Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

mikcatta — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 08:27:16 GMT

Have sent them an email, will see how we get on. Thanks for quick reply

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Paul Donaldson — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 08:02:00 GMT

Arkessa trial SIM's are not whitelisted, on the shelf and are low cost to support customers.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

mikcatta — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:59:35 GMT

Primarily Colchester, but can look at Ipswich or St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

LordLucan — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:58:44 GMT

Hi, I live near Redhill UK, I can get Vodafone NB1 here ok. When I spoke to both Vodafone and O2 about this they are keen to stress that they are rolling out as fast as they can. But maybe their priority is 5G at the moment.

As for getting SIMs I found it quite hard to speak to people in either Vodafone or O2 that know anything about NB1/NB2. O2 were completely useless, despite offering dev sims on their website. No replies, no callbacks, no help when called at all. Be careful as they also try and just give you standard phone data sims.

However, Vodafone were really helpful for commercial users. If you want to PM me I have their UK based contact details to organize trial SIMs.

Beware also that in the UK AFAIK all SIMs are whitelisted. So you have to provide a list of public IP addresses that you want to use. So this may be something to think about.

For non commercial users Pycom are extremely helpful and offer Vodafone SIMs at reasonable prices. Be warned though that these sims are whitelisted to Pycoms own platform. So you'll need to reverse engineer their MQTT protocol to use. But not too difficult as their software is OS.

Regards,

Paul

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Paul Donaldson — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:55:43 GMT

Good morning, can you tell me where in the East you will be testing? Arkessa can provide LTEM or NB-IoT trial SIMs in UK depending on postcode. Both come with access to PSM and eDRX modes for low power.

Regards Paul.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

mikcatta — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:13:35 GMT

Just wondered if the situation has improved in the UK? Interested in the nrf91, but only if it's usable in the East if England?

Regards

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Smythey — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 14:24:13 GMT

I can confirm that the Arkessa/Vodafone SIMs do work in South East London.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Cazpian — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 13:25:22 GMT

Thanks for the information Claire!

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

csteed — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:17:58 GMT

Hi Paul,

I believe where you are you will have NB-IoT coverage with Vodafone - so you need to change the application code on the Thingy:91 to the NB-IoT asset tracker example and get a SIM card from Arkessa. To do this:

Please contact ARKESSA (https://www.arkessa.com/contact/) and put "nRF91" in the subject section of the contact page. These guys are doing 5 trial SIMs for 50 Euro, 25Meg of data/month/SIM which will last for 3 months. The Arkessa SIM will connect to the Vodafone NB-IoT network, with no other fees and no whitelisting of IP addresses.

If you have further questions on this please let me know.

BR,

Claire

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Cazpian — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:06:21 GMT

This appears to be the most suitable thread to post this query, especially considering that one of your team members has posted a recommendation of getting hold of a Vodafone Sim card. Would you please advise how one goes about getting hold of a Vodafone Sim without the monthly development fees and declaration of ip's ? Has nordic semiconductor used its influence to broker an agreement with Vodafone such that British developers can actually utilise your IoT development kits ... this titbit of information appears to be missing from any of your marketing of IoT products.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

LordLucan — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:12:12 GMT

Torbjørn,

Thanks for the reply, done this already.

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/60510/uk-nb-iot-sim-card

Regards,

Paul

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

ovrebekk — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:56:47 GMT

Hi Paul

Can you please open a new ticket on this issue?

Then we can keep that discussion in one place, and the ticket will be assigned to someone more up to speed on the latest nRF91 developments ;)

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

LordLucan — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 21:35:08 GMT

Hi, I'm interested in this discussion too. I recently got an nrf9160-dk to try out this new lower power IOT technology. Only to be severely dissapointed :). I'm still persevering with the iBasis card. I'm near Croydon (CR5) in the UK.

