Forget Mobile SIM and eSIM, Now its Time for Always On rSIM
A new type of mobile SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is being launched today – supported by Deutsche Telekom and Tele2 – called resilient SIM (rSIM), which can effectively upgrade a single SIM device to Dual-SIM by automatically switching between the two in case of any network issues, minimising the impact of a lost connection.
At present a traditional physical SIM card can only support a single mobile operator, although many Smartphones do enable you to use more than one SIM (Dual-SIM). On top of that there’s also eSIM, which works by essentially embedding a virtual / electronic SIM into your device (Smartphone), which among other things can – when properly implemented – make it easier and quicker to switch operators (e.g. not having to wait for a physical SIM card to arrive) or use more than one operator (ideal for travel SIMs etc.).
The rSIM, which still seems to be based around a physical card (albeit one that can be updated over the air), takes a different approach and uses new patented technology to check its own network connectivity – switching operators automatically when disruptions occur, minimising the chances of the SIM and the device becoming disconnected during network outages. In order to support this, the card can store two independent mobile operator profiles.
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The new rSIM thus offers two levels of resilience, enabling seamless roaming outside of a device’s home country as well as a proactive solution for uninterrupted internet access (mobile broadband). The intelligence is brought to life in a new Connectivity Management Platform (CMP), where customers can see real-time connection tests from every SIM no matter which mobile operator profile it is connected to.
According to rSIM, such a solution might have been useful last year when, for example, an outage with BT’s (EE) mobile network on a Sunday morning resulted in a total of 11,470 calls failing to connect with the UK’s 999 emergency services number (here). But this overlooks the fact that emergency calls can normally be made on any mobile phone network, not just your own. If you are somewhere where your network doesn’t have reception but another does, you should get ‘Emergency Calls Only’. A better example might thus be the recent network outages at Three UK.
Richard Cunliffe, Director of Product and Innovation at rSIM, said:
“There were around 2 billion cellular IoT connections in 2023, growing to around 7 billion in 2033. As more industries become dependent on IoT, mobile network outages are becoming more commonplace, as more devices connect to them. This increased disruption is affecting all industries, but the biggest impact is seen in critical sectors where lives and infrastructure are at risk, for example in Telecare and Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).
Working with our best-in-class global partners on the development, build and rollout of rSIM, our innovative dual SIM, dual core approach will provide a solution which both monitors disruptions and reacts to them at speed.”
One catch here is that you do have to be taking two mobile plans at the same time – from different network operators – in order to benefit, which outside of travel isn’t particularly common due to the extra costs it can incur. On the other hand, this would come in handy for mission-critical IoT devices etc.
On top of that, many existing Smartphones already support the ability to harness more than one SIM or eSIM, albeit often requiring some degree of initial manual selection. But after that they can be setup in a variety of different ways and combinations, which can also be made to act like a backup for your main service. But it would be a lot simpler if a single SIM could handle all of this automatically.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Can call 999 off any network already, so don’t see why it has been brought up as relevant in this article.
That’s the example rSIM used, but given that a lot of 999 calls did suffer problems, then I’m not sure the example is entirely without merit.
I don’t see the appeal for this for any use I can imagine. For anyone who cares about this a multi SIM device is already an available option. If the uninterrupted connectivity is that important you can pay for a service that provides national roaming.
Also, if the SIM is choosing the network automatically, how would one configure least cost call routing for example? If the main use case for this is roaming, this might not be trivial.
This reminds me to the SIM “shims” (I don’t know the exact name) from the Nokia 3210 era: there were basically 2 SIMs and the active sim would change to the other every time you turned off and back on the phone.
You know what they nickname the RS6…..
Wasn’t that 999 issue due to a fault within BT’s core network, and therefore actually a situation where having access to multiple mobile networks to call it from would probably have been no benefit whatsoever?
Perhaps I’m not understanding the USP of the rSIM but we have operated devices with telemetry modems that have multi-network SIMs for more than a decade. They’ll switch between EE, Vodafone, O2 etc as required without any special magic just like roaming abroad.
Reading their website, it sounds like the rSIM does roam as you say, but the USP is if the provider of the roaming SIM goes down (e.g. Tele2 IoT, which would roam on all networks in the UK) the SIM can detect this and switch to second MNO SIM stored (e.g. Deutsche Telekom IoT) to re-establish connectivity.
Their FAQs page stats: “Think of this like we are removing a SIM card from the device and replacing it with another SIM, which re-establishes the data connection.”
It also stats:
“rSIM utilises two layers of resilience:
1. Roaming (just like a roaming SIM)
2. Resilience (outage detection & resolution)”
If this is true, then this is a very cool little SIM.
Ah that makes sense! Thanks for the explanation Andrew.
Now if this can also be a multi network sim then it would be the dogs..
Esim.me does multiple esims on one physical SIM. A bit expensive but it works.
Now what would be nice if we could swipe our London Freedom Pass for a change.
Bgh of g
Given that Three, for example, claim “4G Coverage – Yes – Excellent service” in my area, it doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable for them to provide the second string through rSIM for no extra charge.
Obviously, this is somewhat arguable for people who live somewhere which is known to have poor or no coverage. But it should be part of Three’s fallback plan when they have an outage.
If they have a quid pro quo with the other providers, it needn’t cost Three much to provide. And I’d even be willing to see a lower speed connection rather than none.
(Obviously substitute any provider. The argument doesn’t change.)