Sim cards supporting CAT M1/ NB-IoT in Germany

[sprasad]

Hello,
We have a sensor solution developed already. Now we want to go ahead and integrate it into NB-IoT infrastructure and use NB-IoT to transmit sensor data to a central station. Since our sensor solution is mostly used in outdoor deployments, we are planning to use NB-IoT for data transmission. GPy module looks promising in this regard. Even though NB-IoT firmware is not yet available, we can go ahead with CAT M1 for now and then upgrade it to NB-IoT.
My question is, which service providers in Germany(Specifically Munich) support this CAT M1/NB1technology? Say, I buy the GPy module and start integrating my sensor solution to this, which sim card should I opt to verify CAT M1/ NB-IoT solution?

[robert-hh]

@sprasad Telekom Germany is offering a NB IoT service. They just announced a flat rate at 10€ for 10 years and 500mB total data volume. They had a 50 card package offeering at 200 € before already. You'll find the anouncement on the net. It seems more difficult to get the SIM cards. The telephone hotline tells that I can get these at the physical shop.

On link is here: https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/ten-euros-for-ten-years-516048
Vodafone is also claiming to install Nb IoT service in 2018

[sprasad]

@robert-hh said in Sim cards supporting CAT M1/ NB-IoT in Germany:

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/ten-euros-for-ten-years-516048

Thanks for those pointers Robert!
So, first we will have to be 100% sure on the availability of sim cards right? Without a sim card being available, we can't really proceed with anything on the board. Is that right?

[robert-hh]

@sprasad That's right. Inmy own interest, I'll go to a shop next days. But as far as I understood, to 50 SIM bundle is alreayd available since last year.

[sprasad]

@robert-hh Oh that's great! Can you let me know of the update? Even I'll try to contact them and see if I get any good news.
Currently, we are ready with our sensor system and only evaluating NB-IoT for data transmission. So, only if we are 100% sure that NB-IoT with GPy in Germany works fine within a month, we can afford to go ahead with this solution. Without being sure we don't want to get into this as we have limited time. At this juncture, what do you think would be a probable solution? Currently, Are there existing successful sensor solution implementations with NB-IoT?

[jmarcelino]

@robert-hh
SIM cards for the “10€ for 10 years and 500mB total data volume“ plan will only be available in August and they are exclusively for companies

You can pre-register your interest at https://1nce.com

[robert-hh]

@jmarcelino I contacted that company already, and they told me too, that they only sell to companies. Besides the fact, that I could order card as a company, this does not exclude that Deutsche Telekom sells those cards through its own channels. Obviously, they deal with private customers. Let's give it a try.

[robert-hh]

@jmarcelino I went to the Telekom HQ shop and asked there for the card. No one knew it. It is not in the shop product list yet. I also mailed to the lady reference in the news article. She promised to take care of that, but I expect no response. The 1nce.com company refuses to sell to private people, and does not seem very helpful.
So, at the moment it is an unfulfilled promise.

[jmarcelino]

@robert-hh
Just my opinion but I don't see this stuff appearing in regular shops anytime soon. It's a niche market probably not worth training shop staff for - at least not yet.

In the Netherlands T-Mobile runs workshops and more importantly so called Plugfests where you can easily get a card there. Maybe they're doing something like that in Germany too.

I can ask around...

[sprasad]

@jmarcelino That's clear! It would be helpful if you keep us posted on the updates about the same.