Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

Managing Business SIM Cards at Scale

Posted by Adrian Sunderland on 13 Oct 2026, 16:25:00

Managing a handful of business SIM cards is straightforward. A spreadsheet, a folder of contracts and a good memory will usually do the job. Scale changes that. Once an MSP or reseller is responsible for hundreds or thousands of SIMs across dozens of customers, the manual approach breaks down. Usage goes unmonitored, ownership becomes unclear, and billing queries take hours to resolve instead of minutes.

A SIM management portal turns mobile connectivity into a controlled, auditable service. For MSPs, the right platform is more than an operational safeguard. It is the foundation of a profitable, scalable managed service.

Why SIM management matters to MSPs

Mobile connectivity now sits alongside IT support, cloud, voice, security and fixed connectivity as another service customers expect to be managed properly. Yet mobile is often the part of the estate that gets the least attention, bought as a commodity rather than run as a service.

That gap is an opportunity. Every customer with SIMs in laptops, routers, tablets, vehicles or IoT devices has an estate that needs organising, monitoring and supporting. Left unmanaged, it becomes a source of risk: unexplained costs, unclear responsibility when something goes wrong, and support tickets that drag on because nobody can see what is happening on the account.

Managed properly, it becomes differentiation and recurring revenue. An MSP that can show a customer which SIMs are active, what they are used for and how much data they consume is offering something the customer cannot easily get from a network operator. The value is no longer just the SIM, but the visibility, control and service wrapped around it.

Customers are starting to expect this. Businesses that already receive structured reporting and proactive support for IT and cloud services are asking why their mobile estate isn’t held to the same standard. MSPs that answer with a clear, centralised view of every SIM are better placed to win and keep that business than those relying on network operator portals and ad hoc spreadsheets.

What to look for in a SIM management portal

Not every portal is built for the channel. The ones that make scale practical share a few traits:

  • Real-time control. Activating SIMs, adding bolt-ons and sharing data across accounts happen instantly, without raising a request and waiting.
  • Automation. Ordering, provisioning and reporting run without manual handling, so the estate can grow without support overhead growing with it.
  • White label. The portal carries the MSP’s brand, so the service is the MSP’s own in the customer’s eyes.
  • Self-serve for end customers. Customers can see and manage their own SIMs, which cuts support calls and builds trust.
  • Multi-network coverage in one place. One portal for every network, rather than a separate login for each carrier.
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Topics: mobile data

Jola wins three major awards at the Channel National Awards

Posted by Cherie Howlett on 13 Oct 2026, 16:00:38

Jola won three awards at the Channel National Awards: Best IoT Provider, Best Partner Programme (Above £10m) and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion award. 

Hosted annually in London by Comms Dealer Magazine, the Channel National Awards are a long-standing fixture in the channel calendar. Suppliers and resellers enter categories for MSPs and resellers, vendors, business and special awards.

“We are delighted, and it means a lot to everyone at Jola,” said Cherie Howlett, CMO at Jola. “Thank you to our partners, our suppliers and our wonderful team, to the judges for the recognition, and to Comms Dealer for an epic evening enjoyed by all.”

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Topics: mobile data

Jola launches new unlimited voice and data SIMs on EE

Posted by Cherie Howlett on 8 Oct 2026, 14:29:02

EE has been independently ranked the UK's best overall network by RootMetrics for 12 consecutive years, yet a genuine wholesale route to EE has not traditionally been available through the channel. Partners have had access to unlimited SIMs across three major networks, O2, Three and Vodafone, but without EE in the mix, some customers have been left without the exact combination of coverage and price they need.

Jola is closing that gap with the launch of EE Voice & Data Unlimited, a true wholesale EE proposition that means partners can now offer unlimited 4G/5G connectivity across all four carrier networks. EE Voice and Data SIMs are now available in the multi-award-winning Mobile Manager portal. EE Voice & Data Unlimited includes unlimited UK standard minutes, unlimited UK SMS and unlimited data, with flexible 1 month, 12 month and 24 month terms. 5G is enabled by default, subject to device compatibility and coverage, and SIMs are supplied as physical triple cut SIMs or QR eSIMs for use in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Adrian Sunderland, CEO Jola, said: "EE is the network our partners ask for most, and it's consistently ranked the strongest in the UK for coverage and reliability. Now it's in Mobile Manager alongside O2, Three and Vodafone, partners can put the right network in front of every customer, whatever they need."

