One of the key vertical markets for our team of eSIM and global connectivity experts is fleet management and telematics. We have already built-up extensive experience providing global connectivity to organisations across the automotive sector and you can download “Automotive IoT User Cases - Solving global connectivity challenges for connected vehicles” from here.
You can read more about what our global connectivity team have been up to in this previous blog: eSIMs, connected cars, fleet management and car leasing where we also discuss research that predicts that the number of rental and leasing telematics systems in active use will reach 10.5 million in 2025.
The thoughts of the analysts at STL tracking the evolution of connected cars are always worth a read. Back in 2017 they wrote that
“The connected car market is being seen as one of the most promising segments of the Internet of Things. Everyone from telcos to internet giants Google, and specialist service providers Uber are eyeing opportunities in the sector” and that
“The falling cost of cellular connectivity and equipment is now making it increasingly cost-effective to equip vehicles with their own cellular modules and antenna to support emergency calls, navigation, vehicle diagnostics and pay-as-you-drive insurance”.
Mostly recently STL Partners published an interesting report titled Connected car: From mobile broadband to genuine V2X, writing that:
- over the past two decades, vehicles have been making increasing use of cellular connectivity for a variety of purposes from pay-as-you-drive insurance and rentals to remote (un)locking and automated emergency calls. Now automobiles are beginning to harness C-V2X – versions of LTE and 5G specifically designed to meet the needs of connected cars”
- C-V2X connectivity is now being built into vehicles by various Chinese automakers, as well as GM, Ford and Audi, according to the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), which is a global, cross-industry organisation representing companies from the automotive, technology, and telecommunications sectors
According to STL, “The 5GAA has described 2023 as “a pivotal year for V2X deployment”, partly because the technology is increasingly being standardised and partly because of the regulatory drivers discussed later in this section. However, while cellular connectivity is already used by tens of millions of vehicles worldwide, the deployment of C-V2X is still very nascent”.
At the moment, the business case for C-V2X is focused on a reduction in congestion and accidents. In the meantime, the use of telematics applications such as emergency call and roadside assistance, stolen vehicle tracking and recovery (SVT/SVR), vehicle diagnostics, convenience applications and usage-based pricing continues to grow.
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.
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.
