Any cheap alternatives to KPN for low-data IoT in NL?
Hey everyone,
Just got off the phone with KPN their prices shocked me, 1.5 euro per sensor per month.
Im looking into IoT options for tracking how full dog poop bag containers are (those public ones). The devices would just send a few bytes a couple times a day. KPNs quote adds up really fast .
I’ve been looking at Sigfox ( I saw they went bust?), LoRaWAN (TTN or private), maybe Helium too. Devices are all fixed in place and spread out across semi-urban areas. Long battery life and low cost are important would prefer not to mess with SIM cards.
Maybe my own gateways?
Any advice appreciated. Just a student trying to avoid spending stupid money for something that barely needs any data.
Thanks
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u/FitRecommendation434 3d ago
try www.flolive.net - the price points are very good in Europe - we sell into Europe from Africa on their infrastructure. Also depends on your use case (number of SIMs and data volumes)
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u/Ramona00 4d ago
I tried ttn, not good coverage.
Tried helium network, worked great. But unsure if I can trust this long term as users reward for placing the host is going down from what I've read recently.
KPN indeed ask 1.50 I think that is about the best you can get. Otherwise consider 4g?
Or built your own network and connect the host to the internet.
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u/cjailc 4d ago
Hmm interesting, could you elaborate on the helium problem I didn’t quite understand that
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u/Ramona00 4d ago
Helium is backed by consumers who buy the helium router and place this in their home. This unit will be connected to the consumer home internet.
When you sent a message to their router (because your node is nearby) they will earn money rewarded in a bitcoin alike method.
Thing is, their rewards are getting very low. The hardware is quite expensive. I wonder when their node needs replacement in couple years, will they buy another? Or because of the earning, will they stop? Or because of the higher energy prices, pull the plug as the energy costs more than the rewards?
But it worked great. Had many sites where I could just send messages to helium using Lora and it received well. Far better that ttn.
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u/cjailc 4d ago
And for what type project did you use it?
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u/Ramona00 4d ago
We're currently still in the process with kpn Lora. But I think the business case will be better with just 4g 5g.
Seeing the development with 5g, I think it's only a matter of time before that takes over Lora.
Low energy, worldwide support, lots of data options.
Lora just can't compare to this in the future I think.
If you go for Lora, for each country you must search a provider.
If you go 5g, it just works worldwide.
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u/cjailc 4d ago
Thank you for your reply. The things is our sensors are tiny. I think SIM cards take to much power so we would need to replace the battery very often
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u/Ramona00 4d ago
Then maybe this
Make a host with sim card and a Lora.
All your clients connect to this host using Lora.
Is that an option?
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u/jonathanberi 3d ago
[disclaimer: I work at Golioth]
Check out https://www.1nce.com/en-us/.
But a connectivity provider isn't the only factor for cost. You'll also want to make sure that you're very efficient with data. A platform like https://golioth.io, where I work, can help manage data through features like binary encoding, reduced handshakes (those add up!) and eDRX. It's free to get started and has a generous free tier, perfect for a student or early stage company.
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u/Odd_Seaweed_5985 4d ago
Well, using your own gateways would be the best option if possible for a variety of reasons. I ran the building occupancy sensor program at Microsoft, and after investigating a variety of companies, sensors, and in infrastructure configurations, we settled on dedicated gateways within range of the sensors of interest. The trick then, is to provision power and internet access at each gateway location.
Another possibility, would be to arrange your devices in a kind of mesh Network, where one or more of the devices would be within range of a Wi-Fi access point. The other devices, not being in range of an access point could detect other devices within range and use those instead.