Category: SIM Management Platform

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A Simple Setting Can Save You Thousands of Dollars: Controlling Your IoT SIM Card Cost

Device with IoT SIM card spending too much money.

IoT deployments can be complex and a lot of planning is important to make certain everything goes as expected. One of the simplest things often gets overlooked and this simple missed step can be a very costly oversight.

Let’s face it, cost matters when it comes to every component in IoT solution development. Margins can be super thin, so any surprise can be very impactful. You need to protect yourself from anything that will blow up your costs. IoT SIM card connectivity plans can be very inexpensive, if your provider gives you the proper controls and you use them properly.

One of the very basic functions any reputable connectivity provider will include in their IoT SIM management portal is the ability to limit how much data your SIM cards can consume. Going over your included plan usually costs much more than the effective per MB cost included with the plan. If your connectivity provider doesn’t include this capability, run, don’t walk, away!

It’s not enough to just have the function to limit the amount of data a SIM can use, you actually need to set this in the management portal. The amount of data you allow the IoT SIM card to consume depends on the type of plan you have. See our blog on choosing the right type of plan here.

For example, if you are using a pooled data plan, your devices usually consume a known, consistent amount of data with only a small amount of variance. in this case, to take advantage of the pooling/sharing data capability it is a good rule of thumb to set the data limit at 20% – 50% more than the pool size (large data plans should be set much lower though because IoT devices like remote cameras usually have plans of 1-5GB, or more, and overage can add up fast!).

Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) plans are set differently. With these plans, the SIMs usually vary in the amount of data they use. You should set these limits to the amount you want to pay each month. For example, if your budget for connectivity is $5.00 per month and your data cost is $0.01/MB, then set the limit to 500MB.

OneSimCard IoT offers a feature rich IoT SIM card management portal that includes the ability to set data limits on either type of plan, pooled and PAYG. We always encourage our customers to set data limits on their SIM cards because we understand, through our over 30 years of connecting clients, every dollar matters when going to market with an IoT solution. If you want to learn more about data limits or any of our many capabilities, please reach out to us. Just fill out our contact form and we will schedule a call.

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IoT SIM Card Data Plans: How do Pay-As-You-Go Data Plans Compare to Pooled Data Plans

Balancing the types of IoT SIM Card plan types

When deploying IoT (Internet of Things) devices, one crucial decision is choosing the right data plan for the IoT SIM cards that keep devices connected. Two primary options dominate the landscape: Pay-as-You-Go (PAYG) data plans and Pooled data plans. Each model offers unique advantages and is tailored to different use cases. Let’s dive into the key differences, pros and cons, and when to choose each.

Understanding Pay-as-You-Go Data Plans

Pay-as-You-Go (PAYG) data plans operate on a straightforward principle: you pay for the exact amount of data each IoT SIM consumes. There are no fixed monthly fees (other than often times a monthly minimum usage requirement) or long-term commitments — you get billed based on actual usage. This model is particularly attractive for deployments where data consumption is unpredictable or sporadic.

Pros of PAYG Data Plans:

  1. Cost Efficiency for Low Usage: Ideal for IoT devices that use minimal data, such as sensors transmitting small packets of information infrequently.
  2. Flexibility: No need for long-term contracts; pay only for what you use.
  3. Simplicity: Billing is straightforward, and there are no surprises.
  4. Scalability: Easily scale up or down without renegotiating contracts.

Cons of PAYG Data Plans:

  1. Higher Costs for High Usage: As data consumption increases, costs can quickly spiral.
  2. Lack of Predictability: Budgeting can be challenging due to fluctuating monthly bills.
  3. No Volume Discounts: You pay a flat rate regardless of how much data you use across devices.

Understanding Pooled Data Plans

Pooled data plans, on the other hand, function like a shared bucket of data allocated to a group of IoT SIM cards. Each SIM draws from the collective pool, making it a popular choice for organizations managing multiple devices with similar data needs.

Pros of Pooled Data Plans:

  1. Cost Predictability: Fixed monthly fees make budgeting easier.
  2. Efficiency Across Devices: Data-heavy devices can offset those with lighter usage, optimizing overall costs.
  3. Volume Discounts: Larger pools often come with reduced per-MB rates.
  4. Simplified Management: Centralized data management reduces administrative overhead.

