With the launch of Tamagotchi Paradise, entertainment giant Bandai set out to bring a new level of connected play to fans worldwide. The device supports nine languages and is available across Japan, North America, Europe, and Asia. To complement the new release, Bandai developed Lab Tama, a large in-store terminal that lets users link their Tamagotchi to the system for exclusive content and activities.
When players place their Tamagotchi Paradise device into the Lab Tama tray, the system connects instantly – unlocking region-specific downloads, limited-edition items, and unique in-store interactions. These terminals are installed in toy stores, department stores, and electronics retailers across Japan and beyond, acting as both a digital playground and a promotional platform.
In past deployments, updating in-store terminals required physical media and manual updates by staff, a process that proved both time-consuming and costly. For this global rollout, Bandai needed a secure, flexible way to distribute content remotely, update systems automatically, and monitor performance from a central location.
Bandai’s goal was to make Tamagotchi’s “connected play” truly worldwide. However, the company faced a major challenge: ensuring that each Lab Tama terminal could communicate securely and reliably across diverse retail environments.
Because the devices were being deployed in multiple countries, Bandai needed a connectivity solution that worked seamlessly across regions without relying on local Wi-Fi networks or complex configurations. They also needed to synchronize updates by region and campaign, ensuring that marketing content and gameplay experiences aligned perfectly with local events and product launches.
Operational visibility was another priority. Bandai wanted the ability to monitor connection status, view usage data, and analyze performance metrics in real time to plan maintenance, optimize content, and understand player behavior at each store location.
To meet these goals, Bandai integrated Soracom IoT SIMs into the Lab Tama terminal, enabling stable, secure communication regardless of installation location. Using Soracom’s global cellular coverage, the terminals now connect automatically without relying on local infrastructure.
Each terminal communicates regularly with the Soracom platform to check for new content. When updates are available, the device securely downloads promotional videos, software updates, or campaign-specific features directly from Soracom-hosted storage. This automated process ensures that content is always up to date and tailored to each region’s needs.
Soracom’s management console and APIs allow Bandai’s development team to centrally monitor connectivity, data usage, and device operation history. This remote visibility helps engineers diagnose issues quickly and ensures consistent performance across all global deployments.
For Bandai, Soracom offered more than just global connectivity. The combination of reliable network access, device management, and automated data delivery gave the company a flexible platform for future innovation.
By leveraging Soracom’s services instead of developing a new system from scratch, Bandai accelerated development timelines and reduced the complexity of deploying and maintaining hundreds of terminals across regions. The Soracom IoT SIM’s compatibility and scalability made it easy to expand the project globally without changing infrastructure.
The result was a fast, secure, and cost-efficient deployment that gave Bandai new tools for both customer engagement and data-driven business intelligence.
The new Lab Tama experience has transformed in-store engagement for Tamagotchi fans. Shoppers can now interact with their devices, unlock new items, and enjoy dynamic promotional content that refreshes automatically based on region and campaign.
At the same time, Bandai gains valuable real-time insights from aggregated usage data, including how often terminals are used, which content is most popular, and when maintenance may be required. This feedback loop informs everything from product development to marketing strategy, helping the company continuously refine the customer experience.
“By being able to distribute content regularly, Lab Tama has become a product fans can enjoy for a long time,” said Chisato Aoyagi, planning and Development Team, Toy Department, Bandai, Co.LTD. “Soracom makes it easy to deliver new experiences to stores around the world.”
Bandai continues to expand the global deployment of Lab Tama terminals, with support for language-specific content distribution and region-tailored campaigns. Future collaborations will extend beyond the toy industry, including a partnership with NEXCO East Japan, which will bring limited-edition Tamagotchi content to Lab Tama terminals installed in highway service areas starting in summer 2025.
As the Tamagotchi universe grows, Bandai aims to strengthen its brand through cross-industry collaborations and digital experiences that connect fans in new and meaningful ways. With Soracom powering its IoT infrastructure, the company is well positioned to deliver fresh content, collect valuable insights, and continue innovating the world of connected play.
