other hand, the specification for the M2M market is more defined and has been available for far longer and is already in use in some industries.
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