Cons of Pooled Data Plans:

  1. Underutilization Risk: If total data consumption is consistently lower than the allocated pool, you’re paying for unused capacity.
  2. Commitment Required: Typically involves contracts or minimum commitments.
  3. Complexity: Managing large pools requires monitoring to avoid overages.

When to Choose PAYG Over Pooled Plans (and Vice Versa)

Choosing between PAYG and Pooled plans boils down to understanding your IoT deployment’s data consumption patterns and business goals.

Choose PAYG if:

  • Your IoT devices transmit data sporadically or use minimal bandwidth.
  • You need a flexible solution with no long-term commitment.
  • Predicting data usage is difficult, and you want to avoid overcommitting.

Choose Pooled if:

  • You have a large number of devices with similar data needs.
  • Data consumption is relatively predictable month to month.
  • You want to take advantage of volume discounts and reduce administrative burden.

Real-World Example: Smart Agriculture vs. Fleet Management

Consider a smart agriculture use case where soil moisture sensors send small data packets once a day. Here, a PAYG plan makes sense as data usage is minimal and infrequent. On the other hand, a fleet management company tracking vehicles across the country with real-time GPS and video feeds would benefit from a Pooled plan. Some vehicles might use more data due to high activity, while others use less, balancing out the overall data consumption.

Conclusion: Tailoring Plans to Your Needs

Both PAYG and Pooled data plans offer unique benefits for IoT deployments. PAYG is a cost-effective solution for low or unpredictable usage, while Pooled plans provide better value and easier management for large-scale deployments with consistent data needs. The best plan is the one that aligns with your device behavior, data patterns, and budgetary requirements. Whether you need the flexibility of PAYG or the efficiency of a Pooled plan, understanding these differences will empower you to make an informed decision that optimizes both performance and cost.

As IoT continues to revolutionize industries, choosing the right connectivity model is more important than ever. Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your IoT devices with a plan that fits just right?

OneSimCard IoT, unlike almost all of our competitors, offers both PAYG and Pooled data plans. Our mission is to consult with our clients and design a plan that suits their particular needs, rather than forcing them into plans that aren’t exactly correct. Use our CONTACT FORM to talk with one of our IoT experts who will be happy to have a discussion about your precise requirements.

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New Features Added to M2M SIM Card OSCAR Platform

New SIM Search Filter Added for SIMs with IMEI Lock

An M2M Sim card client requested to search for all M2M SIM cards with the IMEI lock enabled. With this update, M2M SIM cards with the IMEI lock engaged are now quickly identified. Many devices can be changed because the M2M SIM cards with the lock can be unlocked. This was particularity important for this client moving IoT SIMs from older 3G devices to their new 4G devices. Once the SIMs that had the lock were identified there is now a new bulk operation to remove the IMEI lock.

imei lock filter.jpg
M2M SIM card filter list

 

New Bulk Operation Added to Remove IMEI Lock

In concert with the above IoT Sim card filter, we added a new bulk operation to remove IMEI locks on many SIMs at once. This additional functionality makes the process of SIM card IMEI locks much faster because the administrator no longer has to go in the the SIM settings for each SIM to remove the lock. If you have thousands of M2M SIM cards, this was very time consuming. An administrator can now perform this function to many M2M SIM cards at once.

Bulk operations for M2M SIM card

Contact Us!

We welcome feedback! If you have any feedback on our IoT SIM card OSCAR Platform, please send us a note. You can reach us at feeback@onesimcard.com.

If you would like to speak with one of our M2M SIM Card experts, please reach out to us at Sales@onesimcard.com. You can also submit a custom quote request on our site. We will develop a solution specific to your requirements.

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New API & New IoT Sim Card

New API Command Available for SIM Card Reset

We continue to listen to our IoT clients and their requests for improvements to our OSCAR IoT SIM Card Management Portal. There is now an API command for both Pooled and PAYG accounts, allowing a SIM reset. A SIM card reset takes the IoT SIM card off the network and allows it to re-register. Before now, this tool was only available on the Portal in the Service tab. There are many customers who prefer to manage most of the tools for their global IoT SIM Cards off the OSCAR management portal. This new API will help with initial troubleshooting of the IoT SIM.

