From left: 1oT system architect Janari Põld, CEO Märt Kroodo and eSIM engineer Ken Tristan. Image: 1oT
1oT is looking to boost the adoption of eSIMs among IoT companies with its new independent infrastructure.
Estonian connectivity provider 1oT plans to shake up the comms industry through the creation of its independent eSIM infrastructure.
The start-up claims to be the first telecom-independent global connectivity provider to have built this eSIM technology. It added that GSMA accreditation is underway for the eSIM Core infrastructure, which is the 16th of its kind in Europe.
Electronic SIMs, or eSIMs, provide the same service as a physical SIM but with data stored in a few lines of code on a dedicated chip embedded in a device rather than on a traditional SIM card. The technology is programmable and allows several connectivity providers to be accessed on a single SIM.
However, 1oT said the uptake and adoption of eSIMs has been modest because of a lack of cooperation between telecoms businesses. It added that this forces IoT companies to negotiate deals with multiple telecoms, which all require different SIM cards.
The Estonian start-up’s new eSIM infrastructure is open to licensing to telecoms of all sizes, with the aim of letting IoT companies shop around for the most suitable deal for their use case.
1oT said the infrastructure will reduce vendor lock-in with multiple carrier profiles and open the connectivity market to modern service providers.
1oT was founded in 2016 by Märt Kroodo and Rain Rannu, who was an early investor in Bolt, Pipedrive and Veriff.
Since its launch, 1oT has focused on the needs of IoT companies. It has customers in more than 40 countries whose devices run on IoT-produced SIM and eSIM cards.
“We are on a mission to empower IoT companies with modern global connectivity,” 1oT CEO Kroodo said.
“The economy is moving towards efficiency and coherence, while the connectivity market has long been dominated by the legacy issues of the telecom monopolies that lock their customers into a single service and SIM cards.”
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