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Topics: mobile data

Grow fast with mobile data

Posted by Adrian Sunderland on 23 Sept 2026, 14:25:13

The mobile data market continues to thrive, expanding beyond phones and tablets into smart street lighting, digital signage and payment solutions. First movers are already selling complex solutions to local authorities, supermarket chains and transport companies, but the rest of the channel is uniquely placed to capture the remaining business from existing and new customers in their areas.

2G, 3G and PSTN switch-offs, wider 4G and 5G coverage, and the drive to cut costs are fuelling demand for smart technologies that reduce costs and increase efficiency across the whole market.

It's easy with the right supplier

Getting into mobile data is as easy as asking your customers the right questions and partnering with a supplier who can help uncover opportunities and build unique solutions, tailored with your local expertise, that they cannot buy anywhere else. It's a winning combination: more revenue from existing customers, plus growth and leads from other local companies facing challenges only you can solve.

Get M2M and IoT right, and you'll quickly generate high margin recurring revenue and, thanks to higher EBITDA multiples, increase your company's value.

Many channel partners are put off by IoT. They don't see it as complementary, believe they need in-house specialist knowledge, and don't see the value in investing. Yet with the right supplier, it's easy.

Tools you need

Working with a specialist supplier gives you access to a whole team: CEOs to discuss the value of mobile data, Partner Managers to engage your sales teams through incentives and lead generation, a technical bid team to attend customer meetings and shape solutions on the spot, and provisioning, billing and support teams for smooth rollouts and expert aftercare.

Innovation you need

In a commoditised market, you need a wide range of products to build propositions that uniquely solve the problem, at a price that works for the customer and a margin that works for you. Aggregators are useful here: as channel specialists with access to a wide range of mobile suppliers, they make it easy to order and manage everything through a single, real time portal.

Single network, multi-network, private, secure, pre-configured with hardware: whatever your customer needs.

Build your pipeline

Channel-focused suppliers like Jola have case studies and packages ready for scenarios across retail, transport and logistics, security, the public sector and broadcasting. They can help identify prospects with problems only you can solve, then work with you to win them.

The opportunity is significant. ICT resellers already have strong relationships with business customers across IT infrastructure, asset tracking, digital signage, mobile Wi-Fi and utilities. Demand is growing rapidly for smart kiosks, CCTV and bodycams, payment solutions for public transport, ANPR cameras in car parks and lone worker tracking on construction sites.

Mobile data is easy to sell and provision, and requires little support. Jola took on more than 135 new partners in 2025 and now has more than 1,600. We give partners solutions they cannot buy from any other supplier, including global roaming SIMs that cover four networks in the UK and hundreds globally, enabling thousands of SIMs to be activated from a single QR code, and secure, pre-configured plug and play solutions for digital signage, so users can buy devices off the shelf and connect instantly.

Scale

Our partners don't need to add people to billing or accounts to support these deals. SIMs are provisioned immediately on our Mobile Manager platform, so there's no wait to start generating recurring margin. You're billing as soon as the customer puts that SIM into their device.

Getting started

Speak to your existing customers to understand their requirements and challenges, and partner with an aggregator that can provide innovative solutions unavailable elsewhere. Once you've established what they need, start building your solution. Jola has developed the Mobile Data Revenue Generator™, a six-step process designed to do exactly that.

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Topics: mobile data

Business Networks

Posted by Adrian Sunderland on 17 Sept 2026, 18:35:42

Ask any IT decision maker what they learned from the last two years of carrier outages and the answer is the same: a network with a single point of failure is not a business network. Resilience now comes before anything else, and simplicity comes second. Customers want connectivity that stays up when one operator goes down, without running two contracts and two support desks to get it. They also want a network that reaches everywhere the business actually operates, not just the head office. The home worker, the van and the remote asset all need connecting now, which is why mobile data has moved from backup plan to core infrastructure.

