No permanent roaming

Permanent roaming

Permanent roaming is becoming an increasingly important topic for many organizations dealing with global IoT deployments based on secure roaming IoT SIM cards. We notice this in particular in the number of questions that were received in the past quarter regarding permanent roaming. It plays a role in several countries, for example in Brazil and Turkey. The first country to actively oppose permanent roaming and actually block simcards is Turkey.

The regulations in a country may prohibit both devices and simcards that are registered in another country from permanently roaming. Sometimes the rules are explicitly against permanent roaming and in other cases the rules are based on local registration requirements or tax obligations. Regulators are often motivated to protect the local market. The ban on permanent roaming is not only determined by governments, but operators are also working on this. In Turkey, the ban is a government regulation and in the US and Canada, for example, operators themselves prohibit their roaming partners from allowing devices to roam permanently on their networks.

Permanent roaming in Turkey

As indicated earlier, Turkey is really the first country to actively start with stricter measures regarding permanent roaming. When a roaming IoT simcard in Turkey uses the mobile network for more than 90 days in a period of four months, the simcard is banned from the network. This means that the relevant roaming IoT simcard can no longer be used in Turkey. The IMEI number of the relevant device is also put on a blacklist. Placing a new SIM card in the device will unfortunately not solve the problem.

Remote SIM Provisioning is a solution

The restrictions on permanent roaming can be avoided with Remote Sim Provisioning (RSP). An RSP-based IoT implementation has the ability to assign different virtual operator profiles to the simcards in the field. Any available virtual operator profile can be linked. When using these simcards, other virtual operator profiles can be switched on and off in addition to the default operator profile. The RSP technology thus eliminates the installation work required to physically exchange a simcard. RSP is the technology used in an eSIM (eUICC) and Multi IMSI to switch operator profiles.

For devices deployed in markets outside the EU, where a local operator is really needed, a virtual operator profile can be remotely changed to a local operator. As guidelines on restrictions against permanent roaming come into effect in countries where an IoT implementation already exists, the need to switch to a local operator increases.

If your organization encounters problems due to the restrictions around permanent roaming, such as the recent restrictions in Turkey, Thingsdata offers help. For more information about permanent roaming, you can contact us via telephone number 085-0443500 or by email to info@thingsdata.nl.