After rolling off the production line, a smart vehicle may need to travel across multiple countries; an industrial device exported overseas may need to remain online continuously for over a decade; and millions of smart meters, EV chargers, and various smart terminals also require stable network access in different regions.
For enterprises, device connectivity is only the first step in IoT deployment; the real challenge lies in continuously managing these connections throughout the device's long lifecycle. Over the past few years, eSIM has helped many IoT enterprises remotely manage carrier profiles without the need to replace physical SIM cards. However, early eSIM standards (such as SGP.02/SGP.22) were primarily designed for smartphones and select high-end terminals. When facing the demands of IoT fragmentation, automated provisioning, and mass remote management, they suffer from operational complexity, high customization difficulty, and high costs.
In contrast, the new SGP.32 standard developed by the GSMA represents a further upgrade over previous embedded eSIM solutions—Today, IoT eSIM based on the new SGP.32 standard has reached a milestone in industrial development: Recently, Thales, along with operators such as Singtel, Optus (Australia), AIS (Thailand), and Globe Telecom (Philippines), announced the successful deployment of the world's first multi-operator enterprise eSIM connectivity network for the Internet of Things (IoT).
According to GlobalData, cellular IoT connections in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to reach 1.3 billion by 2030, driven primarily by the rapid growth in industries such as automotive, retail, utilities, logistics, and industrial sectors. This breakthrough technology enables enterprises to remotely manage connected devices across multiple countries and networks through a single centralized solution, thereby simplifying IoT deployment and lifecycle management in the Asia-Pacific region.
eSIM Orchestration Layer Becomes Key: Unifying Different Operator Networks into a Single Resource Pool
eSIM is not a new concept. Over the past few years, consumers have encountered eSIM technology in devices such as smartphones and smartwatches, where its core value lies in downloading carrier profiles via software to replace traditional physical SIM cards. However, IoT scenarios impose higher demands on eSIM—a smartphone may be actively managed by the user with a lifecycle of only a few years; whereas a car, an industrial device, or a smart meter may need to operate for over a decade, and the quantity could reach millions or even tens of millions. Therefore, what enterprises truly need is connection management capability that spans the entire lifecycle of the device.
This collaboration is based on the GSMA SGP.32 specification, a new-generation eSIM standard designed for IoT scenarios, hailed as a "powerful tool for massive remote connectivity of IoT devices." Compared with traditional eSIM solutions, SGP.32 focuses more on the following key objectives:
Mass and Automated Deployment: Supports batch activation and remote provisioning of tens of thousands of IoT terminals without the need for device-by-device operation, significantly reducing deployment and management costs.
Flexible Operator Switching: Devices can remotely switch/bind to different operators on demand, by geographic region, or by lifecycle, facilitating global out-of-the-box readiness and cross-border operations.
Simplified Remote Provisioning: Standardizes the remote provisioning process, shortens time-to-market, and supports one-click OTA (Over-the-Air) delivery of configurations and security policies.
End-to-End Security Assurance: Integrates high-level authentication, encryption algorithms, and lifecycle management to comprehensively enhance device connection security and compliance.
To truly unlock the value of this standard, in this collaboration, Thales has taken on a crucial role—providing the eSIM orchestration layer.
The key distinction is that this is not just another single-operator global IoT SIM card or a traditional roaming solution. This model integrates multiple mobile network operators into a unified orchestration environment, enabling enterprises to centrally manage device connectivity while supporting devices to connect, switch, and localize across different operators.
This is critical because many IoT connectivity solutions still leave enterprises facing fragmented operator processes, independent provisioning systems, or the need for manual intervention when devices migrate across borders. Thales' orchestration layer is designed to sit above individual operators, providing a universal mechanism for cross-market lifecycle management. For example, when a connected car travels from Singapore to Australia, the system can automatically select the most suitable operator network based on the device's location and network status, without the need to replace the SIM card or manual intervention.
In other words, the complexity has not disappeared; rather, it has shifted. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and device manufacturers still need to ensure their hardware and software implementations support SGP.32 and related IPA methods; system integrators need to verify how connectivity orchestration interacts with device management, application uptime requirements, and enterprise backend systems. However, if implemented consistently, this platform can reduce the need to pre-define single-operator relationships during manufacturing or deployment.
