IoT Business – An Awfully Nice Tariff Family

There is no end to the opportunities that the Internet of Things offers. A new tariff family helps cover the different use cases flexibly and optimally.

Sometimes your best option on the Internet of Things (IoT) is simply to stay as flexible as possible. Take autonomous driving, for example, regardless whether you mean self-propelled tractors and machinery or driverless shuttle buses that take passengers safely to and from A to B. But what about the data volume? Would it not be practical in the case of agricultural machinery if the volume were not to be the same every month but to adapt to the data usage? Farm work is often seasonal. In some months machines are at work day in, day out and in others they are hardly used at all. Flexibility might not be a bad idea for shuttle buses either if, for instance, construction work made the route longer and more data needed to be transmitted?

This is where the new and innovative IoT Business Data Best tariff, a member of Telekom’s IoT Business Tariff family, kicks in. It uses three data pools with three monthly rates. The higher rates are only charged if data usage exceeds the volume of the first (or second) pool. For the individual SIM cards neither a separate data volume nor a minimum contract period applies. IoT Business Data Best is available from €29.50* per month and data pool for up to 50 SIM cards. Along with 2G, LTE-M and LTE the tariff supports the 5G standard, which inter alia fulfills the prerequisites for autonomous driving, such as extremely low latencies (or delay times). Position and other data must, after all, be relayed between vehicle and Cloud in almost real time.

IoT projects such as driverless buses quickly stack up mountains of data, but there are other use cases. A mere 6.5 MB per month? Many people might at first turn up their noses at the idea; their cellphone contracts often run into gigabytes that they use up by surfing, music and video streaming and making video calls. Yet there are scenarios in which 6.5 MB a month is more than enough: on the IoT and, more specifically, use cases based on LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) technologies. They don’t use large amounts of data, focusing instead on aspects such as building penetration and energy efficiency.

NarrowBand IoT, or NB-IoT for short, is one such LPWA technology. Its maximum data rate of a mere 250 KBit/s is a clear indication that transmission of large data packages is not involved. It handles more compact information such as status data recorded by, say, IoT sensors for wireless transmission to the Cloud, where it is evaluated. The uses of IoT solutions are many and varied. They include locating leaks in underground water pipes: sensors attached to the pipes record acoustic signals that indicate where leaks are to be found. NB-IoT’s above-mentioned properties – energy efficiency and deep building penetration – are of crucial importance.

IoT Business LPWA is the tariff family’s optimal choice for projects based on LPWA connectivity. And it comes on attractive terms and conditions. Prices per SIM card start at  € 2.70* per annum. Customers can currently sign a ten-year contract and pay just € 13.49* per SIM card for the entire period. As well as NB-IoT, IoT Business LPWA supports LTE-M, 2G and LTE, so projects with different requirements can be implemented to fit perfectly.

There are also IoT applications for which a classic 5G tariff with a fixed inclusive volume per month and SIM card makes the most sense. That can be the case for smart light poles that not only provide light in the dark but also serve as downtown WiFi hotspots or maybe carry networked security cameras. In this way smart light poles can quickly rack up a lot of data, but data that as a rule stays at a constant level.

For projects of this kind there is the IoT Business Classic tariff, which supports 5G and is the final member of the tariff family. It provides for each IoT device a separate, fixed data volume that can be increased if required. IoT Business Classic is available for from € 1.97* per SIM per month and, like IoT Business Data Best, also supports 2G, LTE-M and LTE if required. Both tariffs also support voice applications required, for example, by emergency call systems in elevators.

From autonomous vehicles via smart sensors to multifunctional street lighting and more, IoT applications are numerous and wide-ranging. IoT Business maps this variety and offers the right tariff for each use case. Every one includes expert advice and best network coverage in Germany and around the world. And if enterprises are at first not yet sure which tariff will be the best for their project they can test both a 5G and an LÜWA version as a proof of concept. Total package prices start at € 105* (5G) and € 108* (LPWA). So there are no obstacles to successful projects on the Internet of Things. Visit the tariff page and get cracking!

*As of 9/15/2023. For the latest rates see the tariff page.