The growth of eSIM devices is a great opportunity for MNOs to attract and retain high-value customers by capitalizing on the digital distribution and marketing of subscriptions.
To take full advantage, MNOs must solve ensure they are able to adapt quickly to evolving market needs whilst always ensuring a healthy return on investment.
Main eSIM management considerations for MNOs
When choosing their eSIM management platform, MNOs typically balance speed and set up costs with the following considerations:
Support management: How easy and costly is the platform to set up and manage? Will additional IT personnel be required for its ongoing maintenance?
Data ownership: Does the platform comply with relevant internal security policies or government regulations, such as those that require subscription data to be stored in-country?
Certification: How much money and time does it take for the platform and process to be fully accredited by the GSMA’s Security Accreditation Scheme (SAS) for fully security, interoperability and future-proofing?
“Moving forward, we believe faster time-to-market, flexible services and a modular eSIM platform architecture will be the key for eSIM platform suppliers to grow further,”
Ankit Malhotra, Counterpoint Research
Exploring eSIM management hosting options
In the past, telcos have had primarily only one option for hosting their eSIM management platform which was onsite. More recently the cloud options has been introduced by a few platform providers. Each of these two options comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Onsite hosting
Onsite hosting gives MNOs complete control over their infrastructure and data, making compliance with government regulations and data residency requirements straightforward.
This control, however, requires a substantial CAPEX investment to attain, and returns may start coming a long time after establishing the physical remote SIM provisioning infrastructure.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting provides an efficient and cost-effective alternative to onsite hosting. It not only requires less upfront investment but also doesn’t take nearly as much time to deploy while optionally providing geographic redundancy to protect against the risk of an outage.
The biggest disadvantage of cloud hosting is that MNOs that choose this option don’t directly control their infrastructure, which can limit their perceived ability to manage their data or conflict with security policies or regulations.
New hosting option: Onsite Lite
To answer the hosting dilemma that service provides face and give telcos the best of both worlds, Workz is the only eSIM provider in the world that now offers another hosting option in addition to onsite hosting and the first GSMA-certified cloud hosting in the US and Europe.
Called Onsite Lite, this new eSIM management hosting option combines the flexibility, geo-redundancy, and ease of deployment and management of eSIM cloud management with in-country data hosting capabilities to comply with regulatory requirements.
As such, Onsite Lite enables MNOs and MNVOs to enjoy a similar level of control as onsite hosting delivers without the burden of onsite set up and ongoing costs as well as the heavy GSMA certification fee and long audit process.
As the leader in cloud-based eSIM solutions, Workz makes it even easier for telcos to take advantage of the eSIM opportunity. If you’d like to learn more about Onsite Lite, please reach out to us using the contact button below.
