Open standards, closed ecosystems: Is cellular IoT repeating an old telecom mistake?

The telecom industry understands the value of open standards. It is why the GSMA spent years developing SGP.32 – the new eSIM IoT specification designed to make cellular connectivity more flexible, portable, and scalable for connected devices.

Open standards create healthy competitive markets. They allow customers to choose between vendors, encourage innovation, reduce dependency on any single supplier, and enable interoperability between products and services.

This is why open standards underpin much of the world’s communications infrastructure, from Ethernet and TCP/IP to Wi-Fi and the DNS system that makes the internet work.

But there is a problem.

An open standard does not automatically create an open ecosystem.