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smartcardprovisioningsim-cardglobalplatformpersonalization

How does the eUICC Manufacturer (EUM) load an initial provisioning profile?

I am checking the specification of eUICC remote provisioning provided by GSMA (Embedded SIM Remote Provisioning Architecture, Version 1.1).

As mentioned in section 2.3.1.1, the manufacturer needs to load a profile at the very beginning but profile creation is the responsibility of the SM-DP.

I can't find any clue how the eUICC manufacture loads the initial provisioning profile at the first time. Is the profile created and loaded directly by the EUM or does this involve an SM-DP that creates the profile that is later loaded by EUM?

Solution

  • See section 3.5.1:

    Note: It is assumed that at this stage the eUICC does contain a Provisioning Profile and is linked to an active Provisioning Subscription. How the Provisioning operator is selected and the nature of the related commercial and technical agreements between the EUM and the Provisioning MNO are out of scope of this document.

    Thus, the manufacturer (EUM) needs an MNO (the "Provisioning MNO") to get the provisioning profile (or even an operational profile) for initial personalization. Since that MNO would have an SM-DP for profile preparation, the profiles initially loaded onto the eUICC would come from an SM-DP.

    However, note that the document clearly states that "the nature of the [...] technical agreements between the EUM and the Provisioning MNO are out of scope of [that] document." Consequently, the exact process (and whether it involves a logically separated SM-DP entity, etc.) is not defined by the Embedded SIM Remote Provisioning Architecture and is subject to bilateral agreements between manufacturers and MNOs. Also note that the architecture reference document is marked as "non-binding".