November 26, 2015 at 15:08MultiSim: technological SIM-phony for several operators and one subscriber
Exciting stories related to multisym cards continue to excite the minds of advanced and corrosive users. Indeed, you can think of more than a dozen ways to use a SIM containing in memory several profiles of various mobile operators, and each of them will be attractive in its own way to subscribers who use more than one mobile number, and there are more such ones, according to official statistics 60% On average, in Russia there is one and a half SIM per subscriber. At the same time, many have in stock not only Russian SIM cards, but also several foreign ones. It has become a tradition to bring from travel or business trips colorful pieces of plastic painted in the colors of the world leaders in the telecom industry. Foreign SIM cards not only lie on the shelves, they are regularly used by "mobile activists",
Today we would like to describe an interesting case that will allow us to take a fresh look at multisim technology both to potential subscribers and respected mobile operators.
Modern mobile communications has long ceased to provide the service of only the trivial "Hello" both at the level of user services and infrastructure. Obviously, the voice as the only and main way of earning "mobilchiki" remained somewhere around the turn of the millennium. Operators are well aware - the market requires new approaches. And their implementation is taking place, including at the level of architecture of cellular networks. All methods are good for constantly increasing ARPU and growing subscriber base. One of the architectural trends that has loudly made itself known in recent years is the MVNO business model., allowing the mobile operator to enter specific markets and sell their contracts where sale by conventional means is difficult. In turn, the MVNO model provoked the growth of various ecosystems that formed alongside the largest players in this segment of the telecom business.
Company Tottoli-GSM is precisely one of the leaders and a major player in the brave new world of MVNO. We use existing models for promoting MVNO products, and are actively developing new models. Tottoli-GSM is not only a developer and integrator, it is a whole cloud PaaS MVNO platform with a number of architectural know-how that allows the company's partners - telecom operators and service providers - to integrate solutions based on mobile communications and FMC technologies into their product lines .
At the center of the circuit is a Tottoli-GSM PaaS platform. On the one hand, Tottoli interacts with the core operator network and provides access to the basic infrastructure of the radio network at the level of technological interfaces, on the other hand, an interface for interaction with client services is implemented. It is on these interfaces that the Tottoli business model is built: the partner of the company (service provider) can gain access to all the functional capabilities of the network of the support operator.
Using a cloud-based solution to access mobile services lowers the financial threshold for joining the MVNO ecosystem to disappearingly small amounts of tens of dollars. Technological challenges also completely dissolve in the virtual cloud world of PaaS. Launching your own virtual cellular network takes only a few days, practically without requiring resource investments.
MVNO solutions are actively developing, and in addition to the basic set of services - access to the network infrastructure of the donor operator - they allow the use of multisim technology as well. A modern SIM card is no longer just a “subscriber identity module”, it is a micro-architectural miracle consisting of a PIC processor, a memory module and STK (SIM TooL Kit), which means that by gaining access to the SIM hardware and software resources, you can create own SIM-applets and applications with unique functionality. Including loading several profiles of different operators (IMSI + crypto key) into the SIM card memory, implementing algorithms for selecting these profiles according to a number of conditions, i.e. to build completely new schemes for the interaction of the subscriber with the mobile network. It is this feature that formed the basis of the Tottoli-GSM cloud platform.
The basis of the Tottoli business model is the subscriber’s understandable need to reduce the number of SIM cards used and to simplify their use while maintaining access to services, and the operator’s even more understandable need to get a new subscriber with a minimum cost of engagement by offering a unique service. It is these two needs that we serve through our cloud project. The platform’s functionality is provided by two global interaction interfaces: “Operator (service provider) - Tottoli” and “Tottoli - Subscriber (consumer of services)”.
