FOR IoT BUILDERS
Global Mobile Connectivity for IoT Devices: A Guide for Hardware and IoT Builders
Your device is brilliant. Now it has to connect – everywhere.
If you are building an IoT product – a tracker, a sensor, a camera, a medical or industrial device – connectivity is the difference between a clever prototype and a product people can deploy anywhere. The moment your device ships across borders it has to find a network and stay online in countries you have never visited, on operators you have no relationship with. Connectivity is mission-critical, yet it is almost never the founder’s core competency. That mismatch sinks a lot of good hardware.
The good news: you can give your device world-class global connectivity without becoming a telecom company. First, it helps to know what “worldwide connectivity” actually demands.
What global device connectivity really requires
- Multi-network access. A single-operator SIM strands your device wherever that operator is weak. A multi-network IoT SIM lets the device attach to the strongest available network in each location and fail over automatically.
- eSIM and remote provisioning. Fitting a different SIM per market is a nightmare at manufacture. Remote SIM provisioning and the eUICC standard let you ship one hardware variant and assign or change the profile over the air – which is why eSIM beats a physical SIM for connected products.
- Roaming compliance. Devices that live abroad for years collide with permanent roaming rules that vary by country and can quietly throttle or cut off a deployment.
- Security and management. Private APNs, IMEI locking and instant SIM suspension – the fundamentals of IoT SIM security – plus a way to monitor and control every device in the field.
- One relationship, one bill. Tying together dozens of operator contracts, portals and invoices is a full-time job you did not sign up for.
Why doing it yourself is the slow road
Each requirement above is a project in itself: carrier negotiations, provisioning infrastructure, a device-management platform, billing, and compliance in every market. Doing it in-house delays your launch by quarters and pulls your best engineers off the product that actually differentiates you. For most teams the questions in choosing an IoT connectivity provider are best answered by choosing a partner, not by building a carrier.
Extrafon gives your device the world – as a service
Extrafon offers simple connectivity to the complicated telecom world. Integrate once and your product ships with a SIM or eSIM that just works in 180+ countries on 800+ networks. Behind that single integration, the Extrafon Assets Management Platform lets you provision, monitor, diagnose, control and bill every device from one interface, and an API lets you embed all of it inside your own product and dashboards. The hard parts – multi-network routing, eUICC provisioning, roaming compliance, security and a single consolidated bill – are handled for you. For the bigger picture see our IoT connectivity overview and the Platform overview.
Two ways to work with Extrafon
- Ready-to-use connectivity. Take tailored data plans matched to your device’s usage profile and ship – we provide the networks, the SIMs and eSIMs and the platform, with access to Tier-1 networks worldwide.
- Your own connectivity brand. If connectivity is part of your value proposition, Extrafon can set you up as a simple international virtual mobile operator under your own brand, so your customers get a seamless experience and you keep the relationship.
Either way, Extrafon sorts out all the technology issues so you can focus on what only you can do: building a great device and a great business.
Getting started
Connectivity should be the easiest part of your IoT product, not the thing that delays your launch. Let Extrafon carry the network so your device just works, wherever it ships. Explore our guides and insights, read the Assets Management Platform overview, and get in touch to design the right connectivity for your product.