Global IoT roaming: Hidden costs, critical challenges, and strategic solutions

Roaming is not the best solution for every IoT use case. While roaming has become a popular solution for deploying IoT devices across multiple countries, the reality is far more nuanced than most solution providers initially realize.

Global IoT roaming presents unique challenges that differ significantly from consumer roaming, with the devices themselves — often unattended, power-constrained, and deployed in hard-to-reach locations.

This blog explores the hidden costs of global IoT roaming strategies, the strengths and limitations of different approaches, and practical considerations to help you make informed decisions for your IoT deployments.

The biggest issues with global IoT roaming solutions

Compared to our smartphones, IoT devices are kind of dumb, cheap devices that have very bespoke power and coverage requirements. This is why standard IoT roaming solutions might not work very well for global IoT use cases.

Roaming was not designed for IoT

Unlike smartphones, IoT devices are often:

• Unattended and difficult to physically access.
• Expected to operate for years on a single battery.
• Unable to be easily serviced when connectivity issues arise.
• Deployed in challenging environments like basements, industrial settings, or stacked against each other with no line of sight.

The connectivity needs of these devices differ fundamentally from consumer devices, yet many providers simply repackage consumer-grade roaming solutions for IoT.

IoT roaming costs: direct vs indirect expenses

There’s often too much emphasis on direct costs compared to indirect ones, where the latter often creeps up on you making overall expenses rise. 

The price per megabyte or SIM cost is more straightforward and easier to account for. Indirect costs stemming from increased connection failures, higher retries, slower time-to-connect, extra network scans, and higher battery drain can significantly inflate the total cost of ownership (TCO). Troubleshooting unattended devices also adds to these operational inefficiencies.

Indirect costs are incurred over the life of the device, especially because of a roaming solution which has not been set up correctly.

In tracking use cases, for example, the battery itself is around 70% of the total material cost of an IoT device. Any factor that reduces battery life directly impacts your TCO.

Network steering

Many roaming providers implement steering to direct devices to preferred networks based on commercial agreements rather than signal quality. This practice, while economically advantageous for the provider, can have severe consequences for IoT devices

This forced steering leads to:

• Increased connection failures and drops
• Higher retry rates consuming both power and data
• Slower time-to-connect and additional network scans
• Significantly higher battery drain

Coverage issues

Having consistent global coverage is always challenging. While a provider might boast a large number of roaming partners, improving coverage isn’t just about the number of networks available but also how the operator connects devices to them. Limited access to good coverage or unavailable radio towers in certain regions can cripple an IoT deployment.

Coverage challenges are particularly acute with newer technologies like LTE-M and NB-IoT:

For example, according to World Bank data, there are 791 4G networks globally with 9 out of 10 people covered by LTE. Whereas the number of LTE-M and NB-IoT networks are around 100-130, which means that unless you are working in a jurisdiction where you have multiple networks with low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN), it’s really difficult to achieve a global deployment right now just on LPWAN.

Regulations and compliance

The regulatory hurdles to connect devices globally is a minefield.

Different countries, different regions, and different operators impose varying rules on roaming, and therefore implementation will look wildly different from one place to the next. 

Regulations like permanent roaming restrictions, data sovereignty laws, and use-case limitations, among others further complicate IoT roaming. The roaming solution therefore needs to be adaptable to system-wide changes such as network shutdowns, regulatory changes, and consolidation, all of which can all impact IoT deployments.

Change is the only thing constant with compliance, and long-term planning is the way to get ahead of it.

The strengths of roaming solutions for IoT 

Despite the challenges, roaming has its place and offers distinct advantages for certain IoT deployments.

