Frequently Asked Questions

1oT is a global cellular connectivity provider to the IoT/M2M sector, acting as an aggregator of different international carriers (MNOs/MVNOs). 1oT provides a one-of-everything (1 (e)SIM, 1 Connectivity Management Platform, 1 invoice) service that is constantly improving to help the IoT companies of all sizes do their business on a global scale.

Today, a million 1oT connected SIM cards (half of them of which are eSIMs) are deployed in a range of devices from bird trackers to e-scooters in 120 countries. Strongly expanding its reach worldwide, 1oT aims to gradually make eSIM technology a standard in the connectivity market to unlock its immense socio-economic benefits to the global economy.

Consider 1oT as your connectivity department.

We are not dependent on any carrier, so we are fully independent in our decision-making, and can freely help our customers to select the most suitable connectivity provider according to their needs.

We have gathered many pre-negotiated carrier deals under one roof, and can often offer a better deal than what you would get straight from the carrier, due to the volume discounts.

1oT unites 12 different carriers worldwide, covering over 190 countries.

1oT remains a strong player in the IoT sphere on the road to becoming a market leader. We provide a one-of-everything (1 eSIM, 1 Connectivity Management Platform, 1 invoice) service that is constantly improving to provide what's best for IoT companies of all sizes.  We are not a mobile network operator ourselves and we are happy to 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 have zero-tolerance for hidden fees and complicated contracts.

1oT has bold ambitions to disrupt the global IoT connectivity sphere and help IoT companies to scale globally with a single connectivity service.

We are very proud to be assisting our customers in any way we can, including hardware and technology solutions.

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.

This is where 1oT comes in.

1oT can offer a 1-of-everything solution to that company – 1 (e)SIM, 1 Connectivity Management Platform, and 1 invoice. Thus, the company doesn’t have to worry about negotiating new deals and getting new SIMs every time they want to expand to a new country or region. With 1oT, they can take care of all these processes remotely through 1oT’s Connectivity Management Platform called Terminal, including swapping carrier profiles and opening and closing SIM cards.

If that company chooses a pay-as-you-go package, it will only have to pay for the amount of data its devices did last month.

1oT makes IoT connectivity easy!

1oT was founded by Märt Kroodo (CEO) and Mobi Solutions Group (headed by Rain Rannu) in 2016. Mobi Solutions has innovated in the telecom space for over two decades. Mobi Solutions Group companies have tackled the mobile payment sector with Fortumo (acquired by Boku in 2020), SMS sphere with Messente, and, from the telecom industry experience, they saw an opportunity in the IoT connectivity market.

So far, telecoms had been used to cater to local customers in their core market. For IoT to boom, these telecoms needed to collaborate more – IoT companies cannot negotiate different deals in different markets and continuously operate with different SIMs, support channels, and negotiations.

As the eSIM spec by GSMA was launched during the same period (the first real innovation of SIMs since 1991!), we saw this as a tool. We wanted to provide flexibility and a way to give more power to the hands of the IoT companies who want to expand globally and offer services on different continents. Also, we assumed telecoms would not negotiate between themselves to provide multiple telecoms’ profiles at once on one single eSIM. We also knew that eSIM for the IoT sector requires an independent middleman and neutral non-telecom to bundle many telecoms into one eSIM offering.

This is how we ended up with 1oT, which stands for “1 connectivity service for IoT”.

We recommend you start by going through Frequently Asked Questions both on our web page and the 1oT Terminal (if you’re already our customer). Also, we recommend looking into our blog, as it contains a lot of useful information about getting started in the IoT world.

Outside of that, you can contact our customer support: support@1ot.com at any time. We'll reply shortly.

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

• Coverage: Cellular networks are available globally, and the current infrastructure offers good connectivity capability and quality of service. A cellular subscription doesn’t limit your device to a specific area, city, or country, but the possibility to roam and eSIM has opened the borders.

• Security: cellular technology has been maturing for 50+ years now. All the solutions are GSMA certified and accepted by all global carriers. As a comparison, the alternative options haven’t been around half as long, thus can’t match cellular connectivity's trustworthiness.

• Range: WiFi and Bluetooth could be useful for high bandwidth applications, but don't reach far enough for long-distance communications. With cellular networks, your IoT or M2M devices can be connected whether they’re deployed in a populated or rural area.

• 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.

Cellular Connectivity

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.

Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN)

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 standardized 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.

Short Range

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.

