Global IoT is scaling fast. GSMA Intelligence forecasts 38.7 billion IoT connections by 2030, with enterprise making up 63% of the total. That growth makes connectivity strategy a business risk, not a technical footnote.

Yet many organizations deploying IoT solutions across borders face a fundamental challenge:

How do you keep devices connected when they operate outside their home network?

IoT roaming is one of the most common ways to “go global” quickly, but it comes with trade-offs in cost, latency, compliance, and control. This guide breaks down how IoT roaming works, where it fits, where it falls short, and what to do instead.

What is IoT Roaming?

IoT roaming allows Internet of Things (IoT) devices to maintain cellular connectivity while moving outside their home network’s coverage area, enabling them to connect to foreign partner networks. Using specialized SIMs (eSIM or multi-IMSI), it ensures continuous data transmission for global or mobile assets without manual intervention, supporting applications like logistics, smart cities, and fleet management.

How Does IoT Roaming Work?

The process of IoT roaming is similar to how mobile phones roam across different cellular networks when you travel internationally. However, with IoT, the roaming experience is designed to support specific machine-to-machine (M2M) communication needs, which often involve low bandwidth, low power consumption, and long-range connectivity.

Here’s how it works:

1. Device Activation: An IoT device is manufactured with a SIM card from a home network operator (the “home MNO”).
2. Network Search: When deployed in a different country, the device searches for available networks.
3. Authentication: The visited network (the “visited MNO”) contacts the home network to authenticate the device using its International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI).
4. Connection Established: Once authenticated, the device connects to the visited network through existing roaming agreements.
5. Data Routing: Data traffic is typically routed back to the home network’s core infrastructure (known as “home routing”) before reaching the internet or application servers.
6. Billing and cost management: Like mobile phone roaming, IoT roaming can incur additional charges depending on data usage and the network provider. A Connectivity Management Platform (CMP) allows organizations to monitor data consumption and track roaming charges, helping ensure transparency and avoid overcharges.

Home-Routed vs. Local Breakout

In traditional home-routed roaming, all data must travel from the visited network back to the home network’s packet gateway before accessing the internet. This creates several challenges for IoT applications:

• Increased latency, often adding 150–300 ms of delay
• Higher data costs due to international data transit
• Network inefficiency and additional potential points of failure

Some advanced IoT connectivity providers offer local breakout solutions. These allow data to access the internet directly from the visited country, reducing latency and improving overall performance.

What Are the Benefits of IoT Roaming?

Despite its challenges, IoT roaming offers several legitimate advantages for certain use cases. It remains popular because it reduces friction at launch.

1. Simplified Global Deployment

Roaming enables a single Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) strategy. Devices can be manufactured with one type of SIM card and deployed globally, which significantly reduces:

• Manufacturing complexity, with no need for region-specific SIM variants
• Inventory management overhead
• Supply chain and logistics costs

2. Faster Time to Market

For products launching quickly across multiple markets, roaming provides immediate connectivity without the need to negotiate contracts with dozens of local carriers. This accelerated go-to-market can be critical in competitive industries and for pilot or early-stage deployments.

3. Ideal for Mobile Assets

For IoT devices that genuinely move across borders, such as shipping containers, fleet vehicles, or portable equipment, roaming enables seamless connectivity without manual intervention or profile switching.

4. Centralized Management and Coverage

Managing connectivity through a single provider with roaming agreements simplifies billing, support, and platform integration. It also delivers fast global coverage without onboarding a local operator in every country.

When multi-network or multi-IMSI approaches are used, roaming can also provide redundancy, improving uptime and reliability.

What Are the Challenges of IoT Roaming?

IoT roaming works until it doesn’t. The biggest problems emerge at scale. While roaming appears simple on the surface, it masks serious underlying challenges that have disrupted many large IoT deployments.