Lead times and coverage

The two biggest obstacles to building that network are lead times and coverage. Fibre can still take weeks or months to install, and some sites will never get it at all, which means partners lose deals simply because they cannot say yes on day one. The other obstacle is supply chain complexity: one carrier for fixed lines, another for mobile, a third for satellite, and a hardware vendor for routers on top, each with its own portal and its own bill. The fix is to source cellular, eSIM, fixed IP and satellite from a single place, and to deploy pre-configured 4G and 5G routers that are live the moment they arrive, with fibre following later only if the site needs it.

The home worker is a branch office

Hybrid working has quietly turned the home into a branch office, and it needs to be treated as one. Consumer broadband with no SLA is not good enough for someone taking customer calls all day. Partners are now deploying multi-network 4G and 5G routers to home workers as primary or failover connectivity, paired with fixed IP and a private APN so the home worker sits inside the corporate network rather than out on the public internet. eSIM makes this easier again, since a device can be provisioned remotely without a SIM ever needing to be posted out.

AI is only as good as the network underneath it

In practical terms, AI is being applied to data the network is already producing. A SIM suddenly using ten times its normal data at 3am, or a router that keeps dropping and reconnecting, is a security or maintenance problem waiting to be found. Mobile Manager already lets partners set alerts and cap usage automatically, and the next step is predictive: platforms that flag anomalies, suggest the right tariff and spot a failing router before the customer notices. None of that works, though, if the network underneath it is not secure to begin with. A private APN that keeps devices off the public internet removes most of the attack surface before AI ever gets involved.

Mobile first, fibre optional

Within a few years, most business sites will be connected by cellular first, with fibre offered as an option rather than assumed as a prerequisite. 5G standalone will bring network slicing, letting partners sell guaranteed performance for specific applications rather than best-efforts data. LEO satellite will close the last of the coverage gaps, and Amazon Leo will give the market a credible alternative to Starlink. The partners who win from all of this will be the ones who deliver it under one contract, from one portal, and can explain it to their customers in plain English.

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Topics: mobile data

Jola wins the Partner Accelerator Award 2026

Posted by Cherie Howlett on 9 Sept 2026, 20:23:38

Jola took home the Partner Accelerator Award at the Comms Business Awards last Thursday night recognising the impact of its MRG programme on partner growth. The award celebrates a programme, scheme or process that has helped a partner accelerate towards a goal over the past year and judges singled out the MRG™ for turning partner growth into something repeatable.

The Comms Business Awards are one of the most competitive events in the channel calendar, with judges assessing entries from wholesalers, distributors and vendors across the industry. The MRG™ is a structured six-step programme that guides partners from identifying the right opportunities in their existing customer base, through to building a proposition, winning and provisioning deals. Partners get unlimited access to Jola's sales and marketing experts and technical bid team, who work alongside partner sales teams and attend customer meetings directly, meaning partners don't need specialist mobile knowledge in-house to get started. The results speak for themselves: across Jola's 1,600-plus channel partners, 89% of new partners secure a major opportunity within 90 days of joining and once a partner lands that first win, the same approach applies to the next customer.

Cherie Howlett, Jola CMO, commented: "Every partner has customers with unidentified mobile data opportunities and MRG™ gives them a formula for finding it, winning it, and doing it again. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners, suppliers and wonderful team for their continued support and to say it was a great night, enjoyed by all."

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Topics: mobile data

Mobile Data: The Channel's Quiet Growth Engine

Posted by Cherie Howlett on 2 Sept 2026, 17:26:13

For years, the channel's growth story was written in fixed lines, hosted voice and cloud migration. Mobile was the bit resellers left to the network stores on the high street. That's changed, and quietly, mobile data has become one of the most reliable growth lines in a reseller's portfolio.

It's not hard to see why. Every managed service provider and telecoms reseller already has the two things mobile data needs to succeed: a trusted relationship with a business customer, and a recurring billing relationship they understand. Adding mobile data doesn't mean building new infrastructure or learning a new sales motion. It means extending a conversation the channel is already having about connectivity, resilience and cost control, and turning it into a new, sticky revenue line.

