It seems I always have a problem accepting new terms when the vision sounds like yesterday’s terms. Today, though, I’m experiencing the opposite when it comes to the word “Orchestration.”
In business, orchestration refers to automating configuration and management of complex systems, including activation, monitoring, enabling, securing and of course billing. Whenever a process is designed to automate workflows, we use the term orchestration. Underneath that umbrella term is the alignment of coordinating applications, data management, and utilizing infrastructure. Orchestration is often managed using a framework such as Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), for virtualization, provisioning, and dynamic data centers. It involves automating tasks to achieve specific goals and objectives, often encompassing frameworks for workflow mapping and management.
It sounds absolutely necessary and pretty boring, but being good at it makes for big bucks and systems from Aeris, Cisco, Nokia, Simetric and many others – including companies like Verizon, which rolled its own – to enable IoT cellular connectivity
But, I believe there is a sour note heard now with some of these SIM Management Platforms. Here is how I see it.
Adding a physical SIM to a consumer device was relatively easy. You either went to the carrier (excuse me, Mobile Network Operator) or the phone maker’s channel, and they would put the SIM from the MNO you selected and activate the orchestration process.
When it came to IoT, that process had serious flaws. First of all, the devices were not being stored by the MNO, so the SIM and the device had to meet somewhere. For large IoT deployments, this installation – called kitting – would be done by the integrator’s (outsourced) coordinator. The more global the solution, the more likely it is to have different SIMs for different areas.
That brings us to our second problem. When does a SIM get activated? Some carriers made mistakes and activated the SIM right at that installation, but that was only the installation of the SIM in the device and not the deployment. The impact on the customer was a bill ahead of the benefits.
Speaking about mistakes, a third issue was making sure the configuration for the frequencies available was correct and, for the price paid for labor, the odds were high that some returns were bound to happen (reverse kitting).
eSIM orchestration changed all that and significantly reduced the price of kitting and errors leading to unhappy customers. In the consumer market, the result was that MNOs were happy, phone makers were happy, and customers were usually none the wiser.
But, for IoT it was particularly good and, with the barn door open, the MVNOs got a chance to change the game. You see, with a physical SIM, they had limited space to put multiple carriers one SIM but, with eSIM, the reconfiguration could happen as needed. This was the basis of the end of “one throat to choke.” Now, it was not a question of which carrier to choose, but to promise continued connectivity using multiple MNOs and even partnering with rival MVNOs.
For the MNVOs, this leveled the playing field; for the MNOs, it meant a huge shift in the way SIM management platforms had to work and, suddenly, some MNOs were using MVNOs for help. In effect, while MVNOs were playing a symphony the MNOs had to reset the orchestra.
The bottom line is that 2025 promises to be a particularly good year for MVNOs, as they are at an advantage they have never had before.
Edited by
Erik Linask
