3 ms·

This isn't an answer to your question, but can you tell me more about how you source your sims/data plans?

nevi-me 7y ago
I haven't done anything practical yet, but in our country (South Africa), we've had a law recently that forces the cell network providers to allow consumers to transfer data around. For basic use (maybe 10 devices), I would be able to share my phone's data plan. I'm on a generous contract that gives me more data than I need (fiber at home). For larger volumes, most providers will either allow you to pool a number of SIM cards' usage into a single account, especially if you restrict them to only connect to a private network. We have this at my workplace on most SIM cards in laptops. There are also companies that supply SIMs to merchants and IoT folk on behalf of network providers. I'd also look into that. In most cases you end up with each SIM having its own data plan. I did some freelance work for one of these companies last year, if you have enough volume, you can negotiate pooling of data.
teraflop 7y ago
I investigated this a year or so ago for a hobby project. The best cheap option I found for non-trivial amounts of data in the US was T-Mobile's $10/month plan, which comes with 2GB/mo of high-speed data, and throttles down to roughly 64kbit/sec after that.
- el_benhameen 7y ago
  I thought about something similar. T-Mobile based MVNOs have pretty good pricing, too, so maybe I'll do that.
- tehlike 7y ago
  Project fi might be interesting too.
  - teraflop 7y ago
    Yeah, that would be an option. But IMO the biggest downside would be that they charge for overages instead of throttling. If I'm working on a hobby project that involves uploading data, and something gets into an unexpected state, it's easy to imagine it transferring tens of GB in a matter of hours. In that event, I'd rather have it restricted to dialup speed (which is still enough to transfer 20GB/month) than get hit with hundreds of dollars in bandwidth charges overnight.
    - tehlike 7y ago
      Project fi caps the bill at some number.
oh_sigh 7y ago
You probably want to look into M2M(machine to machine) plans if you don't plan on using standard telephone features with your device and just want data. A lot of companies offer this service these days. For example(random googling first result): https://hologram.io/pricing/ https://hologram.io/pricing/ is offering M2M sims for $1 per SIM per month + 40 cents per mb.
- el_benhameen 7y ago
  Wow, this is super cool. Thanks!
- samstave 7y ago
  Yeah Hologram is cool but super expensive... https://communityphone.org/ https://communityphone.org/ These guys can beat their prices. and are YC alum.
  - oh_sigh 7y ago
    It looks like they don't offer M2M plans, and their cheapest plan appears to be ~$20/month(I guess? I don't see a recurring billing option). Maybe it's the cheapest if you are sending 500+MB of data per month but it seems hologram(or some other M2M sim provider) would be cheaper.
frakkingcylons 7y ago
I've used Ting successfully before: https://ting.com/ https://ting.com/
samstave 7y ago
Talk to @james at https://communityphone.org/ https://communityphone.org/ They are YC alum.

I haven't done anything practical yet, but in our country (South Africa), we've had a law recently that forces the cell network providers to allow consumers to transfer data around. For basic use (maybe 10 devices), I would be able to share my phone's data plan. I'm on a generous contract that gives me more data than I need (fiber at home). For larger volumes, most providers will either allow you to pool a number of SIM cards' usage into a single account, especially if you restrict them to only connect to a private network. We have this at my workplace on most SIM cards in laptops. There are also companies that supply SIMs to merchants and IoT folk on behalf of network providers. I'd also look into that. In most cases you end up with each SIM having its own data plan. I did some freelance work for one of these companies last year, if you have enough volume, you can negotiate pooling of data.

teraflop 7y ago

I investigated this a year or so ago for a hobby project. The best cheap option I found for non-trivial amounts of data in the US was T-Mobile's $10/month plan, which comes with 2GB/mo of high-speed data, and throttles down to roughly 64kbit/sec after that.

el_benhameen 7y ago
I thought about something similar. T-Mobile based MVNOs have pretty good pricing, too, so maybe I'll do that.
tehlike 7y ago
Project fi might be interesting too.
- teraflop 7y ago
  Yeah, that would be an option. But IMO the biggest downside would be that they charge for overages instead of throttling. If I'm working on a hobby project that involves uploading data, and something gets into an unexpected state, it's easy to imagine it transferring tens of GB in a matter of hours. In that event, I'd rather have it restricted to dialup speed (which is still enough to transfer 20GB/month) than get hit with hundreds of dollars in bandwidth charges overnight.
  - tehlike 7y ago
    Project fi caps the bill at some number.

oh_sigh 7y ago

You probably want to look into M2M(machine to machine) plans if you don't plan on using standard telephone features with your device and just want data. A lot of companies offer this service these days. For example(random googling first result): https://hologram.io/pricing/ https://hologram.io/pricing/ is offering M2M sims for $1 per SIM per month + 40 cents per mb.

el_benhameen 7y ago
Wow, this is super cool. Thanks!
samstave 7y ago
Yeah Hologram is cool but super expensive... https://communityphone.org/ https://communityphone.org/ These guys can beat their prices. and are YC alum.
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  It looks like they don't offer M2M plans, and their cheapest plan appears to be ~$20/month(I guess? I don't see a recurring billing option). Maybe it's the cheapest if you are sending 500+MB of data per month but it seems hologram(or some other M2M sim provider) would be cheaper.

frakkingcylons 7y ago

I've used Ting successfully before: https://ting.com/ https://ting.com/

samstave 7y ago

Talk to @james at https://communityphone.org/ https://communityphone.org/ They are YC alum.