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Comment by gk1 | Hacker News Reader

Looks like a killer of all other IoT connectivity solutions (eg, Verizon, AT&T, Particle). Those IoT platforms better find a way to support third-party SIMs, if they don't already.

Source: Consulted AT&T on bringing their IoT Connectivity solution to market. Their huge cell network was the main selling point; the platform and services were add-ons.

Edit: Another commenter mentioned Hologram, which already has a global Sim and therefore a lead start. I haven't watched this space for a few years and forgot about them. Good for them!

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Particle has a number of devices that already support third party SIMs (their Electron and Boron lines in particular).

Particle also has partnered with Twilio in the past. I know there was some legacy integration with Twilio SIMs.

Particle's value prop is an IoT platform where cellular connectivity is a component. If anything, this seems like it would be complimentary and not a killer to their value prop.

Thanks for the mention! I'm an employee at Particle, and this is exactly it. I'll be honest and say that dealing with carriers sucks. If you want to bring your IoT device to market, you want to focus on building that device — not negotiating with AT&T or Verizon. We protect our users from that so you can focus on your core competencies and shipping your products.

We leverage our large deployed base of devices for negotiations in a way that you cannot if you are a single IoT business. We've actually had customers use Particle, decide they wanted to do their own thing for cost/complexity reasons, start a relationship with the carriers, and come running back because it was intractable for them.

Valid point. I mean this kills their connectivity offering, which in my AT&T example was the core thing. Sounds like Particle now treats connectivity as a commodity and focuses on the platform. Good decision.

I know the Verizon one does. It just is not on their pages. The platform they bought from Qualcomm to do it was in that same space as Twilio. Been a few years though they may have ripped it out by this point. 10 cents per MB and 5 cents per SMS. Ouch!

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