Where the growth is coming from

The clearest evidence of this shift is in the vertical markets partners are winning. Mobile data is no longer just a SIM in a laptop dongle; it's the connectivity layer behind CCTV, EPOS systems, digital signage, vending, and remote monitoring equipment across sectors that never used to touch a reseller's price list.

In retail, partners are supplying 4G and 5G data as backup connectivity for card payment terminals and as primary connectivity for pop-up and temporary stores, where running a fixed line simply isn't practical. In logistics and transport, mobile data underpins tracking, telematics and in-cab devices, giving resellers a foothold in fleets that would once have gone straight to a network operator. Construction and facilities management have thrown up another obvious use case: temporary sites need connectivity fast, often for a matter of weeks, and mobile data can be provisioned in a way fixed infrastructure never can. Healthcare and care settings are increasingly using mobile-connected devices for remote monitoring and alarms, where reliability and rapid deployment matter more than raw speed.

What links these examples is that none of them were "mobile deals" in the traditional sense. They were connectivity problems that a mobile data proposition happened to solve better than the alternative. That's the opportunity for the channel: not selling mobile as its own category, but recognising it as the answer to problems partners are already being asked to fix.

Why this is a genuinely different proposition

Mobile data also gives the channel something it doesn't often get: a product with a low cost of entry, a fast time to revenue, and margin that isn't purely dependent on chasing the next contract renewal. A SIM estate is easy to grow account by account, device by device, without the capital outlay or lead times associated with fixed connectivity or hardware refreshes. For partners used to competing on price for broadband and calls, that's a meaningfully different commercial shape.

It also plays to a strength the channel already has over network operators selling direct: proximity to the customer's actual problem. A reseller who understands a client's operational pain points, whether that's till downtime, vehicle visibility, or site connectivity, can position mobile data as part of a solution rather than a standalone commodity. That's much harder for a network brand to replicate at scale, and it's why so much of the growth in this space is happening through the channel rather than around it.

Suppliers are backing the shift

None of this would be happening at pace without genuine investment from suppliers in making mobile data easy for partners to sell and manage. Multi-network SIMs, data pooling across estates, self-serve management portals and eSIM provisioning have all matured quickly, removing much of the operational friction that used to make mobile a hassle to support at scale.

Partner programmes have matured alongside the technology. Jola's Mobile-data Revenue Generator, for instance, is one example of the sort of structured support now available: a programme built specifically to help partners grow recurring mobile data revenue as their subscriber base scales, rather than treating mobile as a one-off sale. It's a useful illustration of a broader trend across the supply side, where the incentive is shifting from single transactions towards rewarding partners for sustained growth.

That kind of backing matters, because it changes the calculation for resellers weighing up whether mobile data is worth the investment of time and training. When suppliers are actively reducing the operational burden and sharing the upside of growth, the barrier to entry drops further still.

The opportunity is still wide open

What's notable about the current moment is how much headroom remains. Plenty of resellers still treat mobile data as an add-on rather than a strategic line, and plenty of vertical markets have barely been touched by channel-led mobile propositions. The partners moving early, building genuine expertise in specific verticals and using the support suppliers now offer, are the ones building a second growth engine alongside their traditional business.

Mobile data won't replace the connectivity and managed services the channel has built its business on. But for partners willing to see it as more than a commodity SIM, it's fast becoming one of the clearest paths to new revenue, new customers and a genuinely differentiated position in an increasingly crowded market.

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Topics: mobile data

Mobile Data Opportunities

Posted by Cherie Howlett on 19 Aug 2026, 10:33:22

What partners should be capitalising on now

Selling mobile data has become one of the most profitable revenue streams for the channel in recent years, and the opportunity is still growing. If you are only thinking about SIM cards for phones and routers, you are seeing a fraction of the picture.

Where the opportunity actually sits

End users are still buying SIMs for phones, and for routers used as primary connectivity or as back-up. But the bigger, less obvious opportunity is in the estate of devices quietly running on ageing 2G and 3G connections: smart meters, alarm panels, intruder and fire monitoring, vehicle trackers and fleet telematics, lift lines, vending machines, parking meters, ATMs, agricultural sensors, environmental sensors and asset tracking equipment.

