Cellular IoT provider 1NCE has said it wants to repeat its trick with flat-rate global IoT pricing to also “disrupt” the IoT industry with free device and cloud management software. At CES in Las Vegas, the firm has launched a new operating system (OS), called 1NCE OS, to provide developers with free software tools to monetise IoT data “with minimal effort”. The firm has also announced the creation of a new software division.
Germany-based 1NCE, notable in the busy IoT-geared MVNO space for drawing major investment from mobile operators Deutsche Telekom and Softbank, said it will not charge IoT developer-customers for the new OS tools, which include various software applications to help with cloud integration, device management, and energy optimisation. Instead, it said they will be available with its classic 10-for-10 flat-rate airtime fee ($/€10 for 10 years).
1NCE, offering IoT roaming in 150-odd countries (currently 153, from 106 at the start of 2022), said it wants to “cement [its] standing as the preeminent destination for accessible IoT”. The new OS functions, designed to accelerate time-to-market “by months”, apply to new and existing IoT projects of “any scale”, it said. “One of 1NCE’s core principles is that customer data isn’t to be monetized and used to sell additional services,” it stated.
Ivo Rook, chief operating officer at 1NCE, said: “1NCE flips the script for customers – we don’t monetize their data for a few extra dollars, because our customers’ data is theirs and theirs alone. 1NCE’s move into software allows us to boost our customers’ ideas not just when they need connectivity, but from the outset of their projects and all the way through a device’s lifecycle. IoT connectivity and software for life for a single fee, and that’s it.”
At launch, the 1NCE OS includes automated ‘device authentication’ that does away with “error-prone onboarding”, managed cloud integration offering protocol translation of sundry open standards (UDP, CoAP, LwM2M, AWS IoT Core, Webhooks), remote device inspection of device statuses and telemetry data, remote network-based positioning (“even without GPS”), and optimised payload transmission for “up to 50 percent” better power life.
1NCE stated: “Fifty percent of failed IoT projects falter in the pilot stage. For new IoT projects, 1NCE makes it easy to experiment early without major expenditures that can kill a project. Customers connect sensors across the globe at a fraction of the cost of the traditional price of network operators, and now… they [also] gain access to software tools that accelerate time-to-market without vendor lock-in or… [the] unnecessary features [in] most IoT platforms.
“For IoT projects that are already up and running, 1NCE’s combination of connectivity and software delivers trusted, production-grade solutions for continuous improvement and optimization.” 1NCE claims to have more than 10,000 customers worldwide, managing more than 15 million connections.
A supplied quote from Berg Insight said: “1NCE OS and 1NCE’s product roadmap look very compelling. The IoT connectivity market will increasingly move towards digitalized sales and delivery. SIMs will be pre-installed in chipsets, while connectivity management is increasingly being controlled by SaaS applications. Customers expect simple, digital experiences throughout the product life cycle. 1NCE is clearly at the forefront of this development.”
