With improved geographic mobility of SIM cards

Getting SIM cards provisioned and into the hands of new prepaid users is a major logistical challenge for wireless operators. The most frequently adopted strategy is for SIM cards to be pre-provisioned in the network before they are distributed to the retail channel. This method can constrain flexibility in a number of ways:

• The ranges of IMSIs to be allocated to SIM cards can be restricted geographically, either because of regional numbering or because of regional network organization. With pre-provisioning, IMSIs are allocated when SIM cards are ordered. If IMSIs are restricted then SIM cards are too, placing constraints on distribution and stock management, since SIM cards cannot be moved between regions.
• As well as being specific to a certain geographic region, pre-provisioning often means that a SIM card can only be used for a certain product ��� for example prepaid, postpaid, or SIM-only. This results in retailers having to hold several different types of stock, making forecasting complex, and increasing wastage and recall costs.

With our Dynamic SIM Allocation™ solution, SIM cards are ordered with temporary IMSI values that have no geographical constraints and needn't be provisioned in the network. These SIM cards can be dispatched to any region, can be moved any number of times between regions and retailers, and can be used for any product. When a SIM card is first used, it is detected by a specialized network element called the FUR (First Use Register) which triggers the provisioning process including the allocation of definitive IMSI, MSISDN and provisioning of product-specific settings.