2G/3G sunsetting and the PSTN switch off are compelling events. Customers do not have a choice about whether to upgrade the legacy SIMs sitting in these solutions, only when, and partners who get in front of that decision win the contract.

Through our MRG™ programme, we help partners find and win mobile data opportunities in retail, transport and logistics, healthcare, agriculture, security, construction and the public sector, turning a known, unavoidable upgrade cycle into a pipeline of winnable deals.

The barriers you will need to plan for

End users delay swapping out SIMs, particularly where the devices sit in hard-to-reach places or where sending an engineer to site is costly relative to the value of the contract. In some locations mobile signal is poor enough that a fixed line or satellite connection is still the preferred option. Any partner strategy needs to price and plan around these two realities rather than assume every customer will move quickly.

Building a strategy around selling mobile

The most successful partners are not selling generic connectivity. They build solutions designed specifically around the needs of their end users, then package and price those solutions to solve a real customer headache rather than sell a SIM. A few models are doing the heavy lifting for partners right now:

  • Device-as-a-Service, offering low monthly pricing with the option to refresh hardware and SIMs as required, rather than asking the customer to find capital budget up front.
  • MultiNetwork eSIMs, which can reduce operational costs significantly and provide failover should one network fail.
  • Pre-configured, plug-and-play solutions that cut engineering effort at the customer's site.
  • Pooled data options, which take cost out where usage is unpredictable or needs to be shared across an estate.

Choosing a vendor to build this on

There are very few channel-only mobile data specialists in the market. When you are choosing one to build a mobile proposition on, look for a broad range of solutions, the best possible pricing, and the support to help you actually grow this revenue stream, not just a price list.

How mobile technology will evolve over the next 12 months

We have spent years being told what 5G will eventually do. Over the next twelve months, it actually starts doing it.

5G Standalone rollouts mean network slicing and guaranteed quality of service finally become things businesses can buy, not just hear about. 5G-Advanced is following on, so it can fill the gap between low-power IoT and full 5G, useful for trackers, wearables, CCTV and mid-tier industrial sensors.

With the UK 3G sunset essentially complete, attention is turning to 2G. Smart metering, alarms and telematics estates are beginning the real migration planning, which is driving a sharp rise in LTE-M and NB-IoT activations.

eSIM and iSIM are breaking out of consumer handsets. The new standard finally makes large-scale IoT deployments genuinely manageable, and satellite-to-device is moving from novelty to a standard feature on flagship phones.

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Topics: mobile data

Why sell mobile data with Jola

Posted by Cherie Howlett on 13 Aug 2026, 16:14:08

Mobile data has quietly become one of the strongest growth engines available to Managed Service Providers across the UK. For years, fixed connectivity formed the spine of the channel, but as cloud applications, distributed workforces and connected devices proliferate, customers increasingly expect their MSP to deliver flexible, always on mobile data alongside traditional services.

The shift is being driven by a clear commercial reality. According to recent industry analysis, the UK mobile data services market for businesses is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 12 percent through 2028, with SME demand outpacing enterprise in several verticals. For MSPs willing to lean in, that is recurring revenue with attractive margins and very low churn.

What does this look like in practice? Among our partners at Jola, we see three patterns repeating themselves.

The first is mobile data added to existing connectivity contracts. Almost every MSP customer using a fixed line will, at some point, need 4G or 5G failover, a mobile broadband router for a temporary site or a single SIM to keep a remote worker productive. These are easy conversations that lead to ongoing monthly revenue.

The second pattern is solving specific operational problems with mobile data. In retail, that means payment terminals, in store WiFi, click and collect lockers and digital signage. In transport and logistics, it covers vehicle telematics, tachograph downloads, driver tablets and chilled trailer monitoring. In the security sector, CCTV cameras, alarm transmission and lone worker devices all rely on resilient mobile connectivity. Public sector demand is particularly strong around connected vehicles, social housing, environmental monitoring and mobile working in health and social care.

The third pattern, and increasingly the most lucrative, is bulk M2M and IoT deployments. Customers do not always recognise these as mobile data projects, because they arrive labelled as digital transformation, ESG monitoring or asset tracking. The MSPs winning here are the ones who position themselves as the connectivity partner that makes the use case possible, rather than as a reseller of SIM cards.

