Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

Demand for mobile data is high

With the sunsetting of 3G, the PSTN Switch off and the rollout of 5G, demand for mobile data solutions has never been higher. Resellers and MSPs are in the perfect position to take advantage of this. They are looking for reliable suppliers who can help them grow high-margin, recurring mobile data revenues increasing the overall value of their company.

Specialist wholesalers offering support

Wholesale suppliers are helping channel partners to win deals, usually competing with the direct sales arms of the mobile networks. They are aggregators with access to all the networks and often an independent MVNO in their own right. These suppliers provide automated portals with real-time APIs offering zero-touch provisioning and management through a single self-service portal.

The most successful of these will be highly innovative, with a constant stream of relevant mobile data and IoT products that the networks would otherwise take years to develop and launch. When you partner with the right channel supplier, mobile data is easy to sell, support and bill.

Excellent win rates

The prospect for the channel is significant. ICT resellers already enjoy strong relationships with businesses and the public sector having sold them a range of IT and telecoms infrastructure. Within this customer base, opportunities for mobile data solutions exist in asset tracking, digital signage, mobile WiFi, monitoring and utilities, which Jola partners are winning.

Profitable opportunities

Mobile data is an easy product to sell and provision and needs very little support. Jola signed just over 200 new partners in 2024 and now has nearly 1500. One of our partners recently won a huge deal for thousands of RoamNet data SIMs for use in phones and tablets. Using our unique QR technology eliminated the need for physical SIM cards, making the rollout quick and easy. QR codes are also a significant step towards minimising e-waste and removing several operational headaches. SIMs roam over hundreds of mobile networks and are managed via a single platform – Mobile Manager.

Jola SIMs also operate ANPR cameras, CCTV cameras, vending machines, digital signs and tracking devices around the world.

No additional resources required

Our partners don’t have to add any more people in billing or accounts departments to support these deals. SIMs provision immediately on Mobile Manager, so you don’t have to wait to start generating recurring margins. As soon as customers put that SIM into their device, you’re billing for it.

Target existing customers

Our advice to resellers looking to get into mobile data is to speak to existing customers, understand their requirements, and partner with an aggregator who provides differentiated solutions that will help you win against the vanilla products offered by the Mobile Networks. Find out about their current projects and challenges. Once you have established your customers’ requirements, we can help you position your mobile data solution for maximum margin and customer satisfaction. 

When you come to sell all or part of your business, mobile data profits are valued at up to three times those of traditional IT and telecoms products.

Find out more

Contact Jola and ask us about our MRG programme and Rev Up incentive programme rewarding fast-growing partners winning lucrative mobile data solutions in retail, security and the public sector.

Challenges

The biggest challenge sellers in the channel face is competition. Suppliers need to know their USPs and how to educate the market on opportunities. It’s about communicating how you help your partners solve problems and win opportunities the competition can’t.

Understanding the customer

The B2B buying process has undergone significant change in recent years. Surveys have shown that when SMEs are buying ICT they 1. Research the web 2. Approach existing suppliers 3. Ask peers for recommendations. Unsolicited approaches by phone, email or IM are disliked and may hamper your chances, especially when used in isolation. Your salespeople are your most expensive resource. Profile your customers to understand their challenges and make sure they know you are the go-to partner who can help.

Winning deals

At Jola, we help partners identify customers with requirements for mobile data. We help uncover challenges and pitch unique solutions that cannot be matched.

The biggest waste of your time is the deal you don’t win, so we help partners qualify and pitch opportunities they can, using the six-step Mobile-data Revenue generator process.

The best test of a new supplier is conversion rate. A channel-only vendor with a growing partner base and financials is a good sign because it means their partners are closing large contracts. Most vendors say they have a channel programme but there is little substance behind the fluff. Ask for evidence and references. Pull their accounts!

Make sure your vendor has products that can be easily productised and billed. They should be provisioned, managed and supported through a mature, well-established, API-enabled, real-time, self-service portal. Ask for evidence that the products are reliable and easy to support. Make sure you don’t lose control of the process and the relationship with your end users. Your salespeople will be reluctant to sell anything that might damage the rapport they have with their customers and/or put core product lines at risk.

Key opportunities

PSTN-Switch-off – There are mobile data opportunities for lift lines in shopping centres, hotel chains and car parks.

3G Switch off – There are SIMs out there about to stop working, which need replacing.

M2M/IoT – If you have customers in retail they may be struggling with their connectivity for smart kiosks, digital signage and CCTV. In the NHS contracts are being won for connected smart devices in ambulances, hospitals, police stations, fire stations and even on boats for the Coast Guard. In transport and logistics mobile broadband solutions and tracking devices are a priority. Each reseller in the channel has a huge mobile data opportunity waiting to be won and Jola can help you uncover and win it.