New SIM Card Type Being Launched

For customers using the TCNS IoT SIM card type, you will start to see orders being filled with a new IoT SIM card named “TCNS – E”. This SIM will give you the same outstanding service you are used to, & will add some network operators. The most notable change is in Canada where we are adding Telus and Bell. Now all three major networks in Canada are available. There are also many other countries coming to this Multi-IMSI TCSN-E IoT SIM card. This is great news as we continue to grow our global IoT SIM card footprint and build more network redundancy!

If you have any questions about these enhancements to our IoT SIM card management portal, OSCAR, or any other suggestions or comments, please reach out to feedback@onesimcard.com.

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2 Updates to the OSCAR IoT SIM Management Portal

New API Command Available for Updating User Name and Device Fields

We added a new API command for both Pooled and PAYG accounts This command will allow you to update the User Name and Device fields for your IoT SIM Cards in the OSCAR portal. This is especially useful when you are using your own portal to activate IoT SIMs & include the User Name (nickname). The User Name & Device Type are now populated to our OSCAR portal automatically through API. Before now, these fields could only  be updated on the Portal in separate tabs. Automating this process is a great time-saver!

New Feature in the OSCAR Portal Allows for Updating/Making Changes to up to 200 SIMs at a Time

Before this update, the maximum number of SIMs that can be displayed on the SIM card page was 100. You could select up to all 100 and perform a bulk operation on these SIMs.  Also, these SIMs had to be in certain logical order (sorted by SIM #, ICCID, Status, etc.). If you wanted to work on SIM cards that were not consecutive in this logical order, or only some of those SIMs but not all, you needed to select (or deselect) only those which you want to work on. Last month, we added functionality to upload a CSV file into the portal with the SIM card numbers on which you want to work. You will see this file upload option at the top of the SIM card page. This upload tool allows you to load a CSV file with up to 200 SIM cards at a time. Now you can work on more SIMs at once, and choose the SIMs you on which you want to work based on the file you uploaded (maybe it was a report you ran, etc.).

If you have any questions on these new functions or any other questions on the OSCAR IoT SIM card management portal, please reach out to our IoT experts at Sales@OneSimCard.com.

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Why IP Filtering Is Important for Security

When you put together an IoT solution the intention is always to route data traffic to where you want, but this isn’t always ensured. Devices and IoT SIM cards aren’t inherently secured and we have written numerous articles on ways to lock your IoT solution down. Today we want to discuss the best way to ensure that data can only go where you expect using IP Filtering on your IoT SIM card.

IP Filtering (or IP Whitelisting) is a method whereby you identify only those IP addresses where data can travel. This is critical because IoT SIM cards and devices tend to be open to send data anywhere and without filtering at the IoT SIM card level, devices can be hacked to send data to other IP addresses other than where you want the traffic to go. 

OneSimCard has the ability to filter the IP addresses where our IoT SIM cards are able to send data. This is accomplished by whitelisting the IP addresses where you want data traffic to end up. Our clients send us these trusted IP addresses and we set these rules up in our Network server to only allow he IoT SIM cards to send traffic to these addresses. If the IoT device attempts to send traffic to any other address, it will fail because we have blocked that IP address by rule.

Use cases for IP Filtering are numerous. Here are just a few examples:

  • IoT SIMs in Hotspots for employees to limit the IP addresses where the employee can navigate using the company asset (not exactly IoT, but the SIM doesn’t know that!);
  • SIMs in ATM’s and credit card processing where banking information is transmitted and must be secure and data traffic must be limited;
  • Alarms and security products like cameras because, especially with cameras, only you want to have this data, and leakage to other IP addresses can be expensive;
  • Any IoT solution which counts on very small data quantities because data leakage can lead to overage and higher costs.

If you would like to learn more about our IP Filtering solution for IoT SIM cards and if this is something that makes sense for your organization, please reach out to sales@onesimcard.com and one of our IOT experts will be glad to talk this through with you.

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OneSimCard OSCAR Prepaid Account Overview Video Now Available

OneSimCard IoT Connectivity pricing plans fall into 2 general categories: Pay-as-you-go (Prepaid) & Pooled with offer rates as low as $0.01/MB in both categories.

Prepaid accounts are perfect for those who are uncertain of their data consumption needs, or where individual IoT devices consume a vastly different amount of data per month.

With prepaid accounts, each SIM is funded from an existing balance on the account. The SIM billing can be set-up in 2 ways: Pay-As-You-Go per MB or with a discount plan starting at 5MB per SIM. Each SIM can have a different plan giving you a tremendous amount of flexibility in your deployment.

