Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twilio Super SIM

twilio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 179 posts

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#131

Post by andrewkirk »

notatoad wrote: post #112
andrewkirk wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PM for Super SIM here. We're running this as a closed beta now, hard at work getting it to GA.

I just signed in to my twilio account and ordered a "sim starter pack" thinking it was this, but if this is still in closed beta, what did i order? how does super-sim differ from the programmable wireless product?

Twilio PM here. You ordered a starter pack of our IoT SIMs we launched in partnership with T-Mobile. They connect to TMO in the USA and have broad coverage globally. They don’t have access to ATT or VZW in the USA like the Super SIM.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#133

Post by sbr464 »

reaperducer wrote: post #81
untog wrote: 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.

the vast majority of IoT devices barely move, let alone between countries. Yet. One of the things holding back the development of truly mobile IoT is ease and ubiquity of connectivity. This tries to solve that. Think of it as Amazon's Whispernet, but with far more penetration.

I have a few Symbisa and Particle units that work like this.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#134

Post by xenospn »

ac29 wrote: post #80
frosted-flakes wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the main carriers, a 1GB data plan with unlimited Canada-wide calling is $100 after tax. (Occasionally, there will be a discount that all of the carriers do simultaneously where a few GB is added to each plan for free, and you can drive the price down a bit if you've been with them for a while and threaten to leave.) Each of the big 3 carriers (Rogers, Bell, Telus) also has a "budget" subsidiary brand (Fido, Virgi…

Is that $100 CAD? If so, that's <$75 USD, which is more than we pay in the US, but not insanely so -- most people I know pay 50-60USD (not including any device payments).

Verizon charges about $80 for unlimited data.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#135

Post by notatoad »

andrewkirk wrote: post #131
notatoad wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just signed in to my twilio account and ordered a "sim starter pack" thinking it was this, but if this is still in closed beta, what did i order? how does super-sim differ from the programmable wireless product?

Twilio PM here. You ordered a starter pack of our IoT SIMs we launched in partnership with T-Mobile. They connect to TMO in the USA and have broad coverage globally. They don’t have access to ATT or VZW in the USA like the Super SIM.

cool, thanks for the reply

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#136

Post by ProblemFactory »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #67
fyfy18 wrote: post #55

At a first glance the pricing of $0.10 - $0.025 per megabyte in Europe seems somewhat expensive. The wholesale rate is €4.50 per gigabyte or $0.005c per megabyte. I assume the markup covers the cost of maintaining the account and the access to many networks worldwide. Can anyone who is already using GSM data in "IoT" devices comment on how much this compares to what you pay now?

€4.50/GB is absolutely insane for Europe. In Italy you can get 50GB for €7 From Kena or ho.mobile (€0.14/GB) or 50GB for €8 from Illiad (€0.16/GB). All at 4G speeds. https://www.kenamobile.it/prodotto/kena-6-99-limited-edition... https://www.ho-mobile.it/ https://www.iliad.it/offerta-iliad.html

€4.50/GB is the maximum what EU operators are allowed to charge each other for roaming data transit right now, and what an external operator like Twilio would probably have to pay them. Of course in each country you will find operators who offer better deals on their own networks - but Twilio can't reasonably build out their own worldwide mobile network.

Despite this, I can see this service being popular among companies who are willing to pay a bit more per GB to avoid negotiating with operators and getting SIM cards all over the world.

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#137

Post by vertis »

I got really confused when I first saw this and though it was something for consumers not IoT devices (Sorry twilio team for the application for access shrug).

I really wish someone would nail this for consumer phones. I'm coming up on a year away from home in various countries and the constant sim swapping is beginning to get annoying.

I actually bought a dual sim phone so that I can keep my Australian sim card in for 2FA security sms messages (etc).

Before someone suggests it, Google Fi is US only, unless you want to arrange for a reshipper (and even then, I'm not sure if it works).

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#138

Post by markvdb »

gambiting wrote: post #107
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use it for more than 120 days outside your home country your phone operator is allowed to query this and charge you.

Sure. This hasn't happened yet in all the years I've been doing this. Maybe it's because I don't use data on this card, only calls.

The relevant legislation has only been in force since 20170615 [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulat...

Re: Twilio Super SIM

#139

Post by rsync »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #74
rsync wrote: post #70

Twilio: If anyone there is listening, please, please give us an verb in twiml ... it's the simplest thing and would be tremendously useful. I don't want to host offsite code or write complicated functions just to CC: an SMS to my email inbox ... A twiml verb would be simple and useful.

Didn’t Twilio buy an email provider that would make this straightforward to implement? Edit: SendGrid!

As of the completion of the sendgrid acquisition, there is no email verb for twiml. Your only options are to host code on a third-party and call it from Twilio (sendgrid could be that Third party) or write a Twilio function.

But the easiest way to do this, by far, would be a simple email verb in Twiml. No dice so far…

Post reply on HN