The iSIM Revolution: MVNOs Must Adapt or Be Left Behind

Over the past year, I’ve had dozens of conversations with providers across the US, Europe, Africa, Mexico and Brazil about their IoT strategies. The same themes keep coming up: scalability, cost efficiency, differentiation and how to manage millions of devices without drowning in logistics and costs. That’s why the shift from traditional SIMs to eSIMs and now iSIMs is a game changer for MVNOs focused on IOT.

From SIM to eSIM to iSIM – A Quick Evolution

If you’ve ever swapped a SIM card on a phone, you know the old model: plastic cards, SIM trays, carrier-locked profiles. It worked, but it doesn’t scale when you’re trying to quickly connect 500,000 smart meters or 1 million GPS trackers.

• Physical SIM: Plastic card, removable, requires physical swap to change carriers.
• eSIM (embedded SIM): A chip soldered onto the device’s board. Supports remote provisioning, so you can update carrier profiles without a truck roll.
• iSIM (integrated SIM): The newest evolution, built directly into the device’s System on Chip (SoC). It eliminates even the chip footprint, cuts costs, improves power efficiency, and still supports remote provisioning.

Why This Matters for IoT MVNOs

When I sat down with providers/emerging MVNOs across the globe, the biggest pain point was cost of managing SIM logistics — shipping plastic cards, dealing with theft, or replacing cards in rural areas. In Brazil, I heard from providers who struggled with scaling prepaid IoT devices in verticals like agriculture and logistics because swapping SIMs was simply impractical.

Yes, eSIM has already solved many of the challenges, where profiles can be pushed remotely, but iSIM goes a step further:

• Cost Savings: No extra chip or SIM tray; reduced hardware bill of materials.
• Power Efficiency: Perfect for sensors and devices that need to last years on a battery.
• Security: GSMA-certified, embedded inside the chipset’s secure enclave.
• Scalability: Remote provisioning at scale; carrier switching without physical intervention.

For an MVNO, iSIM means the ability to onboard massive IoT fleets at a fraction of costs and time.

The Strategic Edge for MVNOs

Here’s where MVNOs can differentiate using eSIM/iSIM:

1. Global Roaming Profiles: Offer multi-carrier bundles so IoT devices “just work” across regions.
2. Flexible Billing Models: Tie usage down to the device, byte, or event level.
3. Private Networks + IoT: Pair iSIM-based devices with private LTE/5G slices for enterprises.
4. Security as a Service: Market iSIM’s security advantages as part of your value proposition.

Partnering with the Right BSS/OSS Provider

As eSIM and iSIM adoption accelerates, MVNOs cannot just think about connectivity — they need a partner that enables services across ALL SIM types. This is where a modern BSS/OSS provider becomes critical.

A true Service Enablement provider ensures that:

• You can provision and bill for physical SIM, eSIM, and iSIM seamlessly.
• Your billing supports micro-transactions at IoT scale, from kilobytes of data to millions of connected endpoints.
• Your platform is convergent, flexible, and future proof, allowing MVNOs to pivot quickly as technology shifts.
• Service orchestration, partner management, and analytics are all integrated into one stack.

Without this backbone, the risk is that MVNOs will struggle to monetize eSIM/iSIM opportunities effectively. With the right partner, however, MVNOs can transform from simple resellers of connectivity into full-scale Service Enablement providers. iSIM unlocks new MVNO service models, but only a convergent, AI-powered BSS/OSS makes them possible.

Delivering these differentiated services is impossible without the right digital backbone. A convergent BSS/OSS Service Enablement platform ensures MVNOs can do more than just sell data plans:

• One Stack Across All SIM Types: Seamless provisioning, billing, and orchestration for SIM, eSIM, and iSIM, eliminating silos and complexity.
• Business Intelligence & Analytics: Real-time insights into device behavior, churn risk, revenue leakage, and usage patterns enables MVNOs to price dynamically, cross-sell, and upsell.
• AI Integration: Automates fraud detection, predicts customer demand, and personalizes offers at scale. AI-driven customer support (voice/web agents) can cut OPEX while improving experience.
• End-to-End Convergence: A sole source of truth for rating, charging, partner management, and customer experience ensures faster time-to-market for new IoT bundles.

Why a Convergent BSS/OSS Platform Matters

MVNOs need an enablement platform to unlock new ways to stand out in an increasingly competitive connectivity market. Beyond just providing data pipes, an iSIM-enabled MVNO can package unique service models such as:

• Global Multi-Carrier Profiles: Offering enterprises seamless roaming and cross-border IoT coverage without needing local swaps or renegotiations.
• Device-as-a-Service (DaaS): Bundling hardware, connectivity, and lifecycle management into a single subscription.
• Vertical-Specific IoT Bundles: Pre-packaged solutions for logistics (asset tracking), utilities (smart metering), healthcare (wearables/monitors), and automotive (connected cars).
• Dynamic Pricing & Pay-Per-Use: Fine-grained billing models, such as per-kilobyte, per-event, or per-sensor-trigger, made possible by real-time charging.
• Integrated Security Services: Leveraging iSIM’s secure enclave to position connectivity as a trusted channel for sensitive industries like fintech or health.

Final Thoughts

The leap from SIM to eSIM to iSIM is not just a technology upgrade, it is a business transformation opportunity for MVNOs in IoT. By removing logistics headaches, reducing costs, and enabling true global scalability, MVNOs can position themselves not just as resellers of connectivity, but as IoT enablers and innovators.

In my own field conversations, the providers who ‘Find a Way’ to lean into eSIM and plan for iSIM are the ones best positioned to win the next wave of IoT deployments. Partnering with the right BSS/OSS Service Enablement provider ensures they’ll have operational agility, billing flexibility, and scalability to become a market leader in the IOT MVNO space.