Tag: Iot SIM Management

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How to Deploy and Manage IoT SIM Cards for Seamless Connectivity?

The world of connected devices requires strong providers and a good plan for IoT SIM card deployments.

Internet of Things (IoT) is changing how companies operate and how we live. From smart devices in farms to health gear, IoT is now in all industries. But for IoT to work well, a smooth  is a must. A break in communication can lead to lost data, interruption in work, and even costly failures. That’s where IoT SIM cards help, as they let unmanned machines talk to each other and main hubs.

This blog will show you how to set up and run SIM cards IoT for a smooth . We will go through each step, from setup to fixing faults, so you get the most out of your connected devices.

1. Plan for IoT SIM Card Setup

Before you start, you must plan well to make sure everything runs smoothly.

  • Check Connection Needs (Local vs. Worldwide Reach): First, know your communication needs. Will your devices work in one area, or do they need a worldwide reach? If you work in one spot, limited coverage to save costs will do. But if you need a SIM for international use, a global IoT SIM is key, even with higher costs.
  • Pick the Right IoT SIM Card for the Device and Use: Not all IoT SIM cards are the same. Think of what your devices need. Some need low power, while others need high speed. Make sure the SIM card you pick meets these needs.
  • Know Network Fit and Data Use: Check if the IoT SIM card works with the cell networks in your area. Also, understand how much data you will use. If you choose too much, you may waste money. If you pick too little, your devices may stop working. Look for a provider like OneSimCard IoT that can customize data plans to your needs, rather than trying to force you into to the “cookie-cutter” plans the provider offers.

2. Install and Activate the SIM Card

Once you pick the right IoT SIM card, it’s time to set it up.

  • Step-by-Step Guide on How to Install and Set Up an IoT SIM: Put the SIM card IoT in the device as per the manufacturer’s guide. Make sure it fits well to mitigate connection issues.
  • How to Activate an IoT SIM Card with OneSimCard: OneSimCard makes this easy with its online portal called OSCAR. Follow the steps given to activate your SIM card and set up your account.
  • Set APN (Access Point Name): Correct APN settings are critical for your device connection to the internet. Use the right APN settings from your network provider. Wrong APN settings will stop your device from establishing a data session.

3. Run IoT SIM Cards for Large Use

To run many IoT devices, you need a capable management portal.

  • Management portal for Remote Control: An IoT management portal lets you check your SIM cards remotely. You can track data use and manage the connection of each device. This makes it easy to run a large deployment.
  • Check Data Use and Switch Nets for Best Connection: Watch data use to spot odd use and cut waste. Use net switch plans to keep a smooth connection and cut costs.
  • Set Alerts for Odd Use and Fix Connection Issues: Set alerts for suspicious data use or connection issues. This way, you can fix problems fast and keep all devices connected.

4. Best Ways to Keep IoT SIM Cards Secure

Security is key in IoT.

  • Use Lock Codes and VPN for Safe Data Flow: Secure your data so no one can see it. Use a VPN to help ensure data integrity.
  • Prevent Unauthorized Use with Secure Login: Use strong logins to secure your IoT devices.

5. Fix Common IoT SIM Issues

Even with a good plan and a solid provider, you may face connection issues.

  • Fix Connection Issues and APN Errors: Check APN settings and make sure the device is in the network coverage area. If the issue remains, restart the device and/or call the provider.
  • Solve SIM Card Read Failures in IoT Devices: If the device does not see the SIM card, take it out and put it back in. If the issue continues, the SIM card may be damaged or defective and you should try to replace it.
  • Steps to Fix Network Failures: If the network fails, switch to a new network. Having a no-steering, multi-carrier provider is critical for this

Wrap Up

To deploy and operate SIM card IoT for a consistent connection, you need to plan well, act with care, and check the setup at all times. By using the steps in this blog, you can keep your IoT devices connected and your business running smoothly.

OneSimCard’s IoT SIM plans make IoT deployments of all sizes simple with their world reach, custom, low-cost data plans, and its powerful, but easy-to-use management portal. Connect with one of OneSimCard IoT’s experts today and see how they can help you get the most from your connected devices.

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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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IoT SIM Card Deployments in Global AgTech: A Case Study

IoT Sim cardfor AgTech
AgTech IoT SIM card Connectivity

Introduction

As Agricultural Technology grows (pun intended) in popularity around the world, connecting all of these “things” is increasingly more difficult. International implementations face many obstacles. We focus on the issues with IoT SIM card use in worldwide operations. Some of the same complications occur in single country use as well. Streamlining these deployments saves time, money & headaches. This article focuses on one such case.  We will discuss a soil moisture sensor company struggling with their multi-national deployments. We will cover their solution, their initial problem, the steps they took to remedy the situation, and the solution they chose.

