IoT plans

[pylon]

Internet of Things devices can easily be connected to cell networks with a SIM breakout board. Most of these SIMs use 2G or a simple GSM network.

The information sent and received by these devices is either in SMS form or in small data packets.

Currently, the best support for these devices in Canada is via Pre-paid cards which is difficult to manage and requires careful consideration of Terms of Service.

It would be awesome to see an easy, no-hastle plan from Public Mobile which caters specifically to these devices.

The plan would likely need to include either a small amount of data or an unlimited SMS package. Because of the nature of most mobile IoT devices, connection speed could be extremely limited as only small data transfers should be performed.

Seeing this as a monthly or auto-refill pre-pay style service would be awesome and would draw a lot of developers to Public Mobile.

In summary:

No mobile provider has a plan for IoT devices in Canada.

Connection speed is not imoprtant so price can (hopefully) be kept low.

No-nonsense purpose-built plan for ease of integration and use.

[7789849803]

Good idea. But there's a few potential issues:

(1) Telus does not run a 2G network. I don't know if limiting bandwidth for 3G IoT SIMs will help it in any way, since data usage is usually limited anyway.

(2) I suspect IoT devices will usually come bundled with a SIM that just works with the device for the first year. Seems like a bad idea for people to be expected to buy their own SIMs from mobile carriers for each IoT device. And, BTW...

(3) Most IoT devices around the home are designed to run on WiFi, and not on mobile data.

[pylon]

Thanks for the feedback @7789849803

That's a shame that Telus doesn't run 2G but I can understand why.

My thought was more along the lines of the producer of the IoT devices buying and managing the SIM cards. This greatly simplifies access to central services.

For sure, and it totally makes sense for most around the home IoT to run on WiFi but for industrial applications, often the choice is between cellular networking or an RF mesh network which can add to setup cost and complexity. That being said, a plan like this would probably target tinkerers more than industrial application designers.