In this video:

Dashboard 00:00​
SIM Cards Settings 1:33
SIM Card Alarms 5:10​
SIM Card Activation Templates 5:39​
Billing 6:07​
Reports 7:14 ​
VPN 7:40
Admins 8:10​
Profile 8:32
Rates 8:41
Help / Support 8:52

Learn more about Global IoT SIM Card connectivity solutions including Pooled and Pay-As-You-Go account, APN, VPN, Static IP’s and IMEI Lock at iot.onesimcard.com

Learn more about OneSimCard OSCAR IoT SIM Platform here.

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OneSimCard OSCAR Pooled Account Overview Video Now Available

OneSimCard IoT Connectivity pricing plans fall into 2 general categories: Pay-as-you-go (Prepaid) & Pooled with offer rates as low as $0.01/MB in both categories.

IoT connectivity clients choose Pooled accounts when they have a general idea about their data usage and their IoT devices require a similar amount of cellular data traffic. Data in this category of plans pools across all active devices on the account.

Each active SIM contributes an equal amount of data into the pool. Plan sizes can range from 50KB to 50TB per SIM– simply tell us what you need, and we will design a custom plan for your particular project.

In this video:

Dashboard 00:00
SIM Cards Settings 1:03
SIM Card Alarms 3:23
SIM Card Activation Templates 3:38
Billing 4:04
Reports 4:38
VPN 5:05
Admins 5:35
Profile 6:04
Rates 6:10
Help / Support 6:37

Learn more about Global IoT SIM Card connectivity solutions including Pooled and Pay-As-You-Go account, APN, VPN, Static IP’s and IMEI Lock at iot.onesimcard.com

Learn more about OneSimCard OSCAR IoT SIM Platform here.

 

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Set a Future Date for Blocking & Deactivating (Removing) an IoT SIM Card

Schedule SIM Card Deactivation or Removal

Often times, you might have a device where there is a date in the future when you want the SIM to be Blocked or Deactivated/Removed from the account, and managing these dates can be a huge challenge. To address this need, we have added functionality in the OSCAR Platform to set a date for these functions.

Possible use cases include:

    • You have an end customer with one of your devices who pays on a “subscription” basis, e.g. monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. and you want the device to only work while their account is in good standing;
    • You have a device that is meant for a project for a set time period and you want to shut it off automatically at the end of the project timeframe;

You can find this feature in the SIM Settings tab of OSCAR (SIM CARDS>Settings of the SIM), or in the batch operation menu at the bottom of the SIM card page. This function is available in both PAYG and Pooled account types. We are also expecting to add this function to our API list as well. Look for this in the coming months.

Lean more about the OSCAR IoT SIM Card Management platform here.

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Using Templates to Activate or Update Existing SIM Card Settings

IoT SIM Settings Template
Use Default or Create Your Own IoT SIM Settings Templates

We were asked by a number of customers to allow the use of pre-configured templates when activating SIM cards because some of the settings are the same based on a particular use case. The use case may differ across all of your SIM cards, though, and it would be useful to select a previously created template to activate a new SIM card which will update all of the appropriate settings on the SIM including

For PAYG Accounts:

  • Enable Auto-recharge with pre-defined amounts, limits, and SIM minimum balance
  • Set Device Model Type
  • Set User Name (many clients use this for their customer name, or device location, or IMEI of the device, etc.…think of this as a “nickname” for the SIM card)
  • Set an initial balance on the SIM Card
  • Assign a Discount Data Plan on the SIM card
  • Assign Static IP address (of enabled on your account
  • Set notification if the balance of the SIM card goes below a certain amount

For Pooled Accounts:

  • Set Device Model Type
  • Set a monthly Data Limit
  • Set End User Name
  • Assign Static IP address

You can save as many templates as you need so ensure you can activate a SIM with all of the appropriate settings for that SIM with a single click. You can also choose as many of the available fields as you wish; use them all or use only one…it’s completely in your hands!

What’s more, you can use this feature to update existing SIMs on your account. Once you have at least one template saved on your account, simply

  1. Select the SIM cards you want to update;
  2. Choose the “Apply SIM Activation Template” option from the batch operation menu at the bottom of the SIM Card page;
  3. Choose the template you want to use!