Cellular is hard

IoT
1

So I purchased a BG95 Nimbelink modem from Digi-key, and tried to activate it with Kajeet on the Verizon network. They came back and told me that it was already activated. Since it was a new modem, this was not possible, so copied Nimbelink support on the email. Nimbelink went back to Verizon and came back with:

I just got done talking to Verizon. It looks like there is an issue in Verizons system with SIM’s starting with 891480000055421xxxxx. They are working on tracking it down and fixing it, they said it might be a week or so until it is corrected.

The cellular IoT ecosystem is moving rapidly. Prices are coming down to the point where cellular is very attractive. However, it is still a very complex system and it is still hard. Good connections and support are essential to supporting a product using cellular, so glad to be working with these companies who provide good support.

2

I think onboarding is complex process for managed devices from service providers. I think its because they dont have good device identifiers so the logic is quite complex to identify them. Something like blockchain for fingerprinting the devices can simplify the device handshake and make it robust,simple and reliable. Perhaps someone is already working on it

3

That is a neat idea – provisioning and device ownership is indeed a hard problem – will need to explore that more when I get to that in the SIOT project.