6.2 Localization of the equipment
For equipment, such as smart meters or trackers, which is mainly stationary or which changes country infrequently, local regulations may forbid a permanent roaming scheme, forcing service providers to subscribe with local MNOs. In such cases, the eUICC enables the service provider to avoid the cost of manually retrofitting device SIM cards; a new profile can be injected OTA into the devices, enabling remote provisioning of the new, local data plan.
6.3 Late Product Customization
When an OEM produces equipment for several customers/geographies, production needs to be differentiated manually in the factory to ensure that each device has the correct SIM card corresponding to its final destination. This increases the number of product references, builds stock, complicates logistics, adds cost, and increases time to market.
The eUICC solves this by decoupling connectivity from the physical device. An eUICC can be implemented at the product design/manufacture stage with an initial, or “bootstrap” profile. Once in the field, a new profile, corresponding to the chosen MNO, can be downloaded to the eUICC OTA, “as a service,” simplifying logistics and greatly reducing manufacturing costs.
7 How is the system architected?
An eUICC is provisioned at manufacturing with an initial MNO or MVNO profile acting as a “bootstrap”, enabling the manufactured device to be remotely administered by the SM-SR via a cellular network.
Administration operations, which can only be issued from the SM-SR to which the eUICC is registered to, include:
- Auditing of an eUICC to collect its state and synchronize the platform
- Downloading of a new profile provided from an MNO SM-DP connected to the SM-SR
- Activation of a profile
- Deletion of an inactive profile
MNO profiles are issued by the MNOs, and it is important to understand that profiles are, and remain, the property of the MNOs at all times. These profiles are delivered in the form of unique files by SM-DP (Subscription Management Data Preparation) instances, which are stored on servers owned and operated by the MNOs themselves.
In order for a profile to leave the operator SM-DP and reach an eUICC, there needs to be a pre-established IT connection between the SM-DP and the SM-SR. This is one of the current limitations of the system, since, establishing this connection can require up to three months of work between the MNO IT, its SM-DP supplier, and the destination SM-SR.
8 How are operations sent to the eUICC?
For an always-ON device, tasks are operated in PUSH mode from the SM-SR and immediately executed, provided that the device is within cellular coverage of the SM-SR. The sequence is as follows:
- An operation is triggered on the SM-SR targeting an eUICC
- The SM-SR sends an SMS to the device asking it to initiate a client to server https
- Upon SMS reception, the device modem transfers the request to the eUICC which opens a secure https channel with the SM-SR based on pre-provisioned secret keys
- The SM-SR pushes the instructions
- The eUICC executes the instructions
- The eUICC closes the channel
For a typical low-power device which spends most of its time in sleep mode, the SM-SR push scheme will not work since the sleeping device will be disconnected form the cellular network and will not receive the SMS. For this class of device, where wake-up periods are determined by the application and local code running on the device, it is possible to deliver eUICC services by polling the SM-SR:
- An operation is triggered on the SM-SR targeting an eUICC
- The SM-SR queues the operation for a given time (typically 24 hours)
- The SM-SR then awaits an https connection request from the eUICC
- When the local application wakes up the device, an AT command is sent to the eUICC to open a secure https channel with the SM-SR based on pre-provisioned secret keys
- The device eUICC polls the SM-SR for pending operations
- The SM-SR pushes instructions if any
- The eUICC executes the instructions
- The eUICC closes the channel
9 How about NB-IoT?
As of today, administering an eUICC requires an https link + SMS to the SM-SR and SM-DP. These channels are available with all cellular technologies except for NB-IoT which does not support SMS and does not guarantee sufficient bandwidth for https.
Consequently, the eUICC in a device on a NB-IoT network, behaves like a SIM card with the active operator and cannot currently be administered by an SM-SR.
10 MNOs/MVNOs are also offering eUICC services
Some MNOs and MVNOs are also announcing eUICC services, but there is a major difference between an MNO-operated eUICC service and a true, third-party service, such as that offered by Avnet.
MNOs and MVNOs currently have global roaming agreements with their peers, which allow them to remain the sole point of billing, even when the customer device is connected to another operator’s network, which could be anywhere in the world.
But roaming represents a cost to the MNO, and it is commonly agreed within the industry that it is not financially efficient above a threshold of 50MB of data per month. By building their own eUICC ecosystem with strategic MNO partners, MNOs can “localize” a device, ie push a local MNO profile into the eUICCs of the travelling devices, reducing their operational costs with a peer-to-peer business agreement less expensive than roaming.
An MNO eUICC system therefore allows the MNO to retain customer ownership while reducing his back-office costs which may not reflect on the customer bill. All decisions regarding choice of local operator remain with the MNO and the extra degree of liberty provided by the eUICC technology never reaches the end customer.
Moreover, since the cost of interconnecting SM-DPs and SM-SRs is 3 months-worth of work for different IT teams, it can be easily understood that it is not the interest of any operator to invest money into interconnecting their eUICC system with their competition, eventually allowing customers to leave them.
Only a third party eUICC system, provided by independent agents such as Avnet can offer enhanced customer choice and service:
- The customer always decides who they pay their connectivity bills to
- The customer always decides which profile is downloaded and active inside their eUICC
- The customer always owns the eUICC, which is not true with MNOs/MVNOs where they retain ownership of the component
- An eUICC can exist on one and only 1 SM-SR at a time:
- The customer can always leave the Avnet system to join these MNO environments if they decide to
- Conversely a customer having started with another system can decide to transfer their fleet into Avnet’s environment
11 How will the system evolve in the future?
A new M2M standard (SGP.31) is currently being developed by the GSMA, which will provide the IoT industry with the flexibility of the consumer eUICC (SGP.21) with theoretical immediate access to hundreds of MNO profiles as well as a better system integration than that currently possible by the M2M eUICC (SGP.01).
Both SGP.01 and SGP.31 standards will coexist for some years, most probably with different business models but the new SGP.31 standard will eventually dominate the market.