BinSentry is a smart ag company revolutionizing feed management for animal agriculture. With its proprietary sensor technology, the company enables feed mills and vertical integrators to remotely monitor inventory levels in farm bins and large silos. Its flagship devices, including the explosion-proof Pro Sense HD, use near-infrared time-of-flight sensors and AI-powered image processing to produce accurate 3D volume readings – even in harsh, dusty environments. The result? Real-time, reliable inventory data that keeps animals fed, workers safe, and fleets running efficiently.
“We take about a half million total measurements just to get a single volume inside of a bin,” said Nathan Hoel, Co-Founder and CTO. “And that raw data gets processed using AI to deliver a precise reading back to the mill.”
To deliver accurate inventory data, BinSentry’s devices must transmit large volumes of sensor readings from rural and remote farm sites – locations often underserved by traditional cellular networks. These areas may only have partial or inconsistent coverage, making it difficult to maintain a stable connection for IoT devices – particularly when those devices must operate in potentially challenging weather conditions.
“In rural areas, it doesn’t matter what the coverage map says. You just need access to multiple carriers. If one signal drops, we can’t afford downtime,” said Hoel. “We need as much carrier overlap as possible.
The challenge is compounded by BinSentry’s device ownership model. Unlike consumer IoT, BinSentry owns and manages its devices end-to-end – from manufacturing and field installation to servicing and redeployment. Devices tested on the assembly line might then sit in inventory or with a technician for weeks or months before deployment. Though the devices are not in use at this time, traditional MVNOs will still charge full data rates.
“We’re managing all these connections, and we build devices that may sit idle for months before deployment,” said Hoel. “But with most carriers, we were paying full price whether we used them or not.”
Even after initial deployment, devices might need to be temporarily taken offline for servicing or refurbishment, before being reinstalled elsewhere. BinSentry needed a connectivity solution that could flex with their operational reality by allowing them to turn connectivity on and off remotely.
“With Soracom, it just works. We don’t have to think about where it’s going or what network it’s on. That peace of mind lets us scale confidently.”
BinSentry found the ideal partner in Soracom, whose global IoT platform delivered exactly what the company needed: multi-profile SIMs, automatic failover across carriers, and a billing model designed for the realities of industrial IoT.
Unlike traditional cellular providers that lock customers into always-on billing, Soracom allows devices to be activated, suspended, or deactivated on demand. This flexibility has proven crucial to BinSentry’s business model, which requires devices to be tested during manufacturing, paused during inventory or transit, and then reactivated only once installed in the field.
“We were almost paying double what we were actually using, and from an operational and margin standpoint, that was crazy” said Hoel. “When we went to Soracom, not only were they competitive on price, but we were able to turn off everything we weren’t using without having to program it into our own system.”
Additionally, Soracom’s real-time monitoring tools, cloud integrations, and SIM management portal allow the BinSentry team to manage connectivity across tens of thousands of devices without writing custom infrastructure or handling billing manually.
“It was surprising to contrast a group who just doesn’t seem to understand how IoT runs, even though they claim to be selling to IoT, and Soracom, who seems to have built everything up from the ground to work for an IoT company. It was just a night and day difference for us. The billing, the tools, everything was there for us.”
Soracom even helped the team source rugged industrial-grade SIMs that passed microscopic lab testing for durability in extreme temperature fluctuations – a key requirement for devices mounted on hot, sun-exposed feed bins in the summer or sub-zero silos in northern winters.
“They worked with us to source and test industrial SIMs with proper gold plating,” said Hoel. “That level of support was a game-changer.”
With Soracom, BinSentry has improved device uptime, mediated wasteful data costs, and streamlined global deployment. Their technical team now spends less time troubleshooting connectivity and more time innovating.
“With Soracom, it just works. We don’t have to think about where it’s going or what network it’s on. That peace of mind lets us scale confidently,” said Hoel.
