Global IoT Roaming
When you want to connect devices that will move between different countries, it is necessary to plan how to keep them connected at all times. Learn about the most important aspects of roaming and Telenor IoT’s roaming offer.
What is Roaming?
International Roaming is a term that is widely used to describe the ability for a SIM card to use mobile (cellular) networks other than the home network. The home network is the network of the operator that has issued the SIM card. For a SIM card to be able to use a foreign network, the SIM card’s home operator must have a roaming agreement with the foreign operator. If the home operator has roaming agreements with multiple operators in the same foreign country, the SIM card will have access to all these networks and will enjoy better coverage, compared to having access to just one network in a country.
What are the benefits with Roaming?
Having access to multiple networks can ensure better coverage and higher resilience, which is an important aspect of a successful IoT deployment.
Using roaming for network access in many markets also significantly simplifies the deployment as only one integration and one SIM card is needed. There is no need for a localization through download of separate SIM profile or handling of multiple variants of SIM cards.
Roaming with Telenor IoT
Telenor Connexion enables customers a multi-operator mobile network (cellular) access through roaming in most geographical areas around the globe. We offer a Telenor IoT SIM card, that even allows customers access to multiple networks in their home country. Roaming is a way to achieve national roaming in markets where it’s not possible for a domestic SIM card to use multiple networks.
Telenor IoT is part of the roaming agreements made by Telenor Group. Acting as one allows us to secure favorable commercial terms with our roaming partners. Our customers can enjoy the coverage of more than 500 networks in over 200 countries and regions.
Network Sunsets
As new technologies evolve to enable us to use faster data speeds and larger data volumes, old technologies will be retired. Since a few years back, some operators around the globe have started to retire their 2G and 3G networks to make room in the spectrum for 4G and 5G. Find out more in our white paper “2G/3G sunset“.
This is a slow shift, and the majority of our roaming partners have yet to set their plans for their network sunsets. We have an active dialogue with our partners to ensure that we get advance notice before a network is shut down. This allows us to pass this information on to our customers in plenty of time to prepare and avoid a discontinued service. This kind of technology shifting is inevitable, but it can cause problems for our customers if their devices are relying solely on the older technologies.
As a trusted partner we advise our customers on choosing devices that are fit for the future and preferably use multiple technologies to ensure that the device can be used during the full life span of the customer product.
Roaming Considerations and Restrictions
In some countries there are restrictions on roaming that needs to be considered when a customer is deploying devices on those markets. A few countries have implemented a ban on permanent roaming, which means that a foreign SIM card can only be used temporarily in the country.
For customers that have devices that will be permanently placed in a country that employ permanent roaming restrictions, we have a product that converts one of our Global SIM cards into a domestic SIM card. The product is called GSLA – Global Subscription Local Access. By converting the SIM card to a domestic SIM card, it no longer uses roaming and hence the ban on permanent roaming does not apply.
