SIM Cards: What requirements does a carrier need to support nRF9160 connecting to AWS IoT Core globally?

[JonnyMN]

We plan to incorporate the nRF9160 into many thousands of our devices, however this leads to a question of procuring SIM cards. We purchased a Thingy91 to test the connectivity to our own AWS IoT Core account, and it's working with the included iBASIS SIM card.

Question:

Is there a recommended source of getting SIM cards with a data plan? The included SIM card with our Thingy91 is from iBASIS. Should we stick with iBASIS, and is there a specific reason Nordic chose iBASIS for the Thingy91? We also want international (global) connectivity.

Thank you.

[Anthony Harrison]

Hi Jonny,

We are exploring this very subject as well, so I'll give you a summary of what I've found.

The broad subject to search is eNodeB, because this is the hardware architecture that a local telecoms provider uses to route LTE-M traffic to and from the internet, there are some very interesting eNodeB charts that show the low level architecture, even where and how a device's IP address is allocated.

Here's a good starter link:

https://yatebts.com/documentation/concepts/lte-concepts/

The P-GW component is the IP breakout, and PCEF is the security mechanism that controls that allocation - proving that the local carrier has control over this!

This means - broadly - that a local telecoms provider that offers LTE-M connectivity, is capable of issuing their own SIM cards, and purely upon the doctrine that within a country that there can be more than one LTE-M provider, then it is reasonable to assume that when a LTE-M device is registered using their own SIM, that they then share this using another architecture, with other LTE-M telecoms providers, so that when the registered IoT device moves into another telecom providers area, that the other telecoms provider will recognise the device and route it as if the original telecoms provider.

I'd suggest finding an eNodeB graph - or even just becoming familiar with all of the components in the chart in the link above - and then contacting your local LTE-M provider, and seeing what they have to say.

This doesn't answer the second part of your question, wanting international (global) connectivity, but if iBASIS have done it, it must be possible, the question is, will a device registered in one country, work in another country. I think I read somewhere that they won't, but you can ask your local provider that.

If you find any more detail than what I've mentioned, can you also add a reply to your original question, I'll watch this question as any answers might also broaden my knowledge.

The great thing about understanding the eNodeB architecture, is that it helps you to understand how to route all of your devices to your very own cloud, instead of having to go through other providers, such as the nRF Cloud.