As BinSentry expands its presence beyond North America and develops new sensing applications, it plans to continue building on its success with Soracom as a trusted connectivity partner.
“Soracom is a partner in our business. When there’s a problem, they’re on the call with us solving it. That’s what we need to grow.”
Founded by serial inventor Felix Zhao, Cassia Networks is a creator of connectivity solutions that is on a mission to reimagine what Bluetooth can do. The company that created the world’s first Bluetooth router, Cassia is pushing the boundaries of wireless communication by bringing this ubiquitous consumer protocol into enterprise applications. The company’s products have found their way into everything from factory floor automation to remote patient monitoring, utilizing Bluetooth technology to do away with the need for bulky infrastructure or tethered mobile devices.
“Bluetooth started as a short-range, one-to-one communication protocol for consumer devices,” explains Zhao. “Our vision was to fulfill its original promise: to unite wireless communication not just for consumers, but also for enterprise IoT.”
Bluetooth’s ubiquity makes it attractive for IoT, but traditional implementations have fallen short in more complex environments. Designed for short distances and one-to-one pairing, standard Bluetooth devices struggle to support enterprise needs like persistent connectivity, long-range communication, and large-scale sensor networks.
“In places like hospitals, warehouses, and manufacturing plants, having someone walk around with a phone or tablet to collect data from sensors just doesn’t scale,” says Zhao. “That kind of setup introduces costs, inefficiencies, and risks that enterprises can’t afford.”
Range can be a major constraint. While most consumer Bluetooth operates at 10-30 meters, enterprise applications can cover 10 times that or beyond. Moreover, the traditional pairing model creates unnecessary friction when managing devices at scale.
A Cassia Bluetooth gateway is a smart, long-range router that acts more like a Wi-Fi access point than a consumer Bluetooth device. These gateways communicate with dozens of endpoints simultaneously, in real-time, and without requiring human intervention.
“Just like a Wi-Fi router sits in the background and handles traffic, our Bluetooth routers are designed to live on the wall and quietly manage everything,” says Zhao. “The user doesn’t have to do anything.”
One of Cassia’s key innovations is its ability to dramatically increase range and connection density without modifying end devices. Through advanced antenna design, increased receiver sensitivity, and proprietary firmware, Cassia’s gateways can receive signals from standard Bluetooth sensors located up to 1 kilometer away (in optimal conditions) without increasing their transmission power or reducing battery life.
“It’s not just about range,” Zhao emphasizes. “We also eliminated the one-to-one pairing limitation. One gateway can manage a fleet of sensors, stream data in real time, and even host application logic directly on the gateway itself.”
This flexibility is particularly powerful for edge computing scenarios, where customers can run their own applications on the gateway – reducing latency and infrastructure complexity.
To fully decouple Bluetooth sensors from smartphones, PCs, or other mobile gateways, Cassia needed a reliable and secure way to connect its Bluetooth routers to the cloud. That’s where Soracom came in.
With Soracom, Cassia gateways can communicate over a multicarrier cellular network, avoiding the need to rely on local IT teams, Wi-Fi infrastructure, or on-site connectivity.
“Soracom allows us to deploy anywhere – whether it’s a hospital in a city or a remote agricultural facility,” says Zhao. “Customers don’t have to worry about configuring a network or opening firewall ports. Everything just works.”
Soracom’s secure, encrypted tunnels provide a reliable and scalable pathway from Cassia’s gateways to cloud services, enabling remote device management, firmware updates, and data aggregation at scale.
“It’s more than just connectivity,” adds Zhao. “It’s peace of mind for our customers.”
Cassia Networks is changing the conversation around Bluetooth. By transforming it into a long-range, multi-device, enterprise-ready communication protocol, Cassia has unlocked a new level of flexibility, affordability, and scalability for IoT deployments. Its gateways are replacing fragile mobile-device pairings with robust, cloud-connected infrastructure.