All residential customers and businesses in the UK will need to find a replacement for their PSTN lines. Many will need to replace or upgrade their internet connectivity and consider VoIP applications.

Millions of PSTN lines won’t be able to use a SoGEA or FTTP type replacement, due to costs, incompatibility, or logistical challenges. Mobile data will be a requirement for many customers replacing PSTN.

There are a significant number of phone boxes in hospitals, supermarkets, and hotels. These allow you to book a taxi or receive information for free. All these call points need to be upgraded, as they will no longer work after the PSTN Switch-off.

How are Jola partners getting prepared?

Jola’s PSTN replacement packages are the perfect solution for MSPs, ISPs and resellers looking for a slick wholesale solution, managed end-to-end via a real-time fully API-integrated portal. Millions of telephone lines will take time to migrate and we are already seeing projects kicking off as companies wake up to the challenges and choices ahead. This is a great opportunity for partners.

Partners are helping end-users to understand when their phone lines will be switched off and proactively suggesting alternative solutions such as a range of fixed-line or mobile broadband connectivity options with a VoIP solution designed to meet their needs.

Where it is not practical to replace PSTN lines with fixed-line connectivity, Jola has helped partners to productise mobile data solutions. We offer a range of cellular routers with an integrated Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA), SIP Overlay service and calls over IP with a MultiNet SIM and pooled data across multiple sites. We’ve recently launched a cellular PSTN replacement router with ATA and integrated battery backup to comply with the Ofcom guidance with a single-box solution.

Where hardware and VoIP aren’t an option, Jola now has RoamNet Voice, a mobile solution designed to allow roaming on multiple networks, along with a UK mobile number. This is an excellent solution for lift-lines, alarm systems and other devices which require reliable mobile connectivity in a variety of locations.

All our solutions are easy to provision, support and bill. Our award-winning portals give partners complete control over their solutions from ordering to provisioning and management.

There have been some high-profile cybersecurity attacks on IoT and M2M devices. The Bristol Airport's flight information system was hacked and held for ransom and the digital signage in Union Street station was hacked, with the train information screens being used to display pornography at rush hour. These attacks were visible and disruptive, but there are also hidden attacks where IoT devices are hacked to become part of botnets that are then used to power DDOS attacks against whomever the hackers are trying to target. In this scenario, the device owner may not know until their monthly bill arrives and their connectivity consumption has increased dramatically.

Jola provides SIMs that are used in a wide variety of IoT and M2M scenarios. We are acutely aware of the need to protect our resellers and their customers from the consequences of falling victim to a cybersecurity attack. At the foundation of what we do is our Mobile Manager portal which, with its real-time alerts and control, provides visibility of SIM usage before the monthly bill arrives. Our approach goes beyond managing costs. If the application does not need access to the Internet, then why would you expose it online?

Jola offers SIMs that provide secure private access back to a corporate network with no access to the Internet at all. This almost eliminates the ‘attack surface’ completely. Jola has also been involved in some high-profile digital signage deployments where our approach to security has gone beyond just securing connectivity. We have provided secure devices with hardened device operating systems and configurations to deliver a truly secure solution.

Jola is also the first mobile service provider to route all our public fixed IP SIM traffic through Cloudflare to provide best-in-class, always-on, real-time threat protection.  As a result of this, our partners and their end-users are protected from reputational damage, financial impact and data loss that could otherwise result from the 1000s of cyberattack attempts that we block every single month.

Our goal is to enable our channel partners to embrace opportunities and benefit from our experience to deliver unique and differentiated solutions to their customers that are secure from threats that are undeniably out there.

Jola has been doing white-label since 2005 and in our experience, resellers and MSPs want:

• Control. Their customers must see them as the supplier, not an intermediary. They need real-time, automated online tools to provision, manage, bill and support any white-label products.
• Choice. A wide range of options to meet the differing needs of their customers.
• Competitiveness. They need help in identifying opportunities and they must win the deal against the Networks at a reasonable margin.
• Differentiation. They need products and alternatives their customers cannot buy elsewhere.

Jola’s partners access all our white-label mobile data solutions through Mobile Manager. Here they can price and provision solutions themselves in real time. Partners can custom-build their own APN networks. Through Mobile Manager we offer thousands of networks worldwide and unique and differentiated solutions to suit every type of mobile data requirement. 

We are the only supplier to provide a tried-and-tested programme to identify, qualify and win mobile data opportunities within existing customer bases (Mobile-data Revenue Generator). We work with partners to identify opportunities we know we can win, generating profitable recurring revenue streams.

Harry Singh, a Partner Director at Jola, cycled over 350 miles from Edinburgh back home to Birmingham, over the weekend. With other members of his cycling club, Harry helped raise over £2500 for the Sikh Helpline – a local charity that provides a Samaritans-type service in the West Midlands.

