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Most of those GPS trackers for corporate use require a data connection, which is probably costing someone $€£ 10/month for the line at least. Usually when you

Most of those GPS trackers for corporate use require a data connection, which is probably costing someone $€£ 10/month for the line at least. Usually when you stop paying for that subscription, the line gets deactivated. So probably nobody is getting that GPS trace.

milesvp 2y ago
I work in this space, and I’ve seen advertised components (most likely SOCs) that had “lifetime” cell data included in the price, costing, on the order of, $50. It is becoming increasingly cheap to have low bandwidth cellular connectivity.
- snozolli 2y ago
  Can you post an example of one of these products? I've been dabbling in this space and I'm having a hard time finding any data service under about $2 - $4 per month.
  - milesvp 2y ago
    I'm having trouble finding what I remember seeing maybe 4 years ago. It was an all in one cellular component with an esim. This is the closest I can find to what I remember seeing. It may lead you to some other solutions. https://1nce.com/en-us/1nce-connect/10-dollars-for-10-years https://1nce.com/en-us/1nce-connect/10-dollars-for-10-years I remember seeing stupidly cheap prices for cellular chips, and when I looked into it, it looked like they had bought up a bunch of bulk bandwidth on some really old tech, like 2G. The offering wasn't a lot of data per period but certainly enough to wake up and upload a small amount of data regularly. Seemed like an obvious product, I know that if I'm doing a design, I don't want to have to rely on ongoing costs. I'm surprised I can't find more hits like this one. It's possible that peak IoT led to some crazy business models that had no chance of sustaining. I think they may have banking on the network dying before having to figure out how to purchase more bandwidth. Digikey was no help. Googling "Lifetime Data Cellular Communication plan" did lead to some other potential interesting hits. chatgpt almost gave me interesting things to look for, but it mostly pointed me at consumer good. Good luck.
    - snozolli 2y ago
      I hadn't seen that before. Thanks for taking the time!
rubynerd 2y ago
Going by Hologram's public pricing, a GNSS "heartbeat" per-minute would cost $4/month on a PAYG model. With tiered contract pricing, I'd expect that to drop to $1/month for a mid/large-sized telematics organisation. https://hologram.io/pricing/ https://hologram.io/pricing/

milesvp 2y ago

I work in this space, and I’ve seen advertised components (most likely SOCs) that had “lifetime” cell data included in the price, costing, on the order of, $50. It is becoming increasingly cheap to have low bandwidth cellular connectivity.

snozolli 2y ago
Can you post an example of one of these products? I've been dabbling in this space and I'm having a hard time finding any data service under about $2 - $4 per month.
- milesvp 2y ago
  I'm having trouble finding what I remember seeing maybe 4 years ago. It was an all in one cellular component with an esim. This is the closest I can find to what I remember seeing. It may lead you to some other solutions. https://1nce.com/en-us/1nce-connect/10-dollars-for-10-years https://1nce.com/en-us/1nce-connect/10-dollars-for-10-years I remember seeing stupidly cheap prices for cellular chips, and when I looked into it, it looked like they had bought up a bunch of bulk bandwidth on some really old tech, like 2G. The offering wasn't a lot of data per period but certainly enough to wake up and upload a small amount of data regularly. Seemed like an obvious product, I know that if I'm doing a design, I don't want to have to rely on ongoing costs. I'm surprised I can't find more hits like this one. It's possible that peak IoT led to some crazy business models that had no chance of sustaining. I think they may have banking on the network dying before having to figure out how to purchase more bandwidth. Digikey was no help. Googling "Lifetime Data Cellular Communication plan" did lead to some other potential interesting hits. chatgpt almost gave me interesting things to look for, but it mostly pointed me at consumer good. Good luck.
  - snozolli 2y ago
    I hadn't seen that before. Thanks for taking the time!

rubynerd 2y ago

Going by Hologram's public pricing, a GNSS "heartbeat" per-minute would cost $4/month on a PAYG model. With tiered contract pricing, I'd expect that to drop to $1/month for a mid/large-sized telematics organisation. https://hologram.io/pricing/ https://hologram.io/pricing/