Electric Imp has chosen Twilio’s Super SIM, a global cellular connectivity platform, to offer worldwide secure IoT connectivity alongside our established options of WiFi and Ethernet. Our cellular offering supports LTE Cat 1, with Cat M and NB-IoT.
By working with Twilio’s Super SIM we have access to multiple Tier 1 networks around the globe. Whichever country an imp-enabled cellular IoT device is operating in, it can connect to any one of a wide array of networks. Through Twilio’s Super SIM tools, customers can select which networks a device may attach to, whether to maximize coverage or to minimize data costs.
For a full list of Super SIM carriers, organized by continent and country, please see the Twilio web site.
Electric Imp IoT Connectivity is far more than just a cellular connection. Electric Imp provides an edge-to-enterprise IoT connectivity platform-as-a-service, that makes developing, deploying, and maintaining connected products easy and worry-free. It is complete and ready-to-use, including certified and continuous security from the device to the cloud, a full device application platform, comprehensive device management, powerful cloud processing, and seamless integration to enterprise applications.
This is in contrast to telcos, who typically focus on providing and managing the cellular connection but do not take ownership for security all the way down to the device. They also often require third-party SIM management services in order to work most effectively in their networks.
By using Twilio Super SIM, Electric Imp offers cellular services across multiple carriers around the globe, which translates into broader and more reliable coverage. In addition, Electric Imp customers also have access to impCentral™’s device management capabilities and secure OTA updates.
Yes. The same powerful development and management environment used by Electric Imp’s Ethernet and WiFi customers is now available for cellular connectivity.
In fact, because of our platform architecture, customers can very easily move application code between cellular and WiFi solutions, enabling customers to broaden their offerings with different connectivity options with minimal effort.
Additionally, impOS™ provides tools to allow IoT devices which support multiple network technologies, eg. WiFi and cellular, to switch their Internet connection between these links according to the needs of the application. For example, a mobile unit might use cellular for low-bandwidth telemetry while on the move, but download bulk data via WiFi when back at base.
Technical Questions
impOS™ 42 adds new APIs which allow application code running on the device to choose the desired connectivity path. Because this is in code, it provides applications with total flexibility in network choice.
As with the existing Wi-Fi and Ethernet products, simple devices can be connected in a matter of minutes. Our customers have designed, tested and released commercial products in as little as 5 months. Electric Imp helps you in your effort to design and fortify the product’s connectivity for both the short term as well as the long-term life of the product.
No, there is no minimum contract term.
Yes. There is a $3 monthly fee which will be automatically be billed to any payment card registered with your Electric Imp account.
The data rate you pay depends on which network your cellular imp connects to in which country.
Please see Twilio’s Super SIM pricing page for more details.
When you are in development, you can link your impCentral account to a credit or debit card to maintain ongoing access to the Twilio Super SIM service.
For production devices, we can issue invoices monthly
Your devices may not be able to communicate until you add a payment card. Code on the device will, however, continue to run.
No. There is an MFF2 (surface mount) Twilio Super SIM integrated into the imp006 Breakout Board.
No. impOS is built to make use of Twilio SIMs only.
The imp006 Breakout Board features a Nano (4FF) SIM slot to enable the use of Twilio’s NB-IoT SIMs and Super SIMs with narrowband support. The built-in SIM does not support NB-IoT at the time.
No. Your relationship is just with Twilio, for both the SIM and the service.
The Electric Imp offering is uniquely designed with a security-first architecture that fully integrates all 7 layers of security, from the edge device silicon and secure boot all the way to the cloud, and includes continuous security maintenance and updates of devices in the field for the lifetime of the product.