Frequently Asked Questions

Consider us as your connectivity department. We are not a carrier (mobile network operator) ourselves and do not force our own roaming deals or packages on you. Instead, we have gathered many pre-negotiated carrier deals under one roof and due to volume discounts get a better deal from carriers than you would get. We are fully independent in our decision making and will pick the best deal for your use case.

As of today we are reselling 13 different carrier deals, including Vodafone, Play, JT, and Telefonica.

We are the market leader and the only provider offering a truly independent eSIM (eUICC) solution for the IoT & M2M sector. We are not a mobile network operator (carrier) ourselves and will help you pick the best deal for your use case.

In addition to being truly independent and offering a complete end-to-end global connectivity solution, we believe that the biggest differentiator is our no corporate BS policy. We hate hidden fees and complicated contracts. 1oT has bold ambitions to disrupt the global IoT connectivity sphere and help IoT scale globally with a single connectivity service.

Think about a company that manages a fleet of vehicles. They need to track where their devices are to manage their operations. It used to be that the company would need to contact a carrier and work through a lengthy sales process. After that, they would have to continuously negotiate rates as the fleet scales.

Now think about the same fleet manager who wants to scale to neighboring countries. The company would need to repeat this process with yet another carrier in every country.

We are part of, and co-founded by Mobi Solutions Group which among other things was a key developer of the original Skype mobile application (via Mobi Lab), as well as launching the mobile payments service Fortumo, (backed by Intel Capital), and Messente, the SMS service provider. The group has brought numerous internationally successful telecommunications and IT services to the market. 

In early 2016, Mobi Solutions Group joined forces with Märt Kroodo, an IoT enthusiast & experienced entrepreneur, and founded 1oT to disrupt global connectivity for the IoT sector.

Originating in Estonia, we have since expanded our offices to the UK (London) and Germany (Berlin).

We recommend you to start off by going through frequently asked questions. Also, our blog contains a lot of useful information about getting started with cellular connectivity.

Outside of that, you can write to us at any time. We'll reply shortly.

PS! All of our customers will have a dedicated account manager to support with issues.

There are multiple reasons why cellular connectivity (2G, 3G, 4G, NB-IoT, Cat-M1) is the best choice for device manufacturers.

• Availability: cellular networks are globally widespread and ubiquitous. A cellular subscription also allows you to roam on different network carriers, meaning the coverage is not limited to a specific area, city, or country.

• Security: cellular technology has been maturing for 50+ years now. All the solutions are GSMA certified and accepted by all global carriers. Therefore, other technologies cannot match the reliability that cellular offers.

• Range: WiFi and Bluetooth could be useful for high bandwidth applications, but don't reach far enough for long-distance communications. With a cellular network, your IoT or M2M devices can connect to a cell tower from a few dozen miles away.

• Cost: Carriers have made heavy investments into cellular networks to provide secure, reliable service to as many customers as possible.

IoT connectivity options can be divided into three main categories: Cellular Connectivity, Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN), and Short Range.

Is the best fit for IoT applications that needs to connect over long distances with the most reliable connectivity. 2G, 3G, & 4G networks have been proven to provide global coverage no matter where the IoT device ends up. Cellular is a universal solution but consumes a lot of battery.

LPWAN technologies can be divided into licensed (NB-IoT, LTE-M) and unlicensed (SigFox and LoRaWan) technologies. 

NB-IoT and LTE-M provide you with standardised connectivity. 

SigFox and LoRaWan are dependent on gateways that need to be set up either by yourself or through someone else's solution, which might not be reliable.

LPWAN provides better power-saving possibilities than Cellular Connectivity but is only used for sending small amounts of data.

This category includes Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave, WiFi, NFC, and others. As the name suggests, it's only used for short-range IoT devices, not exceeding one building.

Short Range Technologies can have a better battery life but come with limited coverage areas.

For more information about different solutions, visit our blog.

NB-IoT and LTE-M are new LPWAN technologies built on top of cellular networks infrastructure, providing you with reliable coverage with very low power consumption.

LPWAN is mainly meant for IoT devices with low data consumption and high latency tolerance.

Currently, the deployments around these technologies are ongoing, and also roaming agreements are not yet set in place. This makes NB-IoT and LTE-M not the best global solutions quite yet.

The most important thing before choosing a connectivity provider is to understand the needs of your deployment.

Key things to consider:

• Do you need global coverage? Or will your devices be deployed in one particular country?

• How much data does the device consume monthly?

• What kind of control do I need over the SIM cards? In some cases, for example, having complete control of SIMs over API is a must. In some cases, it's not that critical.

Roaming guarantees global connectivity. A global SIM/eSIM will allow you to connect the device to the Internet in any country where it is being used. For devices that are continually changing countries such as delivery trucks, roaming is a must to guarantee a seamless connection.

Sometimes during the manufacturing process, it's not known yet where the device will end up. Hence you need one SIM to provide connectivity in multiple countries.

If you want to know how roaming works, check out our blog post.

Roaming restrictions are imposed by country regulators or networks and only allow a SIM to roam for a limited period in one particular country. Once the device reaches that limit, it is automatically kicked out of the network. This is a significant concern for IoT devices which are supposed to roam in a country for many years.

