Network Agnostic Global Roaming IoT SIM Provider (Hologram)
For customers wanting to deploy units in different regions the assistance of a globally compatible SIM, roaming on to local networks, can be of great value giving a single supplier to deal with regardless of region.
We obtained a sample sim from hologram.io to test out and found the system pretty easy to use and the team at hologram are based in California so ideally placed to provide local support for USA customers.
The key to the process was to activate the SIM via the web dashboard prior to powering up the unit, once this was done the modem/SIM appeared to scan the various networks registering and deregistering in a cycle through the various operators available, in our case on Vodafone UK first before finally ending up on EE over a 3-5 min period.
The website dashboard has a range of sensible features to mange the different devices, allowing each SIM to be named and tagged as part of a larger group, as well as being able to send SMS messages directly to the box (incase you need to trigger an action on the remote box for instance)
Hologram also provide a means to VPN down into the device through a secure layer, see bottom of page for documentation link
The nice thing about hologram is you have a fixed APN name to use (no prizes for guessing it's "hologram") and the SIM will roam onto the strongest network available regardless of the carrier (e.g. a EC21-V modem will also roam onto T-Mobile!) .
Whilst Hologram offer a box-to-cloud data transfer API service, this is optional and the basic internet connection method doesn't change from the usual arrangement as as can be seen below :
