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Twilio Super SIM

twilio.com

11–20 of 179 posts

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#11
post #9

This is very cool tech, but it seems like a niche use-case. It's not made for consumers, and the vast majority of IoT devices barely move, let alone between countries. But , if I were working for a haulage company and was interested in tracking, say, truck location, speed etc across the whole of Europe I could see this being a great way to do it.

I was thinking the opposite. It'd be nice not having to purchase a new SIM in each country you visit (if the rates are decent, anyway).

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#12
post #8
post #6

Can this do voice calls? I'm in Canada where every cell plan is more expensive than any other in the world. I have friends who purchase plans from Europe and then use the SIM locally with roaming - turns out it be 10x cheaper, the only drawback being that they have a foreign number

This isn't for personal use, so no calls. The data rate is probably around 2-5c/MB for Canada (though its not on the pricing list, that seems to be average), which puts it above even Rogers consumer plans. Google Fi is intended for consumer use and is 1c/MB in Canada (up to a cap, and then unlimited).

It's hard to tell if this is similar to their programmable SIM offering or not...

I have programmable SIM deployed in my iOS test phones and use it to place calls and texts from the phones (no contract is nice). I also pay about 12.5$/GB because I have the higher commit turned off

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#13
post #9

This is very cool tech, but it seems like a niche use-case. It's not made for consumers, and the vast majority of IoT devices barely move, let alone between countries. But , if I were working for a haulage company and was interested in tracking, say, truck location, speed etc across the whole of Europe I could see this being a great way to do it.

I'm assuming the reason this is positioned as an IOT product is because they need to sell some product based on the network access they are able to negotiate. If they get allowed to use the 911 and voice network, I can imagine the product will shift to consumer pretty fast.

I'm using it in Canada and although data doesn't work (despite their claims) I'm paying one tenth the cost of a local bargain cell plan so I can SMS.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#15
post #3

From a product perspective, this is really confusing. Twilio make business-facing APIs, is this supposed to be a consumer product? Why would I want API access to my own usage data? This feels like a far cry from their strategic strengths, except for that it’s phone-related.

Agreed until you consider that there is a massive iot market and they're going after it with pretty cool innovation. We will probably never really hear about this project unless we're specifically in the iot world.

That said I use a twilio SIM on my test phone and it is great. Was thinking of dual SIM with it but there's a few limitations I didn't want to live with.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#16
post #6

Can this do voice calls? I'm in Canada where every cell plan is more expensive than any other in the world. I have friends who purchase plans from Europe and then use the SIM locally with roaming - turns out it be 10x cheaper, the only drawback being that they have a foreign number

They say voice won't work in Canada but that data does; I haven't been able to get either to work. But for $3 USD + usage per month I can use SMS.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#17
post #9

This is very cool tech, but it seems like a niche use-case. It's not made for consumers, and the vast majority of IoT devices barely move, let alone between countries. But , if I were working for a haulage company and was interested in tracking, say, truck location, speed etc across the whole of Europe I could see this being a great way to do it.

> But, if I were working for a haulage company and was interested in tracking, say, truck location, speed etc across the whole of Europe I could see this being a great way to do it.

If you wanted to do that in the EU you just need a sim card with data from any EU country. EU rules on roaming mean that your sim will work across the EU just as it does from its home country. I agree this would be a great use case if you're not only tracking in the EU though.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#18
post #6

Can this do voice calls? I'm in Canada where every cell plan is more expensive than any other in the world. I have friends who purchase plans from Europe and then use the SIM locally with roaming - turns out it be 10x cheaper, the only drawback being that they have a foreign number

I use a data-only cell plan ("tablet" plan from Fido), $15/month for 3 GB.

For voice calls, I use a SIP account from voip.ms, which mostly goes to voicemail (SIP kind of drains cellphone battery). I rarely use voice, and people usually text because calling, and most use Signal/Whatsapp anyway. The voip.ms account is also useful for doing SMS, and associating apps with it (such as Signal/WhatsApp).

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#19

Yay! We are approaching the SIMless world where you connect to mobile networks without a SIM or a universal SIM.

You make it sound like this is a trend, but this article is the first instance I've ever heart of the concept of a universal SIM?

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#20
post #9

This is very cool tech, but it seems like a niche use-case. It's not made for consumers, and the vast majority of IoT devices barely move, let alone between countries. But , if I were working for a haulage company and was interested in tracking, say, truck location, speed etc across the whole of Europe I could see this being a great way to do it.

> But, if I were working for a haulage company and was interested in tracking, say, truck location, speed etc across the whole of Europe I could see this being a great way to do it. If you wanted to do that in the EU you just need a sim card with data from any EU country. EU rules on roaming mean that your sim will work across the EU just as it does from its home country. I agree this would be a great use case if you…

If your routes are restricted to only EU countries, sure! Stray over the Croatian border to Montenegro, for example, and you'll be racking up the bills.

Source: knowingly burnt £10 trying to find somewhere child friendly for lunch.

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