To compare NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) and LTE-M, it’s important to understand that they’re both designed specifically for IoT. Even though LPWA technology is still relatively new, it has become increasingly popular over the past few years with the shutdown of cellular networks 2G and 3G.

NB-IoT: Designed to work with so-called constrained devices that face some serious processing power, network connectivity, or battery life limitations. The technology has considerable benefits in indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and high connection density. The best use cases would be for smart devices located in buildings, remote or hard-to-reach locations, or even underground (to an extent).

LTE-M: Created for IoT devices to connect directly to a 4G network (as a build-up to 4G) without a gateway and using batteries only. While it’s fairly similar to NB-IoT in terms of battery life and indoor coverage, LTE-M offers seamless connection switching between cell towers, therefore supporting mobile devices (e.g vehicle and asset tracking). Unlike NB-IoT, LTE-M also supports voice commands.

We can conclude that LTE-M is suitable for both stationary and mobile devices, while NB-IoT is only for stationary devices.

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? Will your devices be deployed in one particular country?

• How much data do the devices 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.

1oT (e)SIMs come with global coverage in over 190 countries. See the global map with coverage here. If you wish to check connectivity coverage in a specific area, you may use the following websites:

• GSMA
• nPerf 
• Cellmapper
• Signal Checker (for the network coverage in the UK)

The answer is simple – roaming guarantees global connectivity, meaning global deployments.

A roaming SIM (we suggest eSIM) allows you to connect the device to the Internet in any country where it is being used. Roaming is essential for the devices that are constantly changing countries (such as delivery trucks), guaranteeing them seamless connectivity.

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 that 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.

• 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 learn more about the different solutions on the market, we’d recommend our blogs:

• Everything there is to know about eSIM (eUICC)

• Multi-IMSI SIM vs. eUICC - which one is better for your IoT project?

Getting started with 1oT starts by ordering our SIM cards of your choice. If you're at a very early stage, we offer Test Kits that usually include 2 SIM cards.

If you are operating at a bigger scale IoT company, 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 1oT SIM cards are produced according to the GSMA standards.

You can have full control over your (e)SIMs via our connectivity management platform called 1oT Terminal.

The 1oT Terminal allows you to:

• Manage 1oT (e)SIMs.

• Change the status of (e)SIMs, set data limits, see data sessions, group and tag your (e)SIMs, etc.

• Swap carriers on your 1oT eSIMs.

• Set up value-added services such as API, Notifications, Diagnostics, and many more.

You will have a full overview of your (e)SIMs, including their location, service status, and data usage. On our Connectivity Management Platform Terminal, you’ll be able to see when and where your (e)SIMs have had data/SMS sessions, how much data have they used, and which carrier networks they use, and so on.

Watch an overview video of 1oT Terminal’s functionality here. 

Setting up the APN is unique to different devices and usually, you will be able to find relevant instructions in your device manual. However, if you are facing technical difficulties, kindly contact your device manufacturer regarding the APN setup as they can provide device-specific instructions.

Although the (e)SIM card will automatically choose the network with the best signal, it is recommended that our clients configure their devices in the following way to avoid interruptions due to any unforeseen circumstances:

• Configure your device for automatic network selection. Information regarding this step can be found in your device manual or from the device manufacturer.

• If registration to the network is successful, but establishing a PDP context fails for X (user-defined value) amount of times per Y (user-defined value) minutes, then the device should always deregister from the attached network and try to connect to the next best available network.

• The process mentioned above should be repeated by the device until it can establish a successful PDP context and start data sessions on an available network.

• If these steps fail, the device should restart and try again starting from step 1.  

• SHIPPING: SIM cannot connect and there is no cost until SIM activation (putting SIM to LIVE status)
• LIVE: Active SIM. Data & SMS (& voice) services are working. 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

Technically called "eUICC" or "eSIM" and colloquially referred to as "virtual SIM cards". It combines high-end security methods with connectivity protocols, rendering a next-generation connectivity solution that increases security speed and ease of deployment. The solution complies with GSM Association (GSMA) specifications​ and is approved by all world's largest mobile operators, device manufacturers, and SIM vendors.

eSIM is an unlocked SIM card that enables you to swap carrier (mobile network operator) services “over-the-air” securely and at a push of a button. You can choose one mobile carrier service today (mobile carrier I) and decide to swap to another one tomorrow (mobile carrier II), without changing the physical SIM.

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

1. One device, one SIM card - 1oT eSIM allows you to manufacture devices with a single SIM card. After deployment, you can pick the most suitable carrier, which you can change any time with a press of a button.
   