An API is built into the operator’s interface, with which you can upload to the cloud a link to the “home” profile of the SIM card (IMSI + Ki) and provide online translation of data from carrier billing into the Tottoli interface. An important point: de facto profiles are not stored in the cloud of the platform, the platform only acts as a kind of torrent that stores only links to real profiles uploaded to the operator’s cloud. This guarantees the absolute safety of the holy of holies of operator billing: accounting. It creates a unique opportunity to fill the global world wide database of profiles of telecom operators in one place with the provision of subscriber access to these same profiles.
The subscriber’s interface contains tools for accessing the database of operator profiles, a billing interface and a set of payment services to replenish a single personal account balance.
Let's consider the scheme in more detail.
The MNO operator has an insurmountable need to expand its subscriber base and wants to gain access to the target audience, which under normal conditions would never become the subscriber base of this operator for a number of geographical and other reasons. Moreover, the potential subscribers of the operator are quite active and interested in the consumption of its services. A striking example of such a case: a mobile operator whose sales points are outside the reach of a potential subscriber, the subscriber himself does not want to come to a country or region where the desired network of communication salons operates, but he is interested in the services of this operator (roaming offer or travel DATA- bundle). By uploading a link (not the profile itself, but just a link to it) to your own profile in the Tottoli cloud, the operator thereby provides global access to its services for interested worldwide. Anyone can become a client of such an operator without getting up from the chair, simply by activating the desired profile on multisim. Loading an operator profile into a database is the most important, but not the only part of the scheme.
The next step in the process chain is the integration of the billing component. Tottoli is able to provide real-time access to subscription details and charges. The business model implies a single payment tool for replenishing a single personal account of the subscriber and a single access to detailing the costs of all installed profiles and statistics. It is clear that without a billing platform data exchange interface, one cannot do here. Our developers thoroughly worked on this point, and the operator-partner, using a step-by-step algorithm, gets access to all used API methods and instructions. Integration of billing data is not a completely trivial task, but it is extremely simplified and unified. This is one of the Tottoli-GSM know-how. If you describe the algorithm for entering the service through the eyes of the operator,
The subscriber wants to optimize the use of already acquired SIM cards or wants to activate the service of a geographically remote mobile operator. The subscriber is registered on the global Tottoli-GSM resource, gets the opportunity to order multisim with delivery "to the door" and after receiving the SIM-card selects the necessary profiles for download. Downloading and activating profiles in multisim itself is a completely painless and simple procedure. Profiles are downloaded either “over the air”, upon the first registration of a SIM card in the corresponding home or guest network, or by simply selecting the desired profile from the SIM menu. And this is not all: the subscriber’s personal account implies the use of a single personal account, common statistics and a single payment instrument. This is very, very convenient, since all transactions, balance control, tech. support, connecting and disconnecting services and packages are available in a single global interface. A true triumph of unification and globalization. Thus, we get an extremely transparent and understandable scheme of subscriber interaction with our platform:
The advantages of using the platform by all interested are obvious and undeniable. For greater persuasiveness and visibility, consider the case with a specific example.
A certain conditional for us, but at the same time quite real for himself, the Subscriber is going on a Christmas trip to Central and Western Europe. The plans are truly enormous: from evening Prague and Charles Bridge to morning Barcelona and the Sagrada Familia. And all this in a couple of weeks - literally, "galloping across Europe." The conditionally real Subscriber is completely unwilling to fall out of an active business life, since everything related to the holidays and the New Year generates huge revenues. The business remaining at home is in full swing, and constant monitoring of the bustling processes is needed, which means incoming and outgoing calls, Internet access, a few SMS and geo-services. "Gallop across Europe" completely excludes the acquisition of local SIM cards in huge quantities and even more so their tedious activation with the study of tariffs on the run - you have to cross five or six borders. The roaming options of a home operator in practice do not look as budget-friendly as in their advertising announcements, which means that there is only one way out - multisim and several relevant profiles for those cellular networks in which the Subscriber will actively communicate with colleagues.
