eSIMs and the evolution of the CSP (Communications Service Providers)Podcast episode 52

eSIMs and the evolution of the CSP (Communications Service Providers)

Podcast episode 52

The Network Effect Video Podcast by Nokia

The Network Effect Video Podcast by Nokia

The SIM card is undergoing a transformation – one that will transform the communications service provider (CSP) in the process as #IoT device growth accelerates and the enterprise outspends the consumer. Charles Reed Anderson, founder of CRA and associates and Nokia’s Thomas Hsu say the #CSP can’t fight the future, it should join it.

Below is a transcript of this podcast. Some parts have been edited for clarity.

Michael Hainsworth: Behold, the lowly SIM card. The subscriber identity module is undergoing a transformation to an onboard chip. eSIMs will eventually be replaced by iSIMs where the technology is embedded directly onto the primary chip of the device. The eSIM will do more than just save a phone company worker from swapping out sim cards. It will create new business opportunities. As service can be turned on off and updated remotely. Exploiting eSIMs requires a new approach from the communication service provider.

Charles Reed Anderson calls himself a connectivity pragmatist from his perch in Singapore he is witnessing the massive transformation that has just begun. He says the CSP will become just a spoke in a 21st century communications hub, not the hub itself. He was joined by Nokia’s product manager, Thomas Hsu who concurs. Well, 2.7 billion eSIM enabled devices are expected to ship within the next four years. The majority will be IOT and non smartphone related, but the recent launch of a Windows 10 laptop with built-in eSIM failed to take off. I began by asking Charles what the industry learned from that failure to launch.

Charles Reed Anderson: Well, if you go back, when Windows did that big push with some of the laptop manufacturers, I think it was actually back in 2016. And the idea was that some of these more travel laptops were gonna have eSIM and you should be able to rock up at any airport, any in any country and just go online real quick and pick out any of the different providers to buy your connectivity. The problem they had was when they launched it. If I remember correctly, it was only about nine or 10 operators globally actually supported it. So basically you built in functionality, but the operators didn’t play ball and it just sort of fizzled away. So what really needs to happen next is number one, the operators need to get this story straight. What are they going to do about eSIM? And operators, a lot of them think it’s just a big risk  and they make it too easy for the consumers or enterprise to switch around.

But there is a lot of opportunities out there. So we need that to happen, the operators need to really take control of the situation and have a strategic viewpoint on it instead of just trying to defend against the existing revenues. But then also what I think you’re going to see is there’s a big role to play there, not only for the operators, but more of those aggregators, the people who aggregate content worldwide, where I should be able to rock up into any country in the world and buy connectivity at wholesale prices. And this is where it’ll get a lot more exciting.

So I think you’ll see people learn from what went wrong in the past. I know now there’s a big push about  you’re going to have 5G enabled laptops. They want to start putting 5G eSIMs in there as well. And now they’re going to look at putting 5G on the modem and the chip set going forward. That gets a lot more interesting. So it will evolve. We tried it once made a little bit of a mess of it. So we’ll learn from that and hopefully it’ll evolve and become a much better experience going forward.

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