2. Choosing eSIM makes your devices future-proof - they’re no longer affected by network sunsets or pricing changes.
   

3. Scale your business quicker - you no longer have to plan for SIM card trade-outs. Your sales team can ensure that every device contains the same hardware and SIM combination.

The SIMs are physically identical. Both eSIM (eUICC) and SIM (UICC) come in all form factors - 2/3/4FF (widely known as micro, mini, and nano-SIM) and MFF2 (solderable chip-SIM).

The main feature that sets the two apart is eSIM’s ability to change and host multiple network operators without having to physically change the card itself.

That gives eSIM users the ability to switch between carriers over the air. It will be useful for example in a case of inconvenient price change, quality issues with a particular carrier network, or devices moving between countries.

Yes, you can. eSIM is available in the same form factors as “regular” SIM cards. One thing to keep in mind is that to enjoy eSIMs full functionality, your hardware module needs to support it as well.

In case you want to know more about eSIM-supported hardware, read the blog article here, or contact us to help you out.

Unfortunately, no. Even though both SIM cards look the same, they have different software running on them, which can’t be updated over the air.

Your cellular hardware module needs to support Bearer Independent Protocol (BIP) and SIM ToolKit (STK) for remote SIM provisioning.

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

eSIM comes with one Default Carrier (bootstrap profile) which provides the first network connection for downloading new additional carriers onto and deleting old carriers from the eSIM (eUICC). Several different carriers can be downloaded on an eUICC, but only one can be active at any given time. The carrier swap is performed over the air, all you need to do is choose a carrier, download the profile and enable it.

To swap carriers, you need a Remote SIM Provisioning platform. We have developed the 1oT Terminal, which gives you full SIM subscription management functionalities along with the billing, changing status, and location information.

You can compare and swap different coverage plans from the 1oT Terminal under the eSIM management tool.

No, you can’t. In the case of eSIM, there needs to be a "middle-man" or aggregator who puts together a pool of different carriers to choose from. That is why you need an independent service provider like 1oT who has gathered multiple carriers under one eSIM infrastructure, has negotiated commercial deals and completed integrations with those carriers.

1oT eSIM was launched in 2019. Currently, 1oT eSIM is offering 5 different mobile carriers to choose from, but we are adding new carriers to the pool every month. Our plan is not to have hundreds of local carrier deals for each country in the world. We'd rather provide one good carrier deal per region/continent and address countries with permanent roaming restrictions separately with local deals (Brazil, India & Canada).

Similarly to BIG4 auditing companies, there are four big eSIM/SIM manufacturers in the world: Valid, Thales (previously known as Gemalto), IDEMIA (previously known as Oberthur Technologies), and G+D Mobile Security.

1oT eSIM cards are manufactured by Valid, the 60+-year-old Brazilian listed company (B³: VLID3 - ON). Valid has more than 6,000 employees in 17 countries generating revenue of $474 Million in 2018. Today, Valid is the largest issuer of identification documents in Brazil, one of the top producers of SIM cards in the world, and among the world’s largest manufacturers of bank cards.

Yes, they are. You can enable NB-IoT or LTE-M profiles on an eSIM. It makes it easy for your device to achieve LPWAN (Low-Power Wide-Area Network) support without any changes to the physical eSIM. You can start with a 2G/3G/4G profile and later swap it to an NB-IoT/LTE-M carrier deal.

The availability of Radio Access Types (RAT) such as 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE-M, and NB-IoT can vary from network to network and country to country and certain networks may have conditions for Permanent Roaming restrictions. Details for the coverage list, network availability & pricing, RAT availability, and Permanent Roaming restrictions can be found on the ‘Pricing’ page or ‘eSIM’ page of 1oT Terminal.

By default, 1oT (e)SIMs don’t support voice calls, but we can provide voice availability on a case-by-case basis.

Technically, yes.

• If you’re currently using Ericsson DCP or the Cisco Jasper platform, then you can set up the integration, so you could manage them through the 1oT Terminal. Note, that it’s a paid service and extra fees will apply.
  

• Our team has built up the knowledge and experience in migrating (e)SIMs from one CMP to another in recent years. The process needs work from both parties to work correctly, but our team has been able to manage the migrations of tens of thousands of SIMs without them ever losing connection.

You have probably heard about new mobile phones and smartwatches being equipped with eSIM. It's the Consumer eSIM that those devices come with and it differs from the eSIM technology tailored for IoT and M2M use cases (M2M eSIM).