• Single SKU for global deployments: Only needing one SKU to serve your needs across different markets and jurisdictions is a major advantage. This simplifies logistics and inventory management, eliminating the need to manage different SIMs for different countries. For solutions that need to be deployed across borders, this can significantly reduce complexity.
• Resilience: A properly configured IoT roaming solution gives you resilience with multiple networks in a country — all the aspects which an IoT device looks for. This multi-network roaming SIM provides redundancy if one network experiences issues, potentially increasing uptime and reliability for critical applications.
• Scalability: Roaming enables expanding deployments across countries without negotiating with local providers, making it easier to scale IoT solutions internationally.
• Flexibility for certain use cases: For applications like asset tracking, where devices move across regions, or for low-data applications where optimizing for coverage is more important than maximizing data throughput, roaming can be an ideal solution.

What is IoT roaming?

Understanding how roaming works is key to identifying its limitations and it’s not as simple as your phone connecting to a partner network when you travel.

In consumer roaming, your smartphone initiates a manual or automatic network attach to a visited network. Billing records traverse IPX/GRX interconnects between your home MNO and the visited MNO, then onto your operator’s core.

In IoT roaming, IoT devices connect to a local network in the deployed country but rely on the home operator for routing data. There’s plenty of back-and-forth interconnection that happens and this introduces latency and impacts performance.

This interconnection typically follows one of several models, based on the type of provider you’re working with, which usually falls within MNOs or MVNOs:

• MNO (Mobile Network Operator): Owns and operates its own network infrastructure, including radio access and core networks.
• MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator): Does not own the network infrastructure but leases it from MNOs. There are different types:
  • MVNO Reseller: Primarily handles marketing and sales, reselling the MNO’s service.
  • MVNO Service Provider: Has more control over customer care and billing.
  • MVNO Enhanced Service Provider: Owns more of the solution, potentially including parts of the core network, but not the radio access.

Home-routed traffic, common in roaming, means data from a device in a roaming country is routed back to the home network provider’s core network before going to the internet.

This is why it’s crucial to know your provider and know exactly what they can offer you. Understand what part of the value chain they provide because different parts change the way we experience roaming internationally.

IoT roaming with different cellular network technologies

The choice of network technology is a critical trade-off in any roaming strategy.

Legacy: 2G / LTE

• 2G has powered IoT since 1998 but is being sunset in many regions (North America already, Europe within 5 years, or read the 2G/3G sunset dates here).
• LTE / LTE Cat-1 offers a transitional path: ubiquitous coverage, mature deployments, and moderate bandwidth. (Get an overview of the LTE landscape in this blog.)

LPWAN: LTE-M, NB-IoT

• These technologies were designed for IoT, offering better power efficiency. However, the number of LTE-M, and NB-IoT networks are around roughly 100 and 130, which means that unless you are working in a jurisdiction where you have multiple networks with LPWAN, it’s really difficult to achieve a global deployment right now, just on LPWAN.
• Configuration challenges also exist, where settings and configurations to leverage low-power features like PSM (Power Saving Mode) and eDRX (extended Discontinuous Reception) are very different from one network to another, with variations per country and regions as well. For example, you might set up a device expecting to sleep for an hour, but if the network’s eDRX settings aren’t aligned, your device could stay awake far longer, negating power-saving benefits. Again, it is important to ask what settings your network providers have for these power-saving features.

A happy medium: LTE Cat 1bis

LTE Cat 1 bis operates on existing LTE networks, offering a balance of coverage, power efficiency, and cost. It’s a practical solution for IoT deployments that require moderate bandwidth (500 Kbps, 8 ms for 500 bytes vs. 400 ms for NB-IoT) and reliable connectivity.

Future technologies: 5G, RedCap, network slicing

While 5G IoT holds promise for IoT with features like ultra-low latency and network slicing, the technology is still in its early stages for IoT deployments. The reality is that early-day deployments lack global ubiquity and standardized roaming SLAs, this means 5G RedCap or slicing is still years from global scale.

Key considerations for global IoT roaming

Power efficiency and latency

Power efficiency is critical for IoT devices, where battery life often determines the economic viability of a deployment. And to put it succinctly — use the radio on your IoT device as little as possible to make your battery last.

Latency is also related to power because if the latency is long, the device will have to stay awake for a much longer duration, which consumes power.