The Customer’s Description

As a Start-Up, this company needed to grow fast and were sending their moisture sensors all over the world, and they had pilots currently running in 27 different countries. Their solution includes a mesh network of wireless sensors spread over the fields of a grower and all of the data aggregated in a gateway device that sends all of the data back to a server for analysis and reporting on their UI. The gateway device is a standard rugged router. It uses a 3FF global IoT SIM card powering the connection to the back end through cellular networks. The gateway required bi-directional proactive communication because they needed to reach the gateway from time to time on demand.  Their sensors test the soil every 3 hours. The total amount of data per gateway averages 72MB per month.

The Problem

They struggled with how they would put together a solution for all of these disparate countries, though. It takes time and resources to find an IoT SIM card provider in each country. Using these various providers further complicates matters because they had to manage multiple SIM management portals, multiple APNs, SKUs for each IoT SIM card provider, and several languages to deal with (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and German to name a few).

All of this takes time and resources. As a small company, their time really does mean money, because navigating all of the vendors, and programming their routers based on where the devices were being sent took time away from marketing and selling their solution. They estimated it took 47% of their time finding local cellular providers. Also setting up the new vendors’ APN’s and SKUs into their workflow, learning a new portal for SIM card management, etc., etc. That is all time when they could be building a strong sales funnel, meeting with new prospects, working on marketing  efforts, and so forth.  They estimated if they could focus 47% more time on these tasks, their annual revenue would grow over $1M.

What They Tried

Over the last 6 months they tried to standardize their connectivity providers to a smaller number. They thought this would solve the issues. What they discovered was that it did help, but the benefits were not sufficient. The CTO and COO still had to think about how devices needed to be configured for each country. They also had to manage multiple platforms which takes time to learn and implement different portals and the API’s each portal used (if they supported API’s). They also had different IP ranges to deal with, where a single IP range would be easier to manage because they could used a single VPN with a single IP range.

The OneSimCard IoT Sim Card Solution

OneSimCard IoT logoWe came to the table with our ears open. We heard their problems and developed a solution tailored to their particular needs. What we came up with was a single, Multi-IMSI, eUICC enabled  Global IoT SIM card. Our IoT SIM card  is used virtually anywhere in the world with a single APN. OneSimCard IoT covers 200+ countries and territories.  A single APN means they are able to set-up all of their devices the same, regardless of the device’s destination.

We also provided the client a single private static IP range large enough to support all of their IoT SIM card deployments for the foreseeable future. We recommended an OpenVPN solution for their bidirectional proactive communication to their cellular gateways. Because it only allows one concurrent user, OpenVPN is a low cost alternative to our IPSec VPN solution. It provides the communication this client needed, though.

The client also benefited from the use of our OSCAR SIM management Portal.  OSCAR is built in-house from the ground up. When a customer wants to make a change, we make that change quickly. This flexibility helps our clients by catering to their specific requirements without over-complicating the experience. OneSimCard IoT’s portal is cloud based and has mobile apps available on Google Play as well as Apple’s App Store. We also provide a full set of API’s to our Portal. This allowed the client to tie their portal to ours with only one set of API’s.

The Result

The benefit was immediate. Streamlining to a single provider gave the client back their valuable time. They now can concentrate more time and resources on revenue producing activities. In the first month since the change to OneSimCard IoT, they were able to implement 20% more solutions. They also were able to add 25% more new opportunities into their sales funnel. If 5% of these prospects close, this adds $1.5M in annual revenue.

If you have an AgTech solution, or any other IoT solution that needs connectivity, contact us. Our IoT experts will be happy to listen to your requirements and develop a solution just for you. The best way to reach is is by email sales@onesimcard.com. You can also fill out our contact form, and we will be in touch!

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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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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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OSCAR App now available on iOS!

1SIM IoT App

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the OneSimCard IoT App for iOS devices!

The IoT App allows you to have access to most of the OSCAR functions right from your iOS device. The App is currently available at no cost in the App Store. Download it today and take OSCAR with you anywhere! The Android OSCAR App is also available and can be downloaded from the Google Play here.

To learn more about 1SIM IoT app for IoT and M2M card management, visit the 1SIM IoT page.

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