The subscriber, even before the trip, with a cup of coffee and a smartphone at the ready, carefully studies the tariffs on the global Tottoli site, selects the necessary provider operators, uploads their profiles to multisim, replenishes the balance with full awareness of upcoming expenses and forgets that somewhere in European nights shine with multicolored lights communication salons of all kinds of Oranges and Vodafonov. Orange and Vodafon already settled in the Subscriber’s smartphone and are waiting in the wings.
When crossing the border, the Subscriber activates the desired SIM profile with a flick of the wrist and each time the multisim appears in the native-non-native network, this same native-non-native network sees the appearance of a home SIM, sends the subscriber “Welcome Home” and starts charging for services according to the most humane, local, tariffs. The subscriber is happy, almost all the time you can devote to sightseeing and visiting bars, periodically interrupting relaxed communication with the distant Motherland. Rates allow. Only occasionally the Subscriber asks for his balance, each time making sure that there are even more funds on the account than he thought. Downloaded profiles are activated in the desired sequence and, in most cases, their activation occurs automatically, based on optimized algorithms developed by Tottoli-GSM specialists. A classic win-win story. The subscriber used the necessary services at ease and saved money, while the Orange and Vodafon got an active, cloudy, solvent subscriber with a minimum cost of engagement and a high average check.
The case described above, from our point of view, will be attractive to both operators and subscribers. We spend a lot of time and effort on the development of multisym PaaS cloudsand right now the platform is in the process of closed internal testing. By posting this post, we pursue a good goal: the responses of potential subscribers and supplier partners are important to us. Right now there is a unique opportunity to influence the implementation of additional “features” of the service, simply by sharing your thoughts and opinions on the platform’s functionality. What we have in mind can be a truly innovative and breakthrough project that solves the communication problem for actively moving users. All market analytics and trends in mobile communications confirm the correctness of the chosen business model. One SIM card and one personal account is always better than ten.
We are preparing some more interesting cases that we plan to share on our blog. The theme of MVNO and multisym in every possible way has a creative approach to rather traditional and well-established mobile communications services.
Today we would like to describe an interesting case that will allow us to take a fresh look at multisim technology both to potential subscribers and respected mobile operators.
MVNO as it is
Modern mobile communications has long ceased to provide the service of only the trivial "Hello" both at the level of user services and infrastructure. Obviously, the voice as the only and main way of earning "mobilchiki" remained somewhere around the turn of the millennium. Operators are well aware - the market requires new approaches. And their implementation is taking place, including at the level of architecture of cellular networks. All methods are good for constantly increasing ARPU and growing subscriber base. One of the architectural trends that has loudly made itself known in recent years is the MVNO business model., allowing the mobile operator to enter specific markets and sell their contracts where sale by conventional means is difficult. In turn, the MVNO model provoked the growth of various ecosystems that formed alongside the largest players in this segment of the telecom business.
Company Tottoli-GSM is precisely one of the leaders and a major player in the brave new world of MVNO. We use existing models for promoting MVNO products, and are actively developing new models. Tottoli-GSM is not only a developer and integrator, it is a whole cloud PaaS MVNO platform with a number of architectural know-how that allows the company's partners - telecom operators and service providers - to integrate solutions based on mobile communications and FMC technologies into their product lines .
At the center of the circuit is a Tottoli-GSM PaaS platform. On the one hand, Tottoli interacts with the core operator network and provides access to the basic infrastructure of the radio network at the level of technological interfaces, on the other hand, an interface for interaction with client services is implemented. It is on these interfaces that the Tottoli business model is built: the partner of the company (service provider) can gain access to all the functional capabilities of the network of the support operator.
Using a cloud-based solution to access mobile services lowers the financial threshold for joining the MVNO ecosystem to disappearingly small amounts of tens of dollars. Technological challenges also completely dissolve in the virtual cloud world of PaaS. Launching your own virtual cellular network takes only a few days, practically without requiring resource investments.
