Next generation intelligent wireless connectivity in the US / North America

With IoT volumes continuing to grow and Private LTE rollouts starting to gain speed, one of the hot topics for the US / North American wireless market is what does next generation intelligent wireless connectivity look like for the region?

Access to a Neutral IMSI

The first component of next generation intelligent wireless connectivity is transition from SIM resale model to wholesale customers seeking access to the underlying International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) for a subscription, which is critical for several reasons:

1)    Ability to support single- and multi-IMSI physical Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, SoftSIM, embedded SIM (eSIM) / embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC), etc. propositions.

2)    Control – true access to the IMSI means ability to host and manage the IMSI on your own mobile core network, whether operated in-house or sourced as-a-service from a specialist company providing “deeper” access and control than is traditionally available in the market – either way the wholesale company now has significantly more control over the subscription, which is increasingly becoming a requirement.

It should be noted that access to an IMSI and access to an eSIM / eUICC profile are not the same thing - access to the IMSI gives control to the wholesale customer whereas access to an eSIM / eUICC profile simply provides access to a different form factor – still controlled by the Host Network Operator (HNO) from its mobile core network.

Further, it’s important to recognise that not all IMSI’s are the same – companies looking to serve devices permanently roaming in a given market need to focus on gaining access to a local IMSI to ensure that all regulatory, tax and security requirements for that market are being followed correctly – to avoid tears later in their deployment.

Multi-Network Access

The second component of next generation intelligent wireless connectivity is multi-network access.

The US / North American market is geographically vast and growing number of use cases e.g. for connected consumer devices as well as connected vehicles (e.g. fleet management) become stronger with access to dense coverage, which means the need to leverage a mix of regional and nationwide wireless carrier Radio Access Networks (RANs) rather than relying only on a single nationwide carrier.

Today, the US market alone has +60 operational regional and nationwide wireless carriers, so to be able to leverage access to as many of these as possible, a company sourcing wholesale wireless connectivity should focus on providers with a neutral IMSI i.e. a company not seen as a major competitor by any of the nationwide wireless carriers.

Legitimate Wholesale Access

The last component of next generation intelligent wireless connectivity is access to legitimate wholesale connectivity.

Currently, these are international wireless carriers selling permanent roaming on nationwide US wireless networks based on their retail roaming agreements. Some of these agreements may have limited permanent roaming clauses while others simply rely on the serving network not being aware of the permanent roaming – either way, to build a long-term business involving wireless connectivity, companies should ensure that the IMSI they use has legitimate contractual rights for e.g. permanent roaming and reselling in the US / North America to avoid issues that could jeopardize the business in the future!

Where to find next generation intelligent wireless connectivity in the US / North America?

Limitless Mobile is a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) -regulated regional wireless carrier with spectrum, RAN and serving retail customers in central Pennsylvania. We’re also driving innovation in the US / North American wholesale market by serving wholesale customers nationwide as well as internationally e.g. through enabling IoT, mobile broadband and Private LTE companies to leverage our neutral IMSI and MSISDN (see previous article for explanation of IMSI's and MSISDN's) assets, our constantly growing multi-network wholesale connectivity footprint, our mobile core network as-a-service as well as our strategic, commercial and technical consultancy services.

If you’re in the market for next generation intelligent wireless connectivity in the US / North America and want to learn more about how we can strengthen your business, get in touch with us at [email protected].