Research we have conducted with the channel reinforces this picture. Among UK SMEs in retail, transport and logistics, security and public sector, more than 70 percent report rising requirements for mobile data over the next two years. Multi network resilience, predictable billing and easy management consistently rank as the most important features they want from a supplier.

The MSPs growing fastest are those who have built mobile data into the heart of their proposition. They are not selling SIMs in isolation. They are bundling mobile data with hardware, monitoring, security and professional services to create stickier, higher value contracts.

There is a cultural element to this too. The traditional carrier model, with long contracts, rigid bundles and opaque billing, simply does not work for modern SMEs. Customers want flexibility, transparency and the ability to scale up and down. MSPs partnering with specialist mobile aggregators are able to offer exactly that, often without minimum spend commitments or restrictive tariffs, and that flexibility is becoming a competitive differentiator.

Margin discipline matters as well. Some of our most successful partners have moved away from chasing wafer thin volume deals and instead focus on opportunities where mobile data is mission critical. A pound of recurring revenue from a connected payment terminal or a CCTV link is worth significantly more than a pound from a casual broadband contract, because the customer cannot operate without it.

Looking ahead, two technology shifts are accelerating MSP growth in this space. eSIM is making it easier to deploy, swap and manage devices at scale, removing the logistical friction that used to slow projects down. Private and shared multi network platforms are giving MSPs the resilience and reach those customers used to associate only with the tier one carriers, but with the flexibility of an aggregator behind them.

The opportunity for MSPs is not really about catching up with mobile. It is about realising that mobile data is now a foundational layer of every connected business. Customers who once asked their MSP about lines and broadband are now asking about routers, SIMs, eSIM, IoT platforms and managed mobile services. The providers answering those questions confidently are the ones building the strongest pipelines and the most resilient recurring revenue. The rest of the market will follow.

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Topics: mobile data

Eliminating Roaming Complexity

Posted by Cherie Howlett on 30 Jul 2026, 09:21:26

How Jola Enables Seamless Global IoT Connectivity

The problem with roaming SIMs for IoT

IoT deployments no longer sit neatly inside one country or one network. Asset trackers cross borders on the back of a lorry, remote sensors report in from sites with patchy coverage, and CCTV or monitoring devices are expected to stay online. Yet many of these deployments still run on traditional roaming SIMs, built for occasional traveller use rather than large-scale, always-on connected devices.

That mismatch causes real problems as IoT estates grow. Coverage can be inconsistent from one location to the next, visibility into how devices are actually behaving on the network is often limited, and the risk of downtime increases for applications where connectivity loss isn't just an inconvenience, it's an operational or safety issue. Asset tracking, smart monitoring, CCTV and remote sensor networks all depend on a connection that simply works, wherever the device happens to be. As the number of connected devices increases, managing these risks by hand becomes harder, and the impact of getting it wrong becomes more serious.

A connectivity model built for IoT, not travel

Jola addresses this through its RoamNet portfolio, including RoamNet 901, an IoT connectivity solution designed specifically for multi-network resilience at scale. Rather than locking a device to a single network, RoamNet 901 provides un-steered access, meaning the SIM isn't tied to one preferred network and instead connects to whichever signal is strongest at that moment, across all four UK mobile networks and 65 networks across 29 European countries.

For IoT use cases specifically, RoamNet 901 supports SIM, eSIM and remote provisioning, so partners can choose the format that fits each deployment rather than being constrained to one. It also includes the advanced controls that IoT and M2M deployments often need: Private APN for isolated, secure routing, Fixed IP for devices that need a consistent, reachable address, and IMEI locking to help protect against SIM misuse in unattended hardware.

Visibility across the whole estate

Connectivity that switches automatically between networks only solves half the problem. The other half is knowing what's actually happening across an estate of potentially thousands of devices. That's where Mobile Manager comes in. Combined with RoamNet 901, Mobile Manager gives partners real-time visibility and control over their SIM estates, so they can monitor usage, spot and troubleshoot issues, and manage deployments efficiently as they scale, rather than relying on manual checks or waiting for a customer to report a problem.

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