And with Soracom providing the secure, reliable cellular backbone, Cassia can deploy solutions faster, anywhere in the world, with minimal IT overhead.
“Bluetooth is no longer just for headphones,” says Zhao. “It’s the foundation for the next generation of enterprise IoT.”
PatchRx is a medical solutions provider that aims to tackle the serious issue of medication nonadherence across the United States. With nonadherence to a prescribed medication schedule estimated to account for about one-quarter of all hospitalizations in the US – and as many as 125,000 deaths each year – this is a hot-button issue that needs to be addressed.
When designing their solution, the PatchRx team recognized a few notable challenges that any remote care device will need to address for success. Chief among these was designing a solution that fits into perspective users’ everyday routines, as it significantly lowers the barrier of entry for would-be users.
Securing the reliability and integrity of any data generated and/or transmitted from this solution is also paramount, as medical data is among the most sought-after personal data by bad actors.
With these concerns in mind, PatchRx set out to devise a technological solution that was simple enough for anyone to pick up, sophisticated enough to securely route data where it needs to go, and – most importantly – helped patients stay on top of their daily medication usage.
From the start, the team at PatchRx recognized that nonadherence affects people from all walks of life, meaning that any solution to such a widespread challenge would need to be universally accessible to make an impact. That meant finding a technology that not only works with something all medication users possess, but one that can transmit data even from remote or rural locations.
Like many companies, PatchRx briefly attempted to function as an app for smartphones, but technical limitations and limited user engagement prevented their solution from having much of an impact.
“We found that patients really don’t want another app or widget on their phone,” Said Andrew Aertker, CEO and Co-founder of PatchRx. “People typically don’t like to change their usual routine.”
This is when the company began devising a device attached directly to the underside of pill bottle caps, which would both track medication usage and transmit that data to caregivers. Initial prototypes proved bulky, leading developers to evaluate different chipset and power source combinations to make the device as universally accessible as possible.
That also meant exploring different cellular connectivity options, as the majority of the population that would be served by the device lives in rural areas.
“One of the biggest hurdles we had to overcome in developing a truly universal product was the lack of reliable cellular connectivity in many rural areas,” said Aertker. “We wanted to make sure that any patient could take our technology home – regardless of their zip code.”
Several iterations of development cycles have led to the PatchRx Smart Pill Bottle Cap, named the PatchCap, a low-profile peel-and-stick device that adheres to the underside of any pill bottle cap and tracks when patients take their medication. The device is paired with a plug-in gateway that aggregates all of the collected data to generate a comprehensive overview of each patient’s medication history, identify and monitor trends in usage, and share this information with the appropriate caregivers.
The final design is not only small enough to work with virtually any pill bottle, it’s peel-and-stick design is intended to make the solution simple enough for any patient to use.
“Whether you’re 85 years old and you’ve been taking medication for 45 years, or you’re 25 years old and just taking a medication for the next two weeks, we’ve designed it to be less than 15 seconds of setup,” said Aertker.
As for its connectivity solution, PatchRx tested several individual carriers but found their connectivity lacking in terms of coverage area and reliability. That eventually led them to Soracom, where comprehensive nationwide coverage, consistent connectivity, and automatic failover mean devices can easily connect – and stay connected – wherever they are deployed.
“We need the flexibility to engage on various mobile networks at any point in time,” said Aertker. “We need to ensure that not only are we going to be transferring data effectively and securely, we need to be able to flip between networks and exercise bandwidth wherever we need it.”
PatchRx has found success with its smart pill bottle cap by focusing on user engagement. By designing its device to fit naturally into a user’s day, PatchRx has helped address nonadherence issues without burdening users with additional steps and processes.
By partnering with Soracom, PatchRx has also found a connectivity partner that provides strong, secure cellular coverage across its entire area of operation. With an unblemished uptime record that has kept PatchRx’s devices up and running consistently, Soracom has empowered this solution to create lasting changes in medication users’ lives.
