TCA boosts industry-wide eSIM interoperability efforts

The Trusted Connectivity Alliance (TCA) has reported a growing momentum within the industry to increase eSIM interoperability for consumer devices. As part of this progression, Eseye, floLIVE, and Giesecke+Devrient are progressing with comprehensive eSIM profile testing through the TCA eSIM Interoperability Service, delivered by COMPRION.

To facilitate a smooth activation, onboarding, and connectivity experience for users, it is critical that eSIM profiles undergo extensive testing to avoid compatibility issues with specific consumer devices. However, as the ecosystem continues to expand, the testing process is becoming increasingly complex and resource-intensive for mobile operators, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), IoT connectivity providers, and eSIM profile developers to manage in-house. The result is that profiles are rarely comprehensively checked, potentially raising the risk and impact of interoperability issues.

Attempting to address this challenge, the TCA eSIM Interoperability Service tests the interaction of eSIM profiles with an extensive range of consumer eSIM devices such as smartphones, wearables, tablets, and laptops. This proactive approach helps identify and address individual interoperability issues before deployment, promotes consumer trust, reduces costs, and accelerates the time-to-market. Organisations with more limited resources for comprehensive in-house testing particularly stand to benefit from this service. It allows eSIM profile testing demands to be fully offloaded, creating a more manageable system.

Bertrand Moussel, Chair of the TCA Board, comments, "As eSIM adoption continues to scale, the introduction of the TCA eSIM Interoperability Testing Service offers a simple, convenient way to help promote consistency and reliability across an increasingly complex landscape."

In addition to recognising the efforts of Eseye, floLIVE, and Giesecke+Devrient for their proactive commitment to eSIM technology, the Chairman of the TCA board encourages other participants in the eSIM ecosystem to explore the service's benefits in unlocking new potential. 

"We applaud Eseye, floLIVE and Giesecke+Devrient for their proactive commitment to driving trust and confidence in eSIM technology and strongly encourage other eSIM ecosystem participants to explore how the service can help to unlock efficiencies and streamline costs," said Moussel. 

To further detail the real-world benefits of the eSIM Interoperability Service and discuss learnings from service participants, the TCA hosted a dedicated panel discussion featuring experts from COMPRION, Eseye, floLIVE, Giesecke+Devrient and GSMA. This endeavour to discuss the future of eSIM technology and explore its potential benefits is seen as a vital step towards promoting a reliable, consistent, and more efficient eSIM ecosystem.

Trusted Connectivity Alliance (TCA) is a global industry association working to enable trust in a connected future. The organisation evolved from the SIMalliance, reflecting the continued expansion of the global SIM industry and the need for broader collaboration. Its members provide secure connectivity solutions for consumers and IoT and M2M devices. This spans Tamper Resistant Element (TRE) technologies, including SIM, eSIM, integrated SIM, embedded Secure Element (eSE) and integrated Secure Element (iSE), as well as hardware and software provisioning and other personalisation services.

TCA members are Card Centric, COMPRION, Eastcompeace, Giesecke+Devrient, IDEMIA, Kigen, Linxens, Monty Mobile, NXP Semiconductors, Oasis Smart SIM, STMicroelectronics, Thales, Valid, Workz Group, Wuhan Tianyu and XH Smart Card.