The Breakthrough Significance of the Multi-Operator Enterprise eSIM Connectivity Network
Before the emergence of this multi-operator eSIM network, it was not impossible for enterprises to achieve global IoT connectivity. In fact, many multinational enterprises currently achieve device connectivity in multiple countries through global SIM solutions provided by global operators, IoT connectivity aggregators, or MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators).
For instance, an automotive company selling connected cars in multiple Asian countries can procure a global IoT connectivity service, where the service provider delivers communication capabilities for the vehicles through roaming agreements or partnerships with local operators. This model solves the problem of "whether the device can connect to the network," but as the scale of devices expands, its limitations gradually become apparent.
On the one hand, enterprises have limited control over network resources. Global connectivity service providers typically need to integrate operator resources from multiple countries, but the enterprises themselves find it difficult to directly manage the relationships between different networks. On the other hand, the traditional model still suffers from fragmented operational systems. Different operators have distinct provisioning systems and management processes; when enterprises deploy millions of devices, connectivity management can become a new complex engineering challenge. The breakthrough of this multi-operator enterprise eSIM network lies in integrating the network capabilities of multiple operators into a single management system through a unified orchestration platform. Simply put, in the past, enterprises purchased "a SIM card capable of global roaming"; in the future, enterprises will manage "a platform capable of dynamically scheduling global connectivity resources."
Take a smart car sold in the global market as an example. In the future, automakers can install eSIMs supporting the GSMA SGP.32 standard during the production phase without binding to a specific operator in advance. When the vehicle enters different countries and regions, the underlying eSIM orchestration platform can automatically select the most suitable mobile network based on device location, network quality, and business requirements—for instance, when the vehicle enters the Thai market, the platform can identify the network status of local participating operators and automatically load the AIS network profile to ensure a stable connection for the vehicle; when the vehicle continues into the Australian market, the system can switch to the Optus network based on the actual environment. Even if a particular operator's network experiences an anomaly, the platform can switch to other available networks through an automatic network fallback mechanism to keep the vehicle continuously online. Throughout this process, enterprises do not need to manage operator relationships in different countries separately; instead, they can centrally manage the connectivity status, network switching, and device lifecycle of vehicles worldwide through a unified backend.
From the perspective of application scenarios, the multi-operator enterprise eSIM network delivers even more apparent value for industries with global deployment needs, long device lifecycles, and high requirements for connection reliability.
Connected vehicles can maintain seamless connectivity across borders, supporting navigation, safety services, and over-the-air (OTA) software updates;
Utility companies and smart metering providers can remotely manage millions of devices over periods spanning years without the need for costly on-site interventions;
Retailers and payment service providers can ensure payment terminals remain connected, thereby reducing the risk of lost transactions;
Infrastructure operators can centrally manage the connectivity of routers, gateways, and fixed wireless access devices deployed across multiple locations.
Conclusion
According to the official press release, after completing multi-operator testing, the solution is ready to support enterprise IoT deployments in the Asia-Pacific region and plans to further expand to more member operators. However, the ultimate scale of impact this platform can generate will depend on its expansion speed, as well as the number and coverage value of the participating networks. This is because the core value of the multi-operator orchestration model is directly related to how many practically significant network resources can be accessed.
Nevertheless, this launch still marks a significant step for regional IoT towards a more interconnected eSIM model. Its significance lies not only in the eSIM technology itself but in the combination of the SGP.32 standard, the participation of multiple mainstream operators, and a shared orchestration layer, which provides a new solution path for efficiently operated enterprise-grade IoT deployments.
References:
Thales, Singtel Group and Bridge Alliance enable world’s first multi-operator IoT eSIM network in Asia Pacific——thales
Bridge Alliance and Thales Bring Multi-Operator SGP.32 eSIM Orchestration to Asia-Pacific IoT——IoT Business News
Thales, Singtel bolster APAC’s IoT with multi-operator eSIM network——light reading
Singtel and Thales launch multi-operator IoT eSIM network——computerweekly
SGP.32 eSIM Standard Officially Released: MWC 2025 Ushers in a New Era of Global Connectivity for IoT Devices——zedyer
Partnership claims eSIM IoT breakthrough in Asia-Pacific——developing telecoms