“The best carrier in the world or the best [SIM] chip in the world is [one with] a team that you don’t need to talk to because it just works,” said Aertker. “That’s what you want at the end of the day, and that’s what we’ve gotten with Soracom. It’s been phenomenal.”
RxKeeper is a medication fulfillment device designed to help users adhere to prescribed medication schedules without interfering in their daily lives. The device is a medication container that can securely store prescriptions, remind patients to take their medication with an alarm, track medication usage, and alert medical personnel about medication adherence.
The device also boasts a self-contained input feature that allows users to make notes and share comments with their medical practitioners without needing a smartphone app or any additional equipment.
Nagesh Kadaba, the founder and CEO of RxKeeper’s parent company, Status Alert, was inspired to solve a challenge he witnessed first-hand while caring for his family.
“It all started with my 92-year-old mother and 90-year-old mother-in-law who were living with us,” said Kadaba. “Each was taking 10 or more medications per day, and given our own busy lives, we needed something to remind us to make sure they are taking their meds on time, if at all.”
They set out to create a simple and efficient device that could help people track their medication usage but recognized that the real challenge faced by these kinds of solutions is adoption.
“It’s the 90-10 rule,” said Kadaba. “While 10 percent of folks might actually need the sophisticated solution, the other 90 would benefit from a much simpler solution that already fits into their daily routines.”
Early in the design process, Kadaba and his team settled on tracking and monitoring medication usage by taking advantage of something every patient already had: the medication’s container. They envisioned a small box that could not only house prescriptions but also monitor any attempts to access them. Further iterations added a digital interface that could alert users when it was time to take their medicine, but the team wanted more for their device.
At its core, the device required a simple mechanism that could register events and other inputs from the box without taking up much space or processing power. To better suit the function of day-to-day use, the box also needed to be portable, which meant that the device needed to be battery-powered rather than being tethered to a cable or plug.
To share data with primary caregivers and medical professionals remotely, the team briefly considered local reporting tied to a smartphone app, but found that this added complexity and created another step in a process that has proven difficult for some to follow, and a technical barrier for patients who may not be confident using mobile applications or operating a smartphone.
Early designs opted for a WiFi connection, but the team quickly discovered that WiFi is not always available as it might seem, especially for people living in remote or rural areas. WiFi would also tether devices to gateways or specific areas of the house with stronger signal, which limited the efficacy of the solution. As such, cellular connectivity was also considered, though service would need to be widely available enough to help serve those remote customers.
Once cellular connectivity had been identified as the preferred method for data transfer, Kadaba began researching partners before eventually selecting Soracom. Soracom’s multi-carrier support and automatic failover were attractive enough, but what really caught Kadaba’s eye was the Soracom LTE-M button, an easily programmable smart button that offered both the simplicity he required and an endemic LTE-M connection that allowed the device to connect seamlessly to the broad Soracom network.
“I found the functionality I was looking for in the LTE-M Button,” said Kadaba. “The magic of this button is it is simple and it works in almost any situation you can imagine. By tracking patient usage, clinicians, medical providers, and even the patients themselves can all make better decisions.”
RxKeeper also deploys Soracom Funk, a service for dynamically offloading cloud service function calls, to help route the data from all of its deployed devices directly to its backend service on AWS. By offloading the data transmission process to the cloud, the RxKeeper team reduced device-side resource consumption and allowed for more flexibility in integrating their devices into existing medical solutions.
“Having the ability to send data out and not worry about it until it hits the AWS server was a huge thing as a business owner,” said Kadaba. “That helped solve a lot of the issues we face as an out-of-the-box solution.”
The RxKeeper fits effortlessly into a user’s daily life, serving as both a container to organize medications and a means of medication adherence through its clever use of IoT data and simple alerts. Kadaba again credits a great part of its efficacy to the use of the Soracom LTE-M button.
“When you go in the super rural areas, basements, or areas with geographical challenges, it becomes harder to get 4G signals,” said Kadaba. “In those situations, we sent out an LTE button version of the RxKeeper, and it works flawlessly because LTE-M has far more penetration into buildings and structures, which has helped us reach a broader patient group.”
