Interview: Motive explains how eSIM, satellites, and AI will transform telecoms

An exclusive interview with TecFlow, Jay McMullan, Vice President of Sales for the Americas at Motive. 

Tecflow: Latin America presents unique connectivity challenges such as remote regions and high rates of digital fraud. Which technologies show gain greater prominence in the next five years to address these challenges, and why? 

Jay McMullan, Motive: The most important technologies for the next five years really aren't new; they're assets operators already have that they haven't fully put to work.

The SIM card is the most secure identity token in consumer technology. Cryptographically verified, continuously authenticated by the network. And for decades we used it for one thing: getting onto the network. The moment someone needed to log into their bank or complete a purchase, we handed that off to SMS one-time passwords, a channel the network itself never trusted for its own security. And that's where fraud lives.

What we're seeing now with operators in Brazil is that gap finally closing. SIM-based silent authentication deployed through modern Entitlement Servers and exposed via GSMA Open Gateway APIs is the technology that finally monetizes that asset. On the eSIM side, Claro's 63% year-on-year growth in downloads tells you the demand is there.

Tecflow: Silent authentication based on SIM technology has been identified as a more secure alternative to SMS OTP. What tangible benefits does this technology offer to consumers, mobile operators, and businesses, particularly in markets such as Brazil?

Jay McMullan, Motive: SMS OTP was never secure! It was just convenient and universally available, and for a long time that was enough. But it isn't anymore.

The problem is structural. Telefonica's teams, who've been through this journey in depth, evaluated three approaches before landing on SIM-based authentication: IP mapping — failed on Wi-Fi and VPN. OS-privileged SIM authentication — strong but too complex and OS-dependent. And SMS OTP that’s widely available but fraud-exposed at every step. Interception, SIM swap hijacking, phishing at the point of manual entry. In Brazil, those aren't edge cases. They operate at a scale that makes legacy authentication commercially dangerous.

SIM-based silent authentication removes those exposure points. It runs inside the secure mobile network, nothing travels over a channel that can be hijacked, and it works across every connectivity scenario including Wi-Fi and VPN. Consumers no longer see the authentication, it becomes invisible. For businesses, you get higher completion rates and fewer chargebacks. And for operators, you eliminate per-message costs and turn your network's identity capability into something enterprises will pay for as an API product.

We had a session with Google at MWC Barcelona this year, and their security innovation lead said it plainly: "Everything starts with the mobile phone number. That's the primary key." "Entitlement services are critical, getting carriers ready for this technology is speed to market." Operators who've deployed are being integrated into developer ecosystems reaching millions of applications. Those who haven't are being routed around.

Tecflow: The advancement of eSIM technology has accelerated the digitalization of mobile services. From Motive’s perspective, what are still the main barriers to widespread adoption of this technology across Latin America?

Jay McMullan, Motive: I'd reframe slightly: consumer demand isn't the barrier. Claro Brazil's numbers prove that! They saw 63% year-on-year growth in eSIM downloads, 15% month-on-month adoption growth sustained since launch. When you give people a smooth experience, they use it.

The barrier is operator readiness to deliver that experience at scale. The iPhone Air launched as the world's first globally available eSIM-only handset. GSMA Intelligence projects more than half of all devices will be eSIM-only by 2030. An operator without modern provisioning infrastructure simply can't onboard a growing share of its premium subscribers. That's not a future risk, it's a gap opening today.

In practice, the challenges are legacy activation infrastructure not built for eSIM lifecycle management, ecosystem fragmentation across Apple and Android with different OEM specs and GSMA requirements, and security gaps from operators still running SMS OTP instead of SIM-based alternatives. Claro worked through all three and was first in Latin America to launch iOS eSIM Quick Transfer, with Android expansion underway. That's the template.

Tecflow: Entel Chile’s project demonstrates the potential of satellite-based Direct-to-Device connectivity. How could this technology transform access to the internet and mobile services in areas without terrestrial network coverage, including regions of Brazil?

Jay McMullan, Motive: What Entel demonstrated is what I'd call breaking the sequencing problem. The traditional model says build infrastructure first, wait for demand to justify it. Communities without coverage can't demonstrate commercial demand, so investment never comes. Satellite Direct-to-Device inverts that entirely.

LEO satellites communicate directly with standard, unmodified handsets (no new device, no ground infrastructure required). Entel reached over 450,000 unique users in a single month across the Andes and Amazon, in areas with no prior signal at all. Not weak coverage, complete blanks on the map. Demand showed up immediately.

Brazil's Amazon basin is over five million square kilometres. The economic activity sitting behind that connectivity gap is enormous. GSMA Intelligence puts the addressable revenue opportunity for satellite D2D at around $30 billion by 2030, with 20-25% ARPU premiums where operators are pricing it correctly. You don't need to speculate about latent demand. It's there, and it responds the moment coverage arrives.

The enabling layer is the Entitlement Server managing subscriber identity seamlessly across terrestrial and satellite networks. A subscriber in the Amazon shouldn't have to think about which network they're on. The deployment model is proven. The variable is how quickly operators build the foundation to deliver it.

Tecflow: With the expansion of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and connected devices, how does Motive envision the evolution of telecom operators’ infrastructure, and what investments will be essential to support this growing demand in the coming years?

Jay McMullan, Motive: The conversation I have most often right now is about what I'd call the identity fork in the road. As AI, IoT, and connected devices multiply the authentication events that need to be managed in real time, there are two futures for operators: trusted identity layer for the digital economy, or the pipe carrying someone else's services while the value flows elsewhere.

The infrastructure decisions made in the next two to three years determine which future they're in.

The mobile phone number is the primary key for digital identity—Google's team said exactly that in our MWC 5G Future Summit session. Operators are the only entities that can verify that number through cryptographic, network-native authentication. The Entitlement Server is what puts that asset to work. It authenticates devices silently, provisions services automatically, enforces access rights across an expanding estate of connected endpoints (think automotive eSIM, wearables, industrial IoT, 5G slicing, all of it).

The second priority is Open Gateway API monetization. The GSMA framework lets operators sell their network-native capabilities — verified identity, fraud detection, location — as enterprise products. That's a real commercial model, not a future concept. So the operators who build the authentication backbone now get written into developer ecosystems as those markets scale. Those who wait find the architecture already built around others. I've seen that pattern enough times to say it with confidence.