1. Permanent Roaming Restrictions: The Critical Issue

The most significant challenge is permanent roaming. Unlike travelers who roam temporarily, most IoT devices are deployed long-term in a single location. Regulators and network operators have implemented policies worldwide to restrict or prohibit this practice.

Countries with strict permanent roaming policies include:

• Complete bans: Brazil, China, Turkey, Nigeria
• Regulatory restrictions: Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, UAE
• Operator-level limits: Australia, Canada, United States

Most networks allow devices to roam for only 30 to 120 days before requiring them to return to their home network. After this period:

• Devices may be disconnected entirely
• Premium roaming charges may be applied
• Service degradation or throttling may occur

2. High and Unpredictable Costs

Roaming data is often significantly more expensive than local connectivity:

• Premium wholesale rates: Roaming agreements typically carry higher per-megabyte costs
• Unexpected overage fees: Exceeding data thresholds can trigger rapid cost escalation
• Multi-layer billing complexity: The visited operator bills the home operator, which then bills the enterprise, compounding costs along the chain

At scale, this makes budgeting and cost control difficult.

3. Network Performance and Latency Issues

Home-routed traffic introduces technical inefficiencies:

• Increased round-trip latency: Data travels from the device to the visited network, back to the home network, then to the internet or application server, often adding 150 to 300 milliseconds or more
• Network congestion: International backhaul links can become bottlenecks
• Reliability risks: Additional network hops increase the number of potential failure points

For latency-sensitive applications such as real-time monitoring, autonomous systems, or industrial automation, these delays can be unacceptable.

4. Compliance and Data Sovereignty Risks

As of 2025, most countries have enacted data privacy laws, many of which include data localization or regulatory access requirements:

• Data residency mandates: Data generated within a country may be required to remain there
• Lawful intercept obligations: Regulators may require local access to communications data
• Tax and regulatory exposure: Roaming devices may bypass local frameworks, creating compliance risks

International data backhaul can place organizations at odds with these regulations.

5. Limited Network Control and Optimization

In roaming scenarios, devices typically have limited control over which visited network they connect to. Network selection is driven by roaming agreements rather than technical performance, which can result in:

• Suboptimal coverage or signal quality
• Inability to prioritize carriers with stronger service level agreements
• Reduced flexibility during outages or network degradation

This lack of control complicates optimization and troubleshooting at scale.

What Are Alternative Solutions to IoT Roaming?

Given the serious limitations of traditional roaming, the IoT industry has developed several advanced alternatives:

1. Connectivity Management Platforms (CMPs)
   Centralized platforms that provide visibility, automation, cost tracking, and policy enforcement across multiple networks, simplifying operations for large-scale fleets.
2. eUICC-based eSIM Localization
   Devices remotely download local operator profiles via eSIM technology, allowing them to connect as local subscribers and comply with permanent roaming restrictions.
3. Hybrid eUICC + Multi-IMSI Solutions
   Combines preloaded IMSIs with eUICC flexibility, enabling over-the-air profile updates while maintaining cost efficiency and broad network coverage.
4. LPWAN / LoRaWAN Connectivity
   Unlicensed low-power wide-area networks provide coverage without relying on cellular roaming rules, suitable for stationary or low-data IoT devices.
5. Multi-IMSI SIMs
   A single SIM stores multiple operator identities, enabling autonomous network switching and broader coverage. All operator agreements must be pre-negotiated.
6. Private 5G Networks
   Enterprises can deploy licensed spectrum for captive networks, ideal for industrial sites, campuses, or controlled environments.
7. Roaming-Only SIMs
   Devices use a single home IMSI that roams internationally. Simple for pilots or short-term projects but expensive, high-latency, and subject to permanent roaming restrictions.
8. Satellite IoT Connectivity
   Global coverage independent of terrestrial networks, suitable for remote or mobile deployments in areas with limited cellular infrastructure.
9. Local Breakout with Regional Core Networks
   Traffic is routed locally through regional packet gateways, reducing latency, improving performance, and supporting compliance with data sovereignty regulations.

