World’s First SGP.32 IoT Module, From Murata, Giesecke+Devrient, and Sony Altair, Heralds New Era of Device Flexibility and Longevity

In late 2024, Murata combined its Type 2GD module with Giesecke+Devrient’s (G+D’s) SGP.32-supporting Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Operating System (OS), to launch the first publicly-announced SGP.32 “compliant” cellular Internet of Things (IoT) module. The Type 2GD is a dual-mode Long-Term Evolution Machine-Type Communication (LTE-M) and Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) module. As a Low-Power Wide Area (LPWA) product, the Type 2GD is targeted at a wide range of lower-cost, higher-volume IoT devices, with Murata citing asset tracking, healthcare and wellbeing wearables, as well as Point of Sale (POS) as target markets. SGP.32 has been widely anticipated for years, in function if not in name, as a powerful value-added enabler for highly mobile, single Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) IoT devices; enhancing flexibility and longevity. The majority of IoT device manufacturers now ask their hardware and connectivity suppliers about remote provisioning support, i.e. “Embedded SIM (eSIM),” and it is significant that the first SGP.32 module is an LPWA component.

Murata is a minor vendor in the cellular module market. Murata is a US$10.5 billion company, but its cellular module product line is a very small part of its overall business. Murata is selective in its cellular module interests, and picks its target applications carefully. Murata began by manufacturing LPWA modules only. Although it has since launched 5G Millimeter Wave (mmWave), and cellular Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2X) products, too. Murata’s dual-mode LTE-M and NB-IoT LPWA modules are its only cellular products for mass market enterprise IoT however. This is because mmWave plays no role in the IoT beyond the highest bandwidth routers and gateways for outdoor broadcast; most vendors that have invested in developing mmWave for the IoT consider it to have been a huge waste of time and money. And while connected cars are certainly part of the IoT, automotive module manufacturers often view it as a market apart, with its own standards and terminology.

Murata has a suite of half a dozen cellular LPWA module models, some of which are country-specific. Murata chose to focus on LPWA, as it was considered a new opportunity at the time. Truly, it remains an emerging opportunity, as Cat-M demand is still building, and NB-IoT has effectively yet to start gaining much ground outside of China. Murata’s main LPWA modem supplier is Sony Altair, supplying Murata with its ALT1250 and ALT1350 chipsets. The Type 2GD module model featured in Murata’s announcement with G+D contains the newer ALT1350, which itself incorporates an Integrated SIM (iSIM), on which is loaded the G+D iSIM OS. G+D’s iSIM OS relationship with Sony Altair goes back to announcements made in September 2023. And this new announcement with Murata is, significantly, the first commercial downstream supplier relationship to incorporate SGP.32 support as well, leveraging G+D’s AirOn360 IoT Remote SIM Provisioning (RSP) platform.

To date, neither eSIM nor iSIM has taken off as was hoped in the IoT, with the bulk of the use of both technologies currently being in smartphones. eSIM and iSIM have, arguably, each been waiting for the other in order to grow in the IoT, but with there being no truly suitable eSIM specification for the IoT. SGP.02 was developed for automobiles in 2013, despite being referred to as the “Machine-to-Machine” (M2M) specification, and SGP.22 was developed in 2016 for consumer electronics. It has somehow taken a very long time to have an IoT specification in SGP.32, the result being that the industry has been talking about eSIM in the context of the IoT for more than 10 years with virtually nothing having happened. SGP.32 has features dedicated to the needs of IoT hardware, with support for resource-constrained devices with minimal onboard processing power, and without requiring Short Message Service (SMS) capabilities. The latter matters as cellular LPWA and Cat-bis chipsets move to discard 2G for better efficiency.

Of all the devices that have been RSP certified by the Global Certification Forum (GCF) since 2020, 92% support SGP.22 only, while 13% support SGP.02 only, and just 5% support both specifications. As of the end of 2024, the GCF had certified no SGP.32-compliant devices. The reason being that although the SGP.32 specification exists, no “Test Suite” software is available to formally certify with. This means that all hardware, software, and software platforms based on what has been currently published, or on what is expected to come to be published as development continues, are technically proprietary implementations. But such is the anticipation of the uptake in eSIM for the IoT that SGP.32 will compel, it is considered worthwhile jumping the gun to secure a first mover advantage. This is G+D’s motivation with its iSIM OS. G+D is confident that its OS and the AirOn360 platform that powers it will certify without issue.

Meanwhile Murata goal, as a minor module player, is to secure a competitive advantage, to aid in the growth of its most mature cellular module product line, and its only product line dedicated to massive IoT. Murata has an active desire to target the battery-powered IoT market with the Type 2GD. The Type 2GD’s iSIM and accompanying OS has an effectively negligible form factor, and consumes less power, so is ideal for devices relying on batteries. eSIM is, furthermore, a natural fit for SIM cards that cannot be removed and that are natively more secure, more reliable, and built in at the point of a device’s manufacture. eSIM is the most flexible way to provision the connectivity without needing to know in advance where a device will end up, allowing IoT device Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to more effectively develop single SKU products. G+D’s iSIM OS is usually downloaded during IoT device production. It will not be loaded onto every Murata Type 2GD by default, only when a customer specifies it, but will always be there as an option.

ABI Research expects the uptake of SGP.32 to be rapid upon the availability of certification, with this “IoT” standard becoming the preferred option for all connected device types, courtesy of it adopting the best of both prior standards, in addition to its new capabilities. The historically underserved resource-constrained IoT device market will be the first to adopt SGP.32. The announcement is significant to G+D as an incumbent in maintaining its market presence as a SIM power player in the face of increasing competition from agile software-centric eSIM specialists. Meanwhile, Sony Altair is one of the few very semiconductor manufacturers still dedicated to continued development of LPWA chipsets. The mobility and affordability of LTE-M and Cat-1bis mean that the future integration of SGP.32 support should ultimately become ubiquitous. Most Over-the-Air (OTA) provisioning is for the sake of initial activation only, with few devices receiving replacement or additional International Mobile Subscriber Identities (IMSIs) during their operational lifetime. This dynamic is not necessarily expected to change with SGP.32, but reprovisioning if needed will now be much easier, and far more saleable as a value-added feature.