Thinxtra — the licenced provider of Sigfox LPWAN networks in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong — has teamed up with KDDI subsidiary Soracom to enable it to offer IoT connectivity over cellular networks.
Soracom claims to connect over one million devices for 15,000 customers in 122 countries, with half of these devices using eSIM technology. Soracom services are already available in Australia from KDDI’s Australian subsidiary.
Soracom has offered Soracom Air for Sigfox Since April 2018, offering Global GSM and Sigfox connectivity from a central platform with a single billing system.
According Soracom the service “provides centralised control for your Sigfox connections on a bring-your-own-device, pay-as-you-go basis, with service available in over 50 countries across EMEA, APAC, North America and South America.”
According to Thinxtra, Soracom’s connectivity management platform lets customers connect and control IoT networks comprised of millions of SIMs.
“The user-friendly console allows businesses to remotely manage devices, build dashboards and create private IoT networks on the go; all covered by a ‘fit-for-IoT’ pricing model that allows users to pay on a consumption basis,” Thinxtra says.
It claims the partnership will enable it to deliver connectivity management that “overcomes some of the most problematic challenges to successful IoT deployments, including cost blowouts, long lead times and the inability to easily scale.”
Thinxtra said the partnership would enable it to offer a ‘pay-per-use’ consumption model for cellular connectivity in over a hundred countries.
“One contract deployed globally, with access by the day, and usage by the megabyte, … [allowing] customers to connect SIMs securely to their application, whether it’s located in a private data centre, a public cloud, or both. All configured directly by the customer within the platform in a matter of minutes.”
Thinxtra says more information on the service will be forthcoming shortly.
Soracom publishes its prices on its website. In July 2019 it reduced these by “as much as 75 percent in some countries.”