When Should I Use IoT Roaming?

IoT roaming can still be a valuable tool, but only when applied intentionally. Understanding the right and wrong use cases helps prevent regulatory, cost, and performance issues.

Best-Fit Scenarios for IoT Roaming

• Genuinely mobile assets: Devices that frequently cross borders, such as shipping containers, international fleet vehicles, or portable equipment
• Short-term deployments: Pilot projects, temporary installations, or devices with service lives under 90 days
• Countries without restrictions: Regions with harmonized roaming policies (e.g., the EU) or markets without permanent roaming bans
• Low-data, non-sensitive telemetry: Applications transmitting only small amounts of data where latency and data residency are not critical
• Fallback coverage: When a primary local profile drops, roaming can provide temporary connectivity

Scenarios to Avoid IoT Roaming

• Stationary, long-term deployments: Devices remaining in a single country for months or years, especially in regulated markets
• Scale deployments: Projects with thousands of devices, where regulatory risk and cost multiply
• Restricted markets: Countries such as Brazil, China, Turkey, or others with permanent roaming prohibitions
• Latency-sensitive systems: Real-time applications such as health monitoring, security, or industrial control loops that cannot tolerate 150–300 ms+ delays
• Data sovereignty environments: Use cases where data must remain within specific jurisdictions or comply with local storage regulations

Key takeaway: IoT roaming is best suited for temporary, low-risk, or genuinely mobile deployments. For stationary, large-scale, or regulated applications, alternative connectivity strategies such as eSIM localization, multi-IMSI, or local breakout should be prioritized.

Overcoming IoT Connectivity Challenges with Spenza

At Spenza, we understand the complexity of global IoT connectivity because our founding team built its expertise by solving these exact challenges at scale. We’ve architected a connectivity platform that does not just manage roaming; it eliminates the need to rely on it.

Spenza is a connectivity management platform designed to help businesses deploy, control, and optimize IoT connectivity with a lifecycle-first approach.

1. Policy-Driven Connectivity
   Spenza goes beyond providing a SIM or eSIM. Our platform detects when a device is at risk of a permanent roaming ban and automatically switches it to a local profile before service is disrupted.
2. Optimized IoT Roaming
   We use regional Points of Presence (PoPs) so data takes the shortest path to the cloud. This reduces latency and avoids the delays of traditional home-routed roaming.
3. Unified Visibility
   Manage roaming devices and local profiles in one place. One dashboard, one bill, and consistent coverage across regions.
4. Multi-IMSI and eUICC Support
   Choose from eUICC-compliant eSIMs, multi-IMSI SIMs, or hybrid options to balance cost, flexibility, and compliance.
5. Streamlined Global Deployment
   Deploy faster with pre-integrated operators in over 180 countries, built-in regulatory expertise, and API-first integration.

Conclusion: The Future of IoT Connectivity Is Local, Not Roaming

IoT roaming played an important role in the early days of global IoT deployments. However, as the market matures and scales toward 39 billion connected devices by 2030, its limitations are becoming clear. Permanent roaming restrictions, rising costs, performance issues, and regulatory complexity now impact most multi-country deployments.

The path forward is straightforward. Successful global IoT deployments require localized connectivity, intelligent automation, and a platform partner with deep regulatory expertise and strong carrier relationships.

Modern technologies such as eUICC eSIMs, multi-IMSI SIMs, and hybrid connectivity models were designed to solve the challenges created by roaming. When combined with policy-driven connectivity management and regional network architecture, they deliver the best results.

At Spenza, we built our platform from the ground up to meet these needs. Whether you are deploying your first 100 devices or scaling to millions, we provide the connectivity infrastructure, intelligence, and support required to succeed.

FAQs

Ready to move beyond the limitations of IoT roaming? Contact Spenza today to find out where roaming will break your deployment