Apparently 135,000 people from across the world attended CES this year, with more than 4300 exhibitors showing their wares. According to this article, CES 2024: connected cars and mobility tech dominated the show floor, with Volkswagen announcing it will begin integrating AI chatbot ChatGPT into some of its new cars later this year.
Analysts at S&P Global also shared their thoughts about connected cars discussing how and why Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV) are an “increasingly popular trend (that) use software to enable new features, direct vehicle operations, and add functionality in the vehicle”. S&P says that “the first component of a SDV is connectivity” because, put simply, an SDV is “a receiver and transmitter of data that connects with the world around it in a variety of ways”.
Connected cars is certainly one of the key vertical markets for Telecom26’s team of eSIM and global connectivity experts alongside fleet management and telematics applications such as emergency call and roadside assistance, stolen vehicle tracking and recovery (SVT/SVR), vehicle diagnostics, convenience applications and usage-based pricing.
While today much of the connectivity that telematics needs is enabled by traditional SIMs, a growing number of devices are shipped with eSIM capabilities – enabling connection and service profiles to be delivered over the air and avoiding the need to change physical components of the in-vehicle communications system.
Telecom26 is able to provide global connectivity across borders using both physical and eSIMs.
Connected Cars: Telecom26’s eSIMs provide global mobile connectivity to GlobalmatiX’s telematics service
GlobalmatiX is one of Telecom26’s flagship telematics customers. Its telematics boxes have been installed in thousands of vehicles worldwide to monitor all aspects of performance and driver behaviour - and provide remote vehicle diagnostics information to fleet managers in real-time.
The data collected by the telematics boxes needs to be transmitted almost immediately to GlobalmatiX’s analysis cloud where it is aggregated, processed, analysed and prepared for examination by fleet owners.
The boxes must therefore be online 24/7/365. Instead of traditional, device-based SIMs to enable connectivity to different mobile networks, Telecom26 provides GlobalmatiX with an eSIM solution, enabling the remote download of new profiles to each in-car device – and avoiding the complex task of physically replacing the previous SIM cards.
Previously GlobalmatiX had used the SIM cards of local operators but each card had to be manually inserted into each individual box and could only use the network of its home operator. When the network went down, or the car moved into an area with little or no coverage - or outside the country - then connectivity wasn’t available. And, with roaming, costs could rise.
The Telecom26 solution
Telecom26’s global connectivity also provides GlobalmatiX with a number of new features not available from other operators including:
- Seamless coverage across 1100 cellular networks from over 650 mobile operators in more than 200 countries - and the ability to customise global connectivity according to the budgets of GlobalmatiX’s customers.
- Full control over its global connectivity which enables it to offer different packages to its customers. For example, a real-time service which provides immediate data over the fastest networks is available as well as a package for which Telecom26 can provide optimised least cost roaming and routing.
You can read more about how our work with GlobalmatiX in this case study.
You can also read more about what our global connectivity team have been up to in these previous blogs:
Connected cars and the need for global connectivity
eSIMs, connected cars, fleet management and car leasing
Let’s hit the eSIM and global connectivity road together
As part of our series of papers on IoT global Connectivity we have also written this paper “Automotive IoT User Cases – Solving global connectivity challenges for connected vehicles” which you can download from here.
To learn more about how Telecom26 can help improve efficiencies within your fleet of scooters, cars, vans, lorries, ferries and ships using IoT and global connectivity, eSIMs and our global mobile network, please contact us.
Get in touch for global connectivity
And if you’d like to organise a video call to discuss how we can help improve the global connectivity of your team and their devices as they travel the road, please get in touch.
Of course, as a full operator member of the GSMA, we’ll be at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. So, if you’d like to meet in-person please book a meeting.
