Twilio intros Super SIM, Narrowband connectivity services for IoT developers
Twilio is expanding its set of connectivity services aimed at Internet of things developers. The cloud communications provider on Thursday unveiled Twilio Narrowband and Twilio Super SIM, two wireless services that broaden the connectivity options for IoT devices.
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Super SIM is a mashup of Twilio's mobile core infrastructure, OTA platform, and SIM hardware and software. It aims to give developers a simplified way to build connectivity into devices. The pitch is that developers can build once and deploy IoT devices globally with a single API, a procedural advance that Twilio calls "the first major step in building for the new era of the IoT."
Twilio also touts Super SIM for providing debuggability and visibility into IoT deployments, and for its low latency and high availability.
"The paradigm of build once and deploy globally simply doesn't exist today in the IoT industry," said Chetan Chaudhary, GM and VP of IoT at Twilio. "Today, with Twilio Super SIM, developers can see network optimizations occur over the air without having to reconfigure their device."
At launch Twilio is working with a handful of tier-one network operators for Super SIM, including Singtel, Telefonica and Three Group.
As for Narrowband IoT, the service addresses the needs of IoT devices that don't require a lot of bandwidth. It combines the new Twilio Breakout SDK -- which is built on RESTful APIs and optimized for T-Mobile's Narrowband network -- with narrowband SIMs and a developer kit that includes an Arduino-based development board and Grove sensors for use in low-powered wide-area devices.
"NB-IoT is built for smaller data packets, such as timestamps, GPS coordinates and status updates for a variety of industries, from smart metering to health device monitoring," Twilio said in its press release. "With the power and cost efficiencies generated by NB-IoT, the market is ripe to open for new categories of lower cost, battery efficient internet-connected devices that don't exist today."
Twilio's Narrowband Developer Platform will open for beta access in early 2019 and will sell in a three-tier pricing structure. Twilio Super SIM is currently in private preview with public beta set for spring 2019 along with flexible pricing options.
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