MVNO solutions are actively developing, and in addition to the basic set of services - access to the network infrastructure of the donor operator - they allow the use of multisim technology as well. A modern SIM card is no longer just a “subscriber identity module”, it is a micro-architectural miracle consisting of a PIC processor, a memory module and STK (SIM TooL Kit), which means that by gaining access to the SIM hardware and software resources, you can create own SIM-applets and applications with unique functionality. Including loading several profiles of different operators (IMSI + crypto key) into the SIM card memory, implementing algorithms for selecting these profiles according to a number of conditions, i.e. to build completely new schemes for the interaction of the subscriber with the mobile network. It is this feature that formed the basis of the Tottoli-GSM cloud platform.
Business model
The basis of the Tottoli business model is the subscriber’s understandable need to reduce the number of SIM cards used and to simplify their use while maintaining access to services, and the operator’s even more understandable need to get a new subscriber with a minimum cost of engagement by offering a unique service. It is these two needs that we serve through our cloud project. The platform’s functionality is provided by two global interaction interfaces: “Operator (service provider) - Tottoli” and “Tottoli - Subscriber (consumer of services)”.
An API is built into the operator’s interface, with which you can upload to the cloud a link to the “home” profile of the SIM card (IMSI + Ki) and provide online translation of data from carrier billing into the Tottoli interface. An important point: de facto profiles are not stored in the cloud of the platform, the platform only acts as a kind of torrent that stores only links to real profiles uploaded to the operator’s cloud. This guarantees the absolute safety of the holy of holies of operator billing: accounting. It creates a unique opportunity to fill the global world wide database of profiles of telecom operators in one place with the provision of subscriber access to these same profiles.
The subscriber’s interface contains tools for accessing the database of operator profiles, a billing interface and a set of payment services to replenish a single personal account balance.
Let's consider the scheme in more detail.
Provider operator
The MNO operator has an insurmountable need to expand its subscriber base and wants to gain access to the target audience, which under normal conditions would never become the subscriber base of this operator for a number of geographical and other reasons. Moreover, the potential subscribers of the operator are quite active and interested in the consumption of its services. A striking example of such a case: a mobile operator whose sales points are outside the reach of a potential subscriber, the subscriber himself does not want to come to a country or region where the desired network of communication salons operates, but he is interested in the services of this operator (roaming offer or travel DATA- bundle). By uploading a link (not the profile itself, but just a link to it) to your own profile in the Tottoli cloud, the operator thereby provides global access to its services for interested worldwide. Anyone can become a client of such an operator without getting up from the chair, simply by activating the desired profile on multisim. Loading an operator profile into a database is the most important, but not the only part of the scheme.
The next step in the process chain is the integration of the billing component. Tottoli is able to provide real-time access to subscription details and charges. The business model implies a single payment tool for replenishing a single personal account of the subscriber and a single access to detailing the costs of all installed profiles and statistics. It is clear that without a billing platform data exchange interface, one cannot do here. Our developers thoroughly worked on this point, and the operator-partner, using a step-by-step algorithm, gets access to all used API methods and instructions. Integration of billing data is not a completely trivial task, but it is extremely simplified and unified. This is one of the Tottoli-GSM know-how. If you describe the algorithm for entering the service through the eyes of the operator,
- Registration on the global portal as a service provider;
- loading SIM-profile directly to the subscriber’s SIM-card via OTA;
- interaction with the technical support of the platform on emerging issues;
- monthly profit distribution;
- lack of costs for entering new markets (promotion, marketing and the first level of support - Tottoli-GSM responsibility zone).
