Cellular connectivity can be rather expensive, and in the IoT realms, new LTE standards are still evolving and you may want to manage your own mini cellular network, so ideally we would need a provider that offers both low cost and flexibility. Hologram LTE network does both as it’s a software-defined network, and pricing starts at $5 for the SIM card and $0.40 per month per device.
The company also just announced that their network was available for global deployment with the service available in more than 170 countries via partnerships through over 200 cellular carriers. The SIM card supports automatic roaming and carrier switching, and spacebridge inbound tunnel access allows for secure remote programming and device management.
The SIM card specifications are as follows:
- 2G/GPRS, 3G HSPDA, 4G LTE
- Read/Write Cycles: Min. 500,000
- Operating Temperature: -25°C ~ 85°C
- Data Retention: Min. 25 years at 25°C
- Triple-cut for Mini, Micro, and Nano SIM formats
- Mini: 15 x 25mm
- Micro: 12 x 15mm
- Nano: 8.8 x 12.3mm
Pricing is divided into zone 1 (cyan) and zone 2 (purple blue) depending in the country where the SIM card operates, with the latter being more expensive.
Within each zone there are two pricing methods, with pay-as-you-go plans with a fixed platform fee per month plus a charge per megabyte, or monthly plans with a fixed amount of data. For example, a SIM card in zone 1 would cost a $0.40 platform fee per month plus $0.60 per megabyte (charged per KB), or $3.99 for 10MB of data, while a SIM card operating in zone 2 would be $0.40 platform fee per month plus $0.85 per MB, or $6.99 for a monthly 10MB plan. You can also choose monthly plans with less or more data up to 500MB per month, except in the US where the company offers high bandwidth monthly plans up to 5GB per month. Inbound SMS are free, and outbound SMS cost $0.19 per MB or $0.30 per MB depending on your zone. You’ll find all details on the pricing page.
While the SIM card costs $5, you can try the service for free by “purchasing” a developer SIM card that comes with 1MB data per month. I ordered one with DEVPLANBLASTOFF promo code for free shipping. I’ll see if I ever receive it, and whether I can use it where I live, since in theory all SIM cards must be registered with an ID card or passport to work, and mandatory fingerprinting is coming next year.
You can certainly use the SIM card on your own hardware, but the company can also provide Hologram Dash board based on Ublox Sara-U260 2G/3G module, and kits such as the one above with components, sensors, cables, and other accessories. The documentation explains how to get started with Dash board, the SIM card, and cloud messaging and APIs.
Hologram is not the only company offering pay-as-you-go and monthly plans for cellular IoT, as Particle (previously Spark) has offered an inexpensive monthly plan for a little while, but it does not relies on an SDN implemtation. You’ll find further information and details on Hologram website.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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There’s some gitch on their website, I ordered one dev sim and got receipt but I still have it in my cart and checkout page shows only “your order has been processed” message. Anyway, this cost me nothing so I will wait and see if this has any use in PL.
Pretty amazing that places like Greenland count as Zone 1, but Canada is Zone 2…
Also that map projection is so wrong… Africa looks so small compared to Greenland (Africa: 30.3 million km^2, Greenland: 2.2 million km^2)
@zgoda
Did you pay $7.50 for shipping or is there cheaper option?
@Marek
I did not pay for $7.50 shipping after applying the promo code. Completely free SIM card. It remains to be seen if it will be sent to me.
@cnxsoft
Thanks, I somehow missed information on promo code.
@Mum
The map problem is caused by trying to represent a curved ball on a flat piece of paper. Flat Earthers go on about it saying all maps are fake and the world is flat! The flat map was designed to allow ships to sail between ports before we had satellite images.
Indonesia (where I live) is listed in Zone-1. Yeah, right. Getting a SIM card here requires you to provide a bunch of private information and an acceptable form of official photo ID. You can get around that easily, but it’s asking for trouble (unless you’re a criminal or terrorist, who couldn’t care less). Plus the carriers make LOADS of money on high recurring fees for pre-paid SIM cards, and high registration fees for post-paid SIM cards that expire faster than old fish. The carriers are not going to let these card even touch Indonesian soil much less register them on their network. So Hologram would need to get a licence to operate as a VNO here. Trust me, that’s NOT gonna happen.
@Drone
I could buy a SIM card very easily in 2013, no ID asked. I guess the laws have changed since then, just like in Thailand.
Hologram has partnership with local carriers. Maybe they don’t care too much since that SIM card won’t work in a phone to make calls, at least as I understand it. It’s only for data and/or SMS.
I’m curious about the ID registration thing though, and I’ve “bought” one so I’ll see.
My SIM card has shipped:
Mine has arrived in NZ. Will be 3-4 days before I can check it out.
I’ve received my SIM card too. Now I just have to find some hardware to use it…
Have you tested it? What hardware have you used? My card has arrived too 🙂
@David
I’m testing it today. I’m trying Wio GPS Tracker, but can’t make GPRS data to work on it, not sure how to enable roaming yet.
Otherwise, I’ve quickly tested it in phone, and can received SMS sent from dashboard, and connect over GPRS. However I cannot send SMS, maybe because of regulations here. The stats don’t appear to be updated in real-time in the dashboard. If you test GPRS in your phone make sure you only do it for a few seconds, as background services will quickly eat up your 1MB bandwidth. I stopped at 568 KB after 30 seconds I think, but I could load a text file.
@cnxsoft
Another more likely reason is because there’s no phone number by default…
Results of my tests with the SIM card: http://www.cnx-software.com/2017/08/20/checking-out-holograms-developer-sim-card-for-worldwide-iot-projects/