Cheap SIM for Internet of Things?

[LimeBlast]

I was browsing Facebook earlier today and saw an advert for ChatSim.

This is being marketed as the low cost sim for use with IMs such as WhatsApp, which for as little as £10 a year, you can use send unlimited text and emoji messages from anywhere in the world.

From what I can gather, this is a bit of a loss leader, with the long term idea being that people will get the sim for messaging, but as most (but not all) phones can only support one sim at a time, they're hoping to sell extras, such as more advanced messages (images, videos, etc..) and phone calls, etc..

So I was just about to close the window, uninterested in such a thing, until I realised that it could be good for use in IoT projects?

I'm sure there's something out there which will let you use a sim with an Arduino or Raspberry pi, for reporting back to base, and as long as you're only sending textual information, this could be a cheap way of achieving that?

Anyway, I'm not that clued up on IoT, so it's possible what I've just described is silly - but I figured I'd post about it here anyway, as I want to hear what you think about? Would something like this be realistic? Or am I way off the mark?

[Woo]

Is this a 'Thing' that is out of range of your already paid for WiFi?

GiffGaff SIMs are unlimited UK for £7-50pm https://www.giffgaff.com/goodybags

There are also £5pm gigabags that allow tethering, with data limits.https://www.giffgaff.com/gigabags. (I've only just realised that the goodybags allow tethering too, now they've gone to 4G)

[LimeBlast]

The "thing" doesn't exist yet, I'm talking theoretically. Even at £5 per month for giffgaff, that doesn't beat £10 per year.

[Woo]

I'm suspicious of loss-leaders. I think O2 know what is sustainable.

[auxbuss]

+ £10 one-time activation + £5.80 shipping (presumably one-time) = £25.80 (for first year)

Not bad, still, though a bit less attractive.

[LimeBlast]

In my stumbling around the Internet today, I found a funky 3G kit for use with IoT devices being sold by Pimoroni.

Although the kit itself looks interesting (I'm not entirely sure, but I think the Particle Electron it comes with is a bit like an Arduino, with added 3G connection), I'm more interested (at least in relation to this thread) in the SIM card deal being offered with it.

They're offering 1MB of data for $2.99 a month, with each additional MB costing an additional 99c. Now of course 1MB isn't very much, but if you read further into the blurb, they're apparently using their own protocols to massively reduce the bandwidth needed to send data.

I'd not mind paying around with something like this, as I have an idea for a project that I think would benefit from a 3G connection to send signals once or twice a day - so I may come back to this in the new year.

[sil]

Relevant (and the rest of that conversation)

John Woods (Yorksims)

[LimeBlast]

Further investigation has discovered hologram, and their free developer plan.

This gives you 1MB per month for free - which doesn’t sound like a lot, but for reporting sensor data, etc… it should be plenty enough.

I’m close to ordering their Onboarding kit and using it to power a mail notification (something which can sit in my mailbox downstairs and tell me when I have post). Alas, the postbox is outside the range of my wifi, hence looking for a gsm solution.

[sil]

hologram, and their free developer plan

$7.50 shipping seems a bit bloody steep for a SIM card (especially since you can only buy one), but hey ho. It being an American company is a bit worrying from a customer support perspective. The one from Three doesn’t work?

[LimeBlast]

$7.50 shipping seems a bit bloody steep for a SIM card (especially since you can only buy one), but hey ho.

When I ordered mine, it was free shipping. You also get a sim for free with any hardware you order from them, such as the Dash I’ve just ordered.

The one from Three doesn’t work?

I’ve lost mine somewhere in the move from Birmingham to Worcester. I’m sure it’s somewhere among my stuff, I just don’t know where.

In any case, I wasn’t able to test it as I didn’t have any device with which it was compatible (except my phone, of course).

I may try it with the aforementioned Dash (if I ever find it again), but with my current plans for it, I’m sure the 1MB included with the Hologram sim will be plenty.

[sil]

Ah, cool, that makes sense then