Subscriber
The subscriber wants to optimize the use of already acquired SIM cards or wants to activate the service of a geographically remote mobile operator. The subscriber is registered on the global Tottoli-GSM resource, gets the opportunity to order multisim with delivery "to the door" and after receiving the SIM-card selects the necessary profiles for download. Downloading and activating profiles in multisim itself is a completely painless and simple procedure. Profiles are downloaded either “over the air”, upon the first registration of a SIM card in the corresponding home or guest network, or by simply selecting the desired profile from the SIM menu. And this is not all: the subscriber’s personal account implies the use of a single personal account, common statistics and a single payment instrument. This is very, very convenient, since all transactions, balance control, tech. support, connecting and disconnecting services and packages are available in a single global interface. A true triumph of unification and globalization. Thus, we get an extremely transparent and understandable scheme of subscriber interaction with our platform:
- a potential subscriber registers a Tottoli-GSM cloud account;
- orders multisym with delivery to the door;
- replenishes a single balance;
- Loads the necessary profiles;
- with the help of SIM menu activates profiles and manages them;
- controls expenses and observes the details of the consumption of services in a single, friendly, interface in the native language;
- communicates with those. single window support, again in the native language;
The advantages of using the platform by all interested are obvious and undeniable. For greater persuasiveness and visibility, consider the case with a specific example.
Case
A certain conditional for us, but at the same time quite real for himself, the Subscriber is going on a Christmas trip to Central and Western Europe. The plans are truly enormous: from evening Prague and Charles Bridge to morning Barcelona and the Sagrada Familia. And all this in a couple of weeks - literally, "galloping across Europe." The conditionally real Subscriber is completely unwilling to fall out of an active business life, since everything related to the holidays and the New Year generates huge revenues. The business remaining at home is in full swing, and constant monitoring of the bustling processes is needed, which means incoming and outgoing calls, Internet access, a few SMS and geo-services. "Gallop across Europe" completely excludes the acquisition of local SIM cards in huge quantities and even more so their tedious activation with the study of tariffs on the run - you have to cross five or six borders. The roaming options of a home operator in practice do not look as budget-friendly as in their advertising announcements, which means that there is only one way out - multisim and several relevant profiles for those cellular networks in which the Subscriber will actively communicate with colleagues.
The subscriber, even before the trip, with a cup of coffee and a smartphone at the ready, carefully studies the tariffs on the global Tottoli site, selects the necessary provider operators, uploads their profiles to multisim, replenishes the balance with full awareness of upcoming expenses and forgets that somewhere in European nights shine with multicolored lights communication salons of all kinds of Oranges and Vodafonov. Orange and Vodafon already settled in the Subscriber’s smartphone and are waiting in the wings.
When crossing the border, the Subscriber activates the desired SIM profile with a flick of the wrist and each time the multisim appears in the native-non-native network, this same native-non-native network sees the appearance of a home SIM, sends the subscriber “Welcome Home” and starts charging for services according to the most humane, local, tariffs. The subscriber is happy, almost all the time you can devote to sightseeing and visiting bars, periodically interrupting relaxed communication with the distant Motherland. Rates allow. Only occasionally the Subscriber asks for his balance, each time making sure that there are even more funds on the account than he thought. Downloaded profiles are activated in the desired sequence and, in most cases, their activation occurs automatically, based on optimized algorithms developed by Tottoli-GSM specialists. A classic win-win story. The subscriber used the necessary services at ease and saved money, while the Orange and Vodafon got an active, cloudy, solvent subscriber with a minimum cost of engagement and a high average check.
Summary
The case described above, from our point of view, will be attractive to both operators and subscribers. We spend a lot of time and effort on the development of multisym PaaS cloudsand right now the platform is in the process of closed internal testing. By posting this post, we pursue a good goal: the responses of potential subscribers and supplier partners are important to us. Right now there is a unique opportunity to influence the implementation of additional “features” of the service, simply by sharing your thoughts and opinions on the platform’s functionality. What we have in mind can be a truly innovative and breakthrough project that solves the communication problem for actively moving users. All market analytics and trends in mobile communications confirm the correctness of the chosen business model. One SIM card and one personal account is always better than ten.
We are preparing some more interesting cases that we plan to share on our blog. The theme of MVNO and multisym in every possible way has a creative approach to rather traditional and well-established mobile communications services.