Qualcomm Announces iSIM Tech in Partnership with Vodafone and Thales

San Francisco: Chip-maker Qualcomm has demonstrated a working smartphone featuring the next-gen integrated SIM (iSIM) technology in partnership with Vodafone and Thales.

The iSIM, which complies with GSMA specifications, embeds the SIM functionality into the device's main processor, allowing for greater system integration, higher performance, and increased memory capacity, the company claims.

"Some of the areas that will benefit most from iSIM technology include smartphones, mobile PCs, VR/XR headsets, and industrial IoT. By engineering the iSIM technology into the SoC, we are able to create additional support for OEMs in our Snapdragon platform," Enrico Salvatori, Senior Vice President and President, Europe/MEA, Qualcomm Europe, said in a statement.

This technology is the latest evolution of SIM technology in which 'eSIMs' are embedded into devices. However, eSIM requires a separate chip: with iSIM, this is no longer necessary and removes the need for dedicated space assigned to SIM services.

"The iSIM, combined with our remote management platform, is a major step in this direction, allowing devices to be connected without a physical SIM or dedicated chip, making connectivity to many objects - the promise of the connected IoT world - a reality," Alex Froment-Curtil, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone added.

iSIM technology is a significant evolution on existing eSIM solutions and delivers wholesale benefits to both consumers and telecommunications operators, further paving the way for mobile services to be integrated into devices beyond the mobile phone, taking the mobile experience to laptops, tablets virtual reality platforms, IoT devices, wearables, and more.