The difference comes in the architecture and the standardization between the two:

1. Consumer eSIM uses a “pull”-model, which means that the end-user can manage and activate the new network carriers, based on their needs (usually through scanning QR codes).
2. IoT/M2M eSIM uses a “push”-model, which means that only the device’s owner or service provider can “push” the carrier changes onto the eSIM.

Even though consumer eSIMs are becoming more and more popular, 1oT only focuses on IoT/M2M eSIM solutions.

Self-service means that you are in charge and do not need our assistance to control your SIM cards via the 1oT Terminal. We believe that handling your devices' connectivity should be as simple as possible, needs to be automated, and ready to be integrated via API with your core business infrastructure.

But, of course, we are always available and ready to assist you in case you need it.

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.

SIMs can be activated through the 1oT Terminal or via API. Log in to 1oT Terminal and go to the (e)SIM view. From there, you need to change the (e)SIM status to LIVE - only then the (e)SIM can have a data session. If you wish to activate (e)SIMs through API, you need to activate the API app from our App Store in 1oT Terminal and use the "/activate" endpoint.

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
• 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 a restart of the SIM card that you can do via 1oT Terminal. It will disconnect any active connection and then act as if the SIM is trying to connect to (roaming) networks for the first time. Once the reset is complete, the SIM will initiate a network attach process. It also resets the APN at the network level.

If a device is having any connectivity issues or is unable to do data, resetting the (e)SIM usually fixes the issue.

However, in some cases, it might be necessary to restart the whole IoT setup that includes the (e)SIM, cellular module, and the device to rerun the startup procedure of the whole setup.

If you have physical access to the device, a simple restart (ON and OFF) will achieve this result, however, if you do not have access to the device, kindly check with the device manufacturer (for both the cellular module and the Device) to confirm if your setup can be reset remotely.

Usually, a lot of devices and IoT modules can be restarted remotely via SMS or AT command.

SMS can be sent either through the 1oT Terminal or via API. If you want to use 1oT Terminal to send SMS, follow these steps:

1. Go to the SIM view
2. Search for the ICCID you wish to send SMS to
3. Click on the black SMS box
4. Type in or copy the command you wish to send and click “Send”

If you need to send SMS to the device outside of the 1oT Terminal, you can use the MSISDN number that you can find from the SIM view. This MSISDN works as the number of the (e)SIM card.

Please note that for some of the SIMs, MSISDN will not be available in the 1oT Terminal. In this case, you can first send an SMS to the SIM to receive an SMS from the SIM and then respond to it outside of the 1ot Terminal.

If you wish to send SMS through API, you need to activate the API app from our App Store in the 1oT Terminal and use the "/sendSms" endpoint.

If you wish to take actions on your (e)SIMs through API, you need to activate the API app from our App Store in the 1oT Terminal and follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the API view and generate a password. Make sure to save the password, as it is only visible once.

2. Navigate to the API documentation and authenticate your API user using the "/oauth/token" endpoint. This has to be done again periodically, as the token will eventually expire.

3. Use the API documentation to find the endpoint that you wish to use.

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

Base services are free of charge (included in your SIM Package Fee), but 1oT Terminal Apps are separately paid services with monthly subscriptions (usually per SIM-based).

• Example of base services (free of charge)
• Setting data limits
• Overview of your SIMs
• Grouping SIMs
• Detailed data & SMS sessions
• SIM status changes

Example of 1oT Terminal Apps (separate monthly subscriptions per app)

• Workflow Automation
• 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
• Workflow Automation 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.

1oT Terminal provides you full control of the users without any additional cost. In 1oT Terminal, you are able to assign different user roles with customizable permissions and functionalities depending on their needs. We have covered the topic more thoroughly in a blog post.

To make changes to the existing users or add new users:

• Click on the Human icon on the top right side of the 1oT Terminal.
• Select the Company Settings option.
• Scroll down until you see the Company Users option and make desired changes.

You can change the company details by following these steps:

1. Click on the "Human" icon at the top right corner of Terminal
2. Click on "Company settings"
3. Scroll to the item that you need to change and make the desired changes

To use the (e)SIMs:

1. Insert the (e)SIM into your device.
2. Set the correct APN provided in the physical leaflet you can find in the package. The APN for your (e)SIMs is also visible in the 1oT Terminal.
3. As the last step, change the status of the (e)SIMs from SHIPPING to LIVE from 1oT Terminal.