Every IoT deployment starts with a simple promise: your devices will stay connected, wherever they are. The technology supporting that promise has developed rapidly in the last few years, but for the businesses actually running these deployments, network performance is only part of the equation. Connectivity also needs to be reliable, manageable and supported when problems arise.
Com4, a Nordic-born connectivity provider founded in Oslo in 2011 and now part of the Wireless Logic Group, has built its service around this broader approach, combining multiple connectivity technologies with connectivity management and support.
The technology: broader, smarter, more automated
Modern IoT connectivity spans a wide range of radio technologies, from 2G through 5G, as well as low-power options like LTE-M and NB-IoT for battery-constrained sensors. Satellite connectivity is also moving in to fill the coverage gaps LTE and 5G can’t reach.
Com4 combines all of these technologies within a single managed service, including LEO satellite connectivity alongside terrestrial LTE and 5G. This enables devices operating across remote or moving locations to maintain connectivity without switching providers. Today its network spans more than 190 countries and more than 950 carrier networks.
The other major shift is in the way SIMs are provisioned and managed. Remote SIM provisioning, including the GSMA SGP.32 eSIM standard for IoT, allows enterprises activate, update, and reconfigure connectivity profiles over the air, with no physical SIM swaps, no truck rolls, and no downtime.
Through its Polaris connectivity management platform, Com4 gives customers a single interface for provisioning, monitoring, and managing IoT SIMs across different markets, with policy-driven automation and spend caps built in. Across the wider Wireless Logic Group, more than 2 million eSIM profiles have been delivered remotely, without requiring a site visit.
Where it plays out: real Com4 use cases
This matters most in mobile IoT, in deployments where devices cross borders, coverage zones, or challenging physical environments, and where a dropped connection has a real operational cost.
In energy and utilities, Gothenburg-based Gomero uses Com4 connectivity to monitor transformer bunds at electrical substations for more than 100 companies across 9 countries, including Vattenfall and Deutsche Bahn. The system has so far helped prevent more than 6,300 oil spills, and 6,700 site visits, while collecting and analysing more than 76 million data points.
“It is of the utmost importance for us to have a supplier who can guarantee that our communication works smoothly and reliably in all nine countries where we operate,” says Malin Giselsson, Head of Technology at Gomero.
In industrial monitoring, Stavanger-based Soolo develops sensors that measure liquid levels in fuel and industrial tanks, transmitting data over Com4’s LTE-M and NB-IoT network. The sensors are often installed in manholes, sealed containers, and other locations where maintaining a reliable connection can be difficult.
Before real time monitoring, tank utilisation commonly ran as low as 50%, meaning trucks were sometimes dispatched to refill tanks that still had significant capacity.
“Com4 was the first provider that was both honest about limitations and able to answer our technical questions,” says Rein Anders Apeland, System Architect and co-founder at Soolo.
In rail infrastructure, Bane NOR, the Norwegian state-owned company responsible for over 4,200 kilometres of track, uses Com4 SIM cards for its energy meter network. The SIMS are custom built to withstand temperatures from minus 40 to plus 105 degrees Celsius.
Com4 was selected, according to Head Engineer Mohammad Ali Koteich, because it was “the only company that showed the flexibility needed” to support a new industry communication protocol.
Com4’s global satellite solutions extend that same standard of reliability to the hardest to reach locations, backed by guaranteed SLAs on uptime and speed.
The Nordic difference: delivery over promises
For enterprises deploying IoT at scale, service-level agreements can become as important as network coverage. A broad network footprint has limited value if customers are left to manage multiple commercial relationships, unpredictable costs, or connectivity issues themselves.
Com4 combines connectivity from multiple networks with fixed monthly pricing, service-level agreements and dedicated support.
The wider Wireless Logic Group manages more than 25 million SIMs across 165 countries for more than 25,000 customers, ranging from governments to global enterprises to early-stage start-ups. It has more than 1,000 IoT specialists providing local support across 25 countries.
That combination, broad network reach, connectivity management, contractual clarity and technical support is becoming increasingly important as IoT moves into more operationally critical applications.
As IoT deployments scale into the tens of millions of connected devices, connectivity providers will increasingly be judged not only on the breadth of their networks, but on how effectively they can manage and support those connections once they are deployed.
It’s a promise easier to make from Oslo than from a sales deck, and it’s why “your true partner for IoT connectivity” is more than a tagline for a company that has spent over a decade building the infrastructure to back it up.
Author biography:
Amina Loukili Kristensen is CMO at Com4