Harry Commented “I am pleased to say that we all managed to cover the distance (367 miles in total) and raise over £2.5k for the charity, and the event itself raised substantially more.  In doing so, I also burnt through 30,920 calories, so if you see me stuffing my face during any Teams calls over the next few days that’ll be why!”

The channel has an essential role in educating businesses to adopt new technologies. It is our responsibility to highlight products being switched off, such as 3G and PSTN, to help companies prepare, with improved, more cost-effective solutions.

Vehicle trackers, payment terminals and industrial handheld devices will stop working as 3G is switched off unless companies are presented with a future-proof solution.

5G is becoming more widely available and 5G hardware is reducing in price, making 5G a viable alternative to fixed line connectivity in some areas, offering customers a faster, more reliable solution.

Improving online security is becoming more of a priority with Denial-of-Service attacks on the increase. Jola has been running Fixed IP traffic over Cloudflare for many years protecting connected CCTV cameras and smart devices from attack.

Trusted advisors

End-user businesses don’t ask for information about a product, they ask for help solving a problem. The supplier who understands the challenges and proposes a simple, cost-effective solution, becomes the go-to advisor for similar challenges in the future.

Jola took home two awards at the Comms National Awards last Thursday night at the Park Plaza Hotel in London. We won Best Partner Programme over £10m turnover and Best Partner Portal for Mobile Manager. We also won Highly Commended for Diversity Equality & Inclusion.

The judges shortlisted over 200 entries, a record number, from 101 suppliers and resellers including other well-known channel businesses such as BT Wholesale, Talk Talk Wholesale, Giacom and Gamma.

Adrian Sunderland, Jola's CEO, commented, “We are thrilled to win these awards and proud to sponsor the Mobile IoT Reseller categories. This is an incredible achievement, and I want to extend my thanks to our suppliers, partners, and amazing team for their continued support and dedication. It was a fantastic evening.”

The Park Plaza was packed with Jola partners and prospects on 25^th September 2024. Over eighty channel partners and prospects gathered to hear about Jola’s innovations and how these are creating high-recurring margin opportunities for resellers and MSPs. With legacy mobile and PSTN networks being decommissioned, there is no better time for the channel to sell mobile data.

Adrian Sunderland, Jola’s CEO welcomed partners and explained how Jola has built on carrier technology to create a secure network and unique solutions, that are easily packaged, sold and managed on Jola’s award-winning white-label portals. Jola’s CSO, Lee Broxson highlighted increasing customer demand across key verticals for innovative mobile data solutions, from digital signage to tracking devices. Ben Merrills, Jola’s CTO spoke about how products are designed, developed and tailored to meet the exact needs of end users whilst delivering high recurring margins for resellers. He teased products launching soon such as managed Teltonika routers, 5G eSIMs delivered via QR codes and satellite connectivity solutions. Magnus Wright, Jola’s Head of Sales explained key case studies in each vertical market and how Jola helps partners find and win these deals to help grow their businesses. Guests were invited to enjoy a networking lunch with the Jola sales team to start the discovery process and uncover deals partners are most likely to win.

Adrian Sunderland, Jola CEO, commented, “This was our largest partner event to date, reflecting the current surge of interest from the channel on mobile data. Established Jola partners have increased the value of their businesses and added millions in recurring margins over the last few years. The market is still growing and every MSP and reseller should have a mobile data proposition. We had great feedback on all of our speakers.”

The IoT market used to be the preserve of a small number of IoT specialists and the IoT departments inside the Mobile Network Operators. IoT applications were limited to some mega-scale consumer-focused services and B2B remote sensing services focused on specific vertical markets, such as utilities.

Almost every business can benefit from IoT with thousands of different applications being available off the shelf.  The public cloud providers such as AWS and Azure complement these with mature and secure IoT development environments allowing organisations to develop their bespoke solutions.

What IoT solutions are in demand?

Some of the most popular IoT solutions that we find our resellers are involved in are vehicle telemetry and tracking, connected security and fire systems, machine monitoring, asset tracking, smart healthcare and smart city applications.

What opportunities are available to the Channel around the IoT?

There is no reason why the channel can’t be involved in any type of IoT opportunity by partnering with the right suppliers.  Jola provides IoT connectivity, IoT hardware and IoT solutions through our 1400 channel partners.  Where we don’t have all the elements required for an end-to-end solution we can help direct a reseller to the vendor partner that can provide the missing pieces of the puzzle.

With IoT connectivity, the most common requirement is for multi-network un-steered SIMs to provide resilience and the best coverage. Typically, mobile operators cannot provide these themselves. The channel has the opportunity to provide the right SIM for its customers without being tied to any single mobile operator’s network footprint or product portfolio.