Why OEMs Are Adding Hardware eSIM Now
Until 2023, adding eSIM to a hardware product was a significant investment that made commercial sense only for manufacturers shipping at high volume to global markets. The SM-SR infrastructure required under SGP.02 was expensive to build or integrate with, and the SGP.22 consumer standard was not designed for headless industrial devices.
SGP.32 changes this calculation. The eIM is a lighter, cloud-hostable component. Bootstrap provision has become a wholesale service available from specialist providers. And the commercial pressure from enterprise customers demanding remote SIM management – combined with the approaching 2G and 3G sunset forcing hardware refreshes – has created a market pull that makes hardware eSIM attractive even for mid-sized manufacturers.
Milesight is a useful example because they are precisely in this mid-market position: a manufacturer with a strong IoT hardware portfolio, a growing enterprise customer base, and a product range that would benefit significantly from hardware eSIM but that does not have the scale of a Teltonika or Sierra Wireless.
Step 1: Sourcing the eUICC Chip
The first decision is chip selection. eUICC chips come from a small number of specialist manufacturers. The leading suppliers include:
- Thales (formerly Cinterion/Gemalto) – strong in industrial and utility IoT, good SGP.32 roadmap
- IDEMIA – major player in both consumer and industrial eUICC, active in GSMA certification
- STMicroelectronics – semiconductor manufacturer offering eUICC solutions for industrial applications
- Kigen (ARM) – focused on iSIM and integrated eUICC for low-power IoT, strong in NB-IoT ecosystem
- Infineon – security chip specialist with eUICC products for industrial applications
The chip selection must specify the eUICC form factor (MFF2 soldered is standard for industrial hardware), the supported GSMA specification version (SGP.32 v1.2 for current deployments), the profile storage capacity, and the IPA implementation type (IPA-d or IPA-e).
Step 2: In-Factory Profile Provisioning (IFPP)
Once the eUICC chip is selected, the manufacturer needs to arrange for the bootstrap profile to be loaded during the production process. This is IFPP – In-Factory Profile Provisioning. There are two approaches:
Manufacturer-Side IFPP
The manufacturer integrates IFPP equipment into their production line. This involves connecting to the connectivity partner SM-DP+ server via API during final board testing and loading the bootstrap profile onto each eUICC as a step in the quality assurance process. This approach gives the manufacturer full control over the provisioning process but requires investment in IFPP infrastructure and integration work.
Chip Provider IFPP
Some eUICC chip suppliers offer to pre-load the bootstrap profile before shipping the chips to the manufacturer. The manufacturer specifies which bootstrap they want, the chip supplier loads it at their facility, and the boards arrive with bootstrap credentials already installed. This is simpler for the manufacturer but creates a longer lead time and more complexity if the bootstrap specifications need to change.
Step 3: Bootstrap Partner Selection
The manufacturer needs to select a bootstrap connectivity partner – the network that will provide the global roaming profile loaded at the factory. For a manufacturer of Milesight scale, the options are:
- Tele2 IoT – demonstrated by the Teltonika partnership; strong in European industrial IoT
- Telenor IoT – Nordic carrier with strong global IoT bootstrap capability
- Kigen-certified bootstrap – Kigen provides bootstrap as part of their chip ecosystem
- Wholesale bootstrap-as-a-service – providers like Simplex Wireless and Telnyx allow smaller manufacturers to access bootstrap capability without a direct carrier relationship
For a manufacturer without the volume to negotiate directly with a major carrier, the wholesale route via Simplex Wireless or a similar provider is the practical path to bootstrap capability.
Step 4: eIM Integration
The manufacturer needs to decide whether to operate their own eIM or to direct their customers to a third-party eIM platform. For a company like Milesight with their own management platform (DeviceHub), the likely path is API integration between DeviceHub and a third-party eIM provider platform, so customers see a unified management experience.
For smaller manufacturers without an existing management platform, directing customers to a standalone eIM portal – whether a commercial provider or a custom-built solution – is the alternative.
The Opportunity for Smaller Players
The democratisation that SGP.32 enables is real but requires the right access points. A small UK manufacturer who wants to add hardware eSIM to their product cannot easily negotiate directly with Tele2 or Thales. But they can:
- Source white-label eUICC chips with pre-loaded bootstrap credentials from a wholesale distributor
- Access bootstrap-as-a-service through Simplex Wireless or Telnyx APIs
- Use a third-party eIM platform for customer-facing fleet management
- Integrate with an existing management portal API rather than building their own
The gap in the market is the intermediary who can package these components – chip with bootstrap, eIM platform access, and deployment support – into a simple offering for mid-market UK manufacturers. This is the commercial proposition for a business operating around a domain like esimiotmanager.com or eimdash.com.
The single SKU argument: For any manufacturer selling hardware to multiple countries, the manufacturing cost saving from eliminating regional SIM variants typically pays for the eUICC component premium within the first production run. The operational saving in customer deployment support compounds this over the product lifetime. The business case for hardware eSIM at manufacturer level is strong even before the end customer benefit is considered.
For the technical detail on bootstrap and the first-connection process, see eSIM Bootstrap Issues. For a guide to choosing a bootstrap provider for your hardware programme, see How to Choose a Bootstrap Provider.