Meaning
The total economic, operational, and technical resources expended during the transition of a device from one mobile subscription profile to another are defined as profile switch costs. High profile switch costs can act as a barrier to changing network operators when contract terms expire.
Subscription Transition
These profile switch costs include direct fees charged by platform providers, the data consumed over the air during the download, and the staff time required to coordinate the update. When managing millions of distributed sensors, the total cost of changing carrier profiles can be substantial. Understanding these costs is necessary for long term financial planning.
This analysis prevents budget overruns during fleet updates.
Network Delinquency
Transitioning between profiles can cause devices to become disconnected if the remote update fails or if the new network coverage is inadequate. This risk of disconnection represents an indirect operational cost that must be managed by the system operator. If a device fails to connect after a profile change, a technician may need to visit the field to reset the hardware.
This risk encourages companies to select carriers with stable remote update mechanisms.
Resource Depletion
Battery powered devices consume significant energy when downloading and installing new cryptographic profiles over the air. A single remote update can shorten the lifetime of a remote sensor by several months. System designers must calculate this trade off before initiating a fleet wide update.