Home-routed architectures common in roaming can significantly increase latency. It can go up to a 3-4x increase on latency time just by roaming between countries in Europe compared to a home-routed solution.

Power-saving features like PSM and eDRX are essential for multi-year battery life, but many operators do not enable them for roaming devices, and there’s often a lack of alignment in how they’re implemented across networks.

Network or SIM steering

Steering affects which networks devices connect to, often prioritizing cost over performance. This can lead to poor signal strength, higher retries, and shorter device lifespans.

Regulations and evolving standards

• Permanent roaming: Banned in some markets.
• Use-case restrictions: Critical infrastructure, financial transactions, etc.
• Data sovereignty: May require local breakout or on-site core elements.
• NIS2 and CE updates: IoT devices increasingly under cyber-resilience and type-approval mandates.

The solution should be sustainable long-term by having multiple fallback options and the ability to update connectivity profiles over-the-air. eSIM for IoT could be a key technology for this.

Future-proofing

For devices expected to operate for 5-10 years or more, planning for future network changes is essential. Plan for technology sunsets (e.g., 2G/3G shutdowns) and ensure your devices can adapt to new network environments. Testing across geographies and configurations is critical.

Building a future-proof IoT roaming strategy

IoT roaming offers significant benefits but requires careful planning to avoid pitfalls. Here’s what you can do to optimize your strategy.

6 steps to build an effective IoT roaming strategy

1. Know your provider’s network configurations and relationships

Understand what the connectivity provider is offering and what part of that value chain they can provide because different parts change the way we experience roaming internationally.

Research their position in the telco value chain, their relationships with mobile network operators, and how they handle issues like network selection and power-saving features.

2. Test in actual deployment environments

It is important to first establish the use case and jurisdictions you’re going to be operating in. Then test to see if the power savings envisioned in the business case are actually reflected in the proof of concept deployment.

Testing should cover multiple locations, particularly across borders (where we see a lot of issues start to get flagged), in different settings, to identify potential issues before full deployment.

3. Build redundancy into your connectivity strategy

The solution should be sustainable long-term by having multiple fallback options and the ability to update connectivity profiles over-the-air.

Technologies like eSIM or multi-IMSI SIMs can provide valuable flexibility if regulatory changes or network sunsets disrupt your primary connectivity path.

4. Monitor device performance beyond simple connectivity

Look beyond basic connectivity metrics to track factors like battery consumption, latency, and retry rates that impact your devices’ long-term viability. Test to see if the power savings envisioned in the business case are actually reflected in the proof of concept deployment.

“The Insight Tools allowed us to monitor data packets live, revealing the empty payloads, enabling us to pinpoint the problem without having to travel to the locations where it occurred or make any changes to our servers.”

Scott Basgaard

Founder and CTO

Read success story

5. Plan for the full lifecycle of your IoT deployment

Remember that IoT deployments often last 5-10 years or more, and a roaming strategy must be adaptable to events like new regulations, carrier mergers, roaming agreement changes, or network shutdowns.

6. Balancing direct and indirect costs in TCO calculations

Consider the full picture when evaluating connectivity options, this means being mindful of the costs upfront and recurring expenses, but also costs that could crop up during the entire lifecycle. Things like process costs, troubleshooting, SIM swaps, and logistics can significantly impact the total cost of ownership over a device’s lifetime.

Consider the full picture when evaluating connectivity options, this means being mindful of the costs upfront and recurring expenses, but also costs that could crop up during the entire lifecycle. Things like process costs, troubleshooting, SIM swaps, and logistics can significantly impact the total cost of ownership over a device’s lifetime.

Is your IoT roaming strategy costing you more than you think?

By considering these factors from the beginning, you can develop a roaming strategy that delivers reliable connectivity throughout your devices’ lifecycle while avoiding the hidden costs that can undermine your deployment’s success.

For guidance from experts on how you can execute roaming for our global devices, watch this webinar on the right IoT roaming strategy for your use case.