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From hundreds to thousands of enterprise sites – the power of integrated SIM management for Wireless WAN

George Mulhern, CEO of Cradlepoint, and Kyle Okamoto, General Manager of Ericsson IoT, describe the recent product integration of Cradlepoint NetCloud Manager and Ericsson IoT Accelerator connectivity management services. As a result, enterprises can now leverage powerful capabilities giving them more control over SIM use and faster deployments.

CEO of Cradlepoint

General Manager of Ericsson IoT

Integrated SIM management for Wireless WAN

CEO of Cradlepoint

General Manager of Ericsson IoT

CEO of Cradlepoint

Contributor (+1)

General Manager of Ericsson IoT

Since Cradlepoint and Ericsson joined forces in 2020, we are often asked, "now what?" A lot has happened since then, and there is more to come. To drive the Wireless WAN (WWAN) and 5G market for enterprises, earlier this year, we announced our first product integration building upon Cradlepoint's NetCloud Manager (NCM) and Ericsson IoT Accelerator. What this means is easier SIM management for Cradlepoint enterprise customers and a powerful tool to control and monitor SIMs and data plans.

Why is integrated SIM management so important?

Today Cradlepoint's 32,000+ enterprise customers worldwide have at least one SIM in every Cradlepoint cellular router and adapter. In a typical WWAN deployment, SIMs are managed through a different Connectivity Management Platform (CMP), while the routers and adapters are separately managed through a vendor-provided system. Customers must toggle between their CMP and network management platform, but for distributed networks with thousand of sites –retailers with thousands of stores, IoT applications with thousands of vending machines -- with thousands of SIMs, this is not a sustainable solution.

By integrating Ericsson IoT Accelerator, an award-winning IoT connectivity management platform, and Cradlepoint's NetCloud Manager (NCM), enterprises gain valuable network visibility, which they previously lacked. And they no longer need to switch between the router management platform and the connectivity management platform to deploy and manage their WWAN.

What can customers do now that they couldn't do before?

By linking the SIM cards and Cradlepoint routers and adapters, enterprise customers can simplify deployments by configuring the routers, activating the SIMs and confirming the correct data plans have been applied, all from a single pane of glass at the time of deployment. Not to mention cost containment of flipping over to another SIM card if they are about to hit their threshold for data on a certain SIM. This is a huge cost savings.

The ability to see who, what, when, why, and how cellular data is used provides more insights to identify potential problems and drill down to understand the issue. Is a user or application consuming an excessive amount of bandwidth beyond the intended use or using the router outside of allocated times? With more knowledge about how the SIM is used, this is an opportunity for customers to make real-time corrective actions regarding their network policies and/or data plans. And have better cost control and containment. Lifecycle management and troubleshooting are also easier because customers can deactivate or suspend lost, stolen, misplaced, or unused SIMs.

How does this solution enable the deployment of 5G networks?

Enterprises are increasingly choosing to cut the cord and go wireless, but it must be simple and seamless. Removing barriers such as switching between different management platforms speeds up deployments that rely on cellular technologies, such as 4G and 5G. As a result, we will see accelerated adoption.

Together, Ericsson and Cradlepoint serve enterprise needs by delivering simplified cellular solutions which are secure, flexible, and reliable – just what businesses need to stay competitive and be agile to scale and grow.

And what does this integration mean for future integrations for Ericsson IoT Accelerator and Cradlepoint?

We will continue to explore additional IoT Accelerator functionalities in NCM to bring additional value to the market and our joint customers. There is a lot more to come!

Learn more about Ericsson IoT Accelerator and Cradlepoint Wireless WAN.

Press release about Cradlepoint and Ericsson first joint product integration to accelerate enterprise growth

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