An asset tracker has the least forgiving job description in IoT: be wherever the asset is, on whatever network exists there, on a battery someone hopes to ignore for years, at a unit economics that survives being deployed in the thousands. The SIM inside it carries most of that job description, which is why tracker connectivity rewards more specification care than its size suggests.
This guide covers the four decisions that determine whether a tracking estate works: coverage strategy, radio technology, roaming reality and commercial structure.
Coverage that follows the asset, not the contract
The defining property of tracked assets is that they go where business takes them: trailers cross borders, containers change continents, tools leave the depot in whichever van took them. A SIM strategy anchored to one network’s footprint converts every boundary of that footprint into a blind spot, and blind spots in tracking data have a way of coinciding with exactly the journeys someone later needs to reconstruct.
The structural answer is multi-network access on the SIM itself. Multi-IMSI technology carries several network identities on one SIM, and non-steered network selection attaches the tracker to the strongest available network at its current location rather than working down a preference list. Together they make coverage a property of the SIM rather than a property of the route, and they remove the per-country procurement question entirely when the SIM’s reach is structurally global: OV SIMs operate across 180+ countries and 600+ networks under a single agreement, which for a tracking estate means the coverage conversation happens once.
Our Multi-IMSI explainer covers the mechanism in depth; for trackers the practical summary is that network failure and footprint edges become events the SIM resolves in the field.
Radio technology: the power-coverage-mobility triangle
Tracker hardware lives inside a three-way trade between battery life, coverage behaviour and mobility, and the cellular technology choice sets the terms.
LTE-M is the default answer for most trackers that move: designed for low power with PSM and eDRX sleep modes, supportive of mobility and cell handover, with bandwidth to spare for firmware updates. Battery-powered trackers reporting periodically, and anything tracking vehicles or shipments in motion, generally belong here; our complete LTE-M guide covers the deployment detail.
NB-IoT trades mobility and bandwidth for deeper coverage and lower energy still, suiting assets that are stationary or near-stationary: equipment in yards, fixed infrastructure, assets that move rarely and report rarely. Its weaker handover behaviour makes it the wrong choice for assets genuinely in motion.
4G LTE (Cat-1) remains the pragmatic pick for powered trackers (vehicle-installed, mains-adjacent) where energy is abundant, and for routes through markets where LPWAN coverage or roaming is still maturing, which leads directly to the next section.
Whatever the choice, the power numbers should come from measurement on real firmware with real timer negotiation, not from datasheets; sleep-mode behaviour depends on both the device and the networks it visits.
Roaming: where tracking estates meet regulation
A tracker is the canonical permanently-roaming device: manufactured in one country, activated in another, living its life across several. Two realities follow.
First, LPWAN roaming is its own question: LTE-M and NB-IoT roaming support varies by market and operator pairing, separately from ordinary 4G roaming, so validate the technologies on your actual routes rather than assuming country coverage implies technology coverage.
Second, several markets restrict permanent roaming, limiting how long a visiting SIM may stay before requiring local presence. For assets that transit, this rarely bites; for assets that settle, dwelling in one restricted market indefinitely, the connectivity strategy needs an answer designed in advance rather than improvised after a disconnection notice. The strategies, and the wider trade-offs between roaming and local connectivity, are covered in our dedicated guide; the specification-stage discipline is simply to map where assets will dwell, not just where they will pass, and put that map in front of your provider. Rules in this area change, so treat current requirements as something to verify per market with your provider rather than assume.
Commercial structure: thousands of small appetites
Tracker estates have a distinctive consumption shape: thousands of SIMs, each consuming little, with variance driven by movement patterns and the occasional firmware update that dwarfs a quarter’s telemetry. That shape has commercial consequences. Pooled data across the estate absorbs per-device variance far better than per-SIM allowances sized for the worst case. Dormancy and suspension terms matter unusually, because tracking estates carry stock, devices awaiting deployment, in transit to customers, between assignments, and per-SIM platform fees on a large estate deserve the same scrutiny as data rates. Lifecycle automation is the quiet cost lever: activating, suspending and reassigning SIMs by API as trackers move through their own lifecycle keeps operational cost flat as the estate grows, which is precisely what OV ONE’s full API coverage and bulk operations exist for, alongside the per-SIM consumption visibility that catches a misbehaving tracker as an alert rather than an invoice line.
The specification, compressed
For the procurement document: multi-network Multi-IMSI SIMs with non-steered selection; eUICC capability so a decade-long estate keeps its options open; radio technology per tracker class against the power-mobility triangle, validated per market on real routes; a dwell map driving the roaming strategy; pooled data with caps and alerts; and platform APIs for lifecycle automation at fleet scale. Then the empirical step: trial SIMs in real trackers on real routes, including the hardest ones, before volume commitment. OV’s free IoT SIM trial exists for exactly that test, and the Asset Tracking industry page covers how the pieces fit together as a deployment.
Frequently asked questions
What SIM card is best for a GPS tracker?
A multi-network IoT SIM, ideally Multi-IMSI with non-steered network selection, so the tracker attaches to the strongest available network wherever the asset travels rather than depending on one operator’s footprint. For battery-powered trackers, pair it with a low-power radio technology such as LTE-M and validate coverage on the actual routes.
How much data does an asset tracker use?
Typically very little for telemetry, often single-digit megabytes per month for periodic position reporting, but firmware updates and aggressive reporting modes can multiply that substantially. Forecast per tracker class with an overhead factor and an update budget, then measure on real hardware before committing to plans.
Can one SIM work for assets that cross borders?
Yes, that is the core purpose of multi-network IoT SIMs with global reach: OV SIMs operate across 180+ countries and 600+ networks on a single agreement, so border crossings change nothing commercially or operationally. The additional check for assets that settle in one country long-term is permanent roaming rules in that market, which your provider should address per your dwell map.
Is NB-IoT or LTE-M better for asset tracking?
LTE-M for assets that genuinely move, because it supports mobility and handover alongside low power; NB-IoT for stationary or rarely-moving assets where deep coverage and minimal energy dominate. Mixed estates legitimately use both, selected per tracker class rather than per estate.
