Sprint is collaborating with Swisscom and Telia to extend its Curiosity IoT platform to Europe. On the heels of the Australian expansion with Telstra, Curiosity IoT continues to go beyond roaming, enabling customers to activate their IoT services on local networks in parts of Europe.
 
This will help reduce round-trip time and improve performance of IoT applications by keeping traffic local. Swisscom and Telia customers will now also be able to improve service to their customers in the USA.
 
“We are realising our vision to make the Curiosity IoT operating environment locally accessible to meet customers’ needs in Europe,” said Ivo Rook, senior vice president of IoT and product development for Sprint. “We are proud to be working with Swisscom and Telia – leading operators in their respective areas of Europe – to provide full visibility across international IoT deployments through the Curiosity IoT platform.”
 
Curiosity IoT is designed to optimise the growing global IoT environment by bringing the network to the data. With in-country access using a local profile now available in eight countries, Sprint is helping its customers transform how they connect and manage IoT applications around the world.
 
Curiosity simplifies business operations through centralised management of IoT devices no matter where in the world they are deployed. The Curiosity platform gives complete control over device profiles and configurations, with a single point of contact. Behind the scenes, each operator exchanges information with each other for visibility to all SIMs, powered by Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator.
 
“IoT Accelerator delivers a dedicated IoT connectivity platform enabling Sprint, together with their partners, to scale their services globally, improving interoperability and delivering the most robust IoT network to the IoT Accelerator community,” said Kiva Allgood, head of IoT at Ericsson.
 
A local profile allows an IoT device to connect to the corresponding carrier’s network. The IoT device looks like a local subscriber, while maintaining all visibility in Curiosity. Sprint has enabled ICC or electronic SIM capability for secure, instant switching of SIM profiles over the air. This is useful when an IoT device moves to different countries worldwide or is deployed in countries where permanent roaming is not allowed. Users can switch networks without having to touch the IoT device.
 
“The relationship with Sprint enables new options for both Swiss and US-based companies that further simplify the deployment of international IoT,” said Julian Dimer, head of IoT at Swisscom.
 
Bjorn Hansen, head of Telia IoT, added: “For IoT to reach its full potential, it can’t be limited by borders. That’s why we’re really excited to be working with Sprint on this. It’s great for their global customers and it’s great for ours.”