Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) data for IoT devices might sound like a small thing, but it adds up to massive time and cost savings for IoT solutions.
We offer hands-free where you only pay for the months that SIMs send data.
PAYG data isn’t common in the IoT connectivity industry because of technical restrictions and commercial decisions. Most IoT SIM providers lock users into subscription and have data pooling limitations
But for IoT to flourish, we think that it’s important to only charge for data when data is being consumed. Otherwise you end up paying for devices that are sitting on shelves or have to spend a lot of time activating and deactivating SIMs.
What PAYG data means for IoT
Our flexible data pricing model that is based on value creation means:
- Always-on SIMs with no active SIM fee.
- No need for manual SIM deactivation and activation.
- No workarounds with Zapier or other unnecessary tools.
- No prepaid risk, you only pay for data when devices are in use.
- Full network flexibility with no limitations on the networks you choose.
And that’s how a common-sense data pricing model makes IoT easier.
Why are data subscriptions common in cellular IoT?
SIM information is stored in the core network of your cellular IoT operator. Specifically, the HSS (Home Subscriber Server) or the HLR (Home Location Register). And there’s a problem with these systems … they are expensive!
Mobile network operators (MNOs) and Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) pay companies like Oracle to set up databases on their HLR/HSS systems and are charged a fee for each row of data stored. And if you offer roaming and need access to another operator’s database, it can cost millions of euros for access plus a fee for each SIM.
A consequence of how databases are set up in the telco industry is that SIM cards have a monthly fee per active SIM card.
This fee doesn’t matter much to consumers as it’s only a tiny fraction of their overall subscription. But for IoT, where businesses have thousands or millions of SIM cards, the subscription fee that you incur even when not using the SIM impacts any business case significantly! If you make 100,000 devices for multiple markets, you will spend a lot of time and money forecasting when to activate them and how to minimize these subscription fees.
Don’t pay for activated SIMs, only for active SIMs.
With Onomondo, if a SIM is not in use, it incurs no costs.
How do we do this? We’ve rebuilt the complete network logic from scratch and don’t have the same data storage expenses that MNOs and MVNOs face. And as we don’t have any costs for activating SIMs in the database, we don’t need to charge our customers.
Read more about always active SIMs with PAYG pricing: Always Active IoT SIMs.
You can now receive activated SIM cards for production (so your device can join a network), send your device out to the market (where it might sit on a shelf for a while), not have to worry about when to activate the SIMs, and only incur fees when data is transmitted.
