EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorIoT & EmbeddedHeadquarters: JP

Soracom: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Soracom is a connectivity platform for Internet of Things devices. Its SORACOM Air service provides cellular data access through IoT SIM cards or eSIMs, over 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, 5G, LTE-M and NB-IoT networks where available. Devices can be linked privately to AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, so that transmitted data does not traverse the open internet. Not every IoT SIM is available in every region.

Soracom, Inc. is headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, and is a consolidated subsidiary of the telecommunications group KDDI, which is also one of its shareholders. The company was approved in 2024 for listing on the Growth Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The website does not state where the platform or customer data is hosted, so data location should be fixed in the contract. Because the company and its parent are Japanese, the service falls primarily under Japanese jurisdiction. For a European organisation, the key questions are where SIM and session data is stored and which contracting entity and data processing terms apply.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Soracom pre-selected
MastodonLinkedInBlueskyXEmail
Sovereignty score
32 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (JP)
  • Data residency SOV-30
    No hosting in Europe (OTHER)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-340
    Key management with a non-European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-630
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 11, 2026
Headquarters
JP (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting
OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
NoVendor-stated
Category
IoT & Embedded
Type
Product
Website
soracom.io ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Soracom

The European alternatives to Soracom come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

62 European IoT & Embedded vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is Soracom one of many dependencies?

Score your whole stack in about three minutes. Free, no account needed.

Assess your stack →View a sample report (opens in a new tab)

Why digital sovereignty matters with Soracom

Soracom is headquartered in JP, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor.

Soracom hosts data outside the EU (OTHER). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

Soracom is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Soracom together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to Soracom?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Soracom include 1NCE, Actility ThingPark and akenza. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Soracom?

Our list of EU alternatives to Soracom is mostly commercial options. Browse the category on the map for open-source choices.

Is Soracom GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Soracom is headquartered in JP (OTHER) and hosts data in OTHER. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 11, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in IoT & Embedded

IoT & Embedded: Internet of Things platforms, embedded systems and industrial IoT solutions. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

Also in this category

See all →
Open in the alternatives dashboardMissing a vendor? Submit itAre you this vendor? You can also become a sponsor on the IoT & Embedded page — with no effect on your score
8 European alternatives to Soracom — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score