I managed to flash the latest modem firmware (a mission in itself) and then have tried switching the modem between M1 and NB1 modes using XSYSTEMMODE. I get no signal on M1 but do on MB1. In MB1 (NB-IOT?) I'm seeing CESQ returning good numbers. But still no network connection. So my guess here is that the SIM is not playing ball with whoever is providing the NB-IOT signal. Maybe it just needs a magic AT command to register on the network 🙂

I've also tried flashing the tracker app in NB-IoT mode. I can see NB-IoT being selected in the AT command on reset. Network mode: AT%XSYSTEMMODE=0,1,1,0

This is the stauts I get from the tracking app . I think status code 4 is "unknown" (out of coverage?) "+CEREG: 4,"33EC","00038C15",9,0,13,"11100000","11100000"

I have to say this all seems a lot harder than it should be.

Paul

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Smythey — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 11:37:54 GMT

Hi Paul

Thanks.

It's

With best wishes

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Cazpian — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 10:28:48 GMT

Keep me in the loop on this as would love to know if Paul Donaldson solves the UK IoT sim card dilemma. For reference; I'm in deepest darkest devon in the Teign valley (TQ14) so I'm not expecting to be hooked up anytime soon.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Paul Donaldson — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 10:19:06 GMT

Can you please send me your email address and I can start the ball rolling with trial SIM's?

thanks

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Smythey — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 20:32:15 GMT

Ironically, I am 2.5 miles from the O2. You'd think O2 would make sure we are covered here.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Smythey — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 20:15:27 GMT

If you could help, I'd be delighted and most grateful. I would like connectivity in the London SE7 8PF postcode sector if that is possible.

Thanks

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Paul Donaldson — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 19:51:46 GMT

Where exactly do you need narrow band connectivity for your evaluation?

happy to help

regards Paul.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Smythey — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:16:41 GMT

Thanks for the information, but Paddington, Maidenhead (and Cambridge) are of no use to me.

Do you have any information about the "50 locations" that O2 claims to have rolled out NB-IoT to and what their plans are?

I guess I will just have to wait until they reach my area, at which point the iBasis SIM will connect, I presume?

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

csteed — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 11:40:03 GMT

Hi,

I have had NB-IoT working in London - at Paddington Station. It also seems to be working in Maidenhead.

To get hold of NB-IoT SIMs I would recommend talking to Arkessa as they are set up to deal with small/medium sized customers:

www.arkessa.com/nb-iot

Click on “contact” top right of the page then fill in enquiry form and it specify that you are using the Nordic Semi/nRF91.

I believe that 5 trial SIMs are ~50Euros and last for 3 months - please do feed back how you get on.

Best regards,

Claire

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Cazpian — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 17:14:57 GMT

ok .. scratch that ... Rafik was connecting from German using the 1nce SIM card and their coverage information ( https://1nce.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2020-02_1NCE_Coverage.pdf ) states that GB is not covered for NB-IoT. Back to the drawing board.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Smythey — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 17:14:15 GMT

I was told by the UK Nordic representative that O2 are rolling out NB-IoT in the East of England in the current quarter of 2020 and that the whole of Cambridge is already covered. I occasionally turn on the Thingy:91 just in case coverage has reached South-East London.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Cazpian — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 15:30:29 GMT

I'm believe that iBasis and 1nce are effectively service brokers who offer international coverage by piggybacking on existing national networks or by purchasing network bandwidth in different countries and selling it on to customers requiring international coverage.

The iBasis network suggests that it has agreements with only four international providers for NB-IoT none of which cover the UK (https://ibasis.com/solutions/iot-connectivity/network-coverage/) and we know that Vodafone do have a NB-IoT network in place in the UK, so clearly iBasis haven't reached an agreement with Vodafone to provide this service yet. 1nce on the other hand, may have got into bed early with Vodafone and secured an exclusive agreement to cover the UK .. this maybe why iBasis can't currently cover it.

This is only my personal hypothesis based on very weak information but I'll keep digging to see if we can't shed some light on this.

RE: Where to buy an NB-IoT SIM card in the UK

Smythey — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 14:48:37 GMT

I absolutely agree with you. I saw the O2 press release a couple of weeks ago but it doesn't fill me with optimism. However, I think I am right in saying that, if/when O2 do start NB-IoT services in the UK, the iBasis SIM will automatically work.