Patent attributes
Processes and systems for locking a NB-IoT device to a NB-IoT SIM before connecting the NB-IoT device to a cellular network are discussed herein. The NB-IoT device may include a status flag that determines whether the NB-IoT device requires a NB-IoT SIM to access NB-IoT-specific functions provided by a cellular network. In one example, a Group Identifier Level 1 (GID1) of the IoT SIM may be queried and compared against a reference value to determine whether the IoT SIM is an NB-IoT SIM, and if confirmed, the NB-IoT device may connect to a cellular network and access the NB-IoT-specific functions. In an example, an NB-IoT device associated with a status flag indicating that the device does not require an NB-IoT SIM may connect to a cellular network, but may not access NB-IoT-specific functions.