As of today, Brazil, India, Turkey, and Canada have the strictest regulatory restrictions in place to prevent permanent roaming.

The size and type of SIM you need to select depends on the device's purpose, functionality, and space available to host a SIM card or chip.

There are two types of SIM cards:

• Traditional SIM (UICC), which can be either plastic SIM card (2FF, 3FF and 4FF) or a chip SIM (MFF2) that is soldered onto the circuit board during production. 
• eSIM (eUICC), which also can be either plastic eSIM card (2FF, 3FF and 4FF) or a chip SIM (MFF2)

• Traditional SIM (UICC), which can be either plastic SIM card (2FF, 3FF and 4FF) or a chip SIM (MFF2) that is soldered onto the circuit board during production.
• eSIM (eUICC), which also can be either plastic eSIM card (2FF, 3FF and 4FF) or a chip SIM (MFF2)

To get started you have to order the SIMs from us. If you're at a very early stage, we can offer you a 2-month test kit with 2 SIMs.

If you are operating at a bigger scale and know what you need, please contact our sales team for a customized offer.

Billing and payment methods

• We believe you should only pay for the data you consume. So, we offer monthly billing that you can cancel any time.
  
• We have a monthly billing cycle for fees: for example, if you change SIM status from LIVE to CLOSED in mid-month, then you still pay the agreed monthly fee in that particular month.
• Supported payment methods are Paypal, credit card, and manual invoices.

• We do offer flexibility with data packages. You can choose from per MB pricing, fixed data packages, or data pools.
  

• 1oT SIM: traditional SIMs (UICC) work in every device.
  
• 1oT eSIM: with eSIM (eUICC) your cellular hardware module needs to support Bearer Independent Protocol (BIP) and SIM ToolKit (STK) for remote SIM provisioning. Read more about it here.
  

All of our SIM cards are produced according to the GSMA standards.

SIMs can be activated either through 1oT Terminal or via API. We can also do it for you if needed.

• LIVE: Active SIM. Data & SMS (& voice) services are working. Action triggered from 1oT Terminal or API
  
• SLEEP: SIM is turned off (no network connection). Can be re-activated. Action triggered from 1oT Terminal or API
  
• OFFLINE: Services turned off (for temporary purposes). Can be re-activated. Action triggered from 1oT Terminal or API
  
• CLOSED: SIM is closed for good and cannot be re-activated. Action triggered from 1oT Terminal or API
  

eSIM is changing the game for IoT/M2M in two main areas.

Firstly, securing (more) local data rates no matter where your devices end up.

Secondly, managing the carrier (mobile network operator) profiles for devices that are in hard to access areas. The ability to remotely (over-the-air) swap the network operator profile is paramount since it might be impossible or costly to access the SIM card. Besides, eSIM addresses other issues, such as permanent roaming restrictions (countries that do not allow to roam over 30 or 90 days in the country) and having a global solution for NB-IoT/LTE-M (as currently roaming in NB-IoT/LTE-M is not supported or standardised).

1oT offers eSIM in 2FF (mini), 3FF (micro), 4FF (nano) and MFF2 form factors.

Everyone can utilize the essential toolkit necessary for handling device connectivity. These include:

See a short 1-minute overview video.

You can activate SIM cards through 1oT Terminal or API. And you'll receive access to the 1oT Terminal along with your first order of 1oT SIM or 1oT eSIM cards.

We have created different statuses for 1oT SIMs and 1oT eSIMs:

• LIVE: Active SIM. Data & SMS (& voice) services are working. Action triggered from 1oT Terminal or API
  
• SLEEP: SIM is turned off (no network connection). Can be re-activated. Action triggered from 1oT Terminal or API
  
• OFFLINE: Services turned off (for temporary purposes). Can be re-activated. Applies when a SIM reaches its data limit or when the action is triggered by the client from 1oT Terminal or API
  
• CLOSED: SIM is closed for good and cannot be re-activated.  Action triggered from 1oT Terminal or API
• SHIPPING: indicates that 1oT SIM or 1oT eSIM is on its way to you. 0-cost applies.

A SIM reset is like a refresh of the SIM card that you can do via 1oT Terminal. It will disconnect any active connection and behave as if the device was restarted, like it's the first time trying to connect to (roaming) networks. Once the reset is complete the SIM will initiate a network attach process. It also re-sets the APN at the network level.

1oT Terminal comes with base services and separate 1oT Terminal Apps as value-added tools. 

• Setting data limits
  
• Overview of your SIMs
• Grouping SIMs
• Detailed data & SMS sessions
• SIM status changes

• Notifications
• API
• KPI Reporting
• Future Events

All of our 1oT Terminal Apps can be found in the 1oT Terminal with explanations of how they work. If you'd like to activate an app, it's as simple as clicking a button, no additional details necessary.

Our clients mostly use:

• API
• Notifications for receiving alerts to email and through API.
• Productivity Toolkit for easier management of SIMs.
• Slack integration for receiving all notifications to a Slack channel.
• Clients View that  enables you to create sub-accounts for your clients and dictate what information they have access to.