In the future, the RxKeeper team hopes to continue evolving its capabilities to better serve the needs of patients throughout the country and beyond.
ColdChase creates customized IoT solutions designed to fit the needs of an evolving roster of customers. The company operates three unique brands that address the needs of cold chain operations (ColdChase), shipment and asset tracking (AssetChase), and a suite of products focused on improving the passenger experience at airports (PaXChase).
Over the years, the company has helped to resolve countless tracking and monitoring challenges across the supply chain – finding innovative ways to utilize temperature, pressure, and GPS sensors, among other specialized devices, to create unique solutions to individual company issues.
“Every client is different in what they require,” said Rosy Amlani, CPA, the CEO of ColdChase. “So every sensor we sell is customized for every client, which is why our team has to closely interact with the customer to really understand what they need.”
Because ColdChase has a pedigree of designing and manufacturing for other companies, it moved the manufacture of its custom devices in-house, where its engineering staff – representing specialties that range from electrical to simulation to firmware engineering – can craft solutions that perfectly address customer concerns on-site.
At the heart of these solutions is a roster of base devices that can be augmented and tweaked to better suit each application’s needs. These can range from Bluetooth low-energy devices for monitoring applications to cellular sensors ideal for long-distance tracking, with each being augmented to include different sensors and modules as needed. These devices can then be outfitted with GPS, pressure, temperature, light sensors, or other modifications.
“The fact that we have engineers on staff that were part of the company that did a lot of the product development allows us to craft perfectly tailored solutions for our customers,” said Amlani. “That unique understanding of how you put sensors together to create different effects helps make sure that we’re meeting all customer requirements.”
Naturally, when dealing with applications such as airports, cold chain transit, or asset tracking, these devices need to be versatile enough to meet a lot of regulatory, spacing, and power demands. As such, ColdChase sought a connectivity partner that could not only reliably connect their devices wherever they need to deploy but could offer them the versatility to design rugged and reliable devices that can withstand the potentially harsh conditions that abound in asset tracking and cold chain applications.
The ColdChase team evaluated at least a dozen service providers but struggled to find one that could meet the technical needs of their devices—specifically offering CatM1 and NB-IoT connectivity—and provide reliable coverage across the globe. Eventually, the team found Soracom, which not only met all of these needs but could also provide them with low-profile eSIMs for enhanced durability and lower-profile construction.
“We picked Soracom because it hit all those buttons,” said Amlani. “Not only do we get reliable service, we can get it all in eSIM form, which is very important for us. Since we do our own manufacturing, we prefer to put eSIMs on our boards.”
Because eSIMs are soldered directly onto a device’s System on Chip (SoC), their low profile allows manufacturers to design more compact devices. This construction also makes the SIMs more tamper-proof and resistant to vibration—factors important to applications that involve a lot of moving pieces.
In addition, embedding the eSIM into a device simplifies the connectivity process for the end user, removing a lot of the complexities of managing connections for fleets of mobile devices, many of which cross national borders in transit.
“We didn’t want customers trying to figure out what provider to go with depending on what country that we’re going to,” said Amlani. “So this way, the fact that Soracom has coverage in 150 countries or more, we were able to give that to our customers.”
ColdChase also highlights the benefits of Soracom’s User Console in managing deployed devices. The console can be used to monitor the connectivity status of all devices in a deployment.
ColdChase’s solutions have found their way into a number of different applications across the supply chain, providing reliable, actionable data that has helped shape the way business is done. One example shared by Amlani saw ColdChase’s sensors helping to avert a loss of more than $100k worth of meat from spoiling when extreme temperatures caused a commercial freezer to fail.
By partnering with Soracom, ColdChase’s customized solutions have enabled scores of customers to improve the efficiency of their operations and better manage their products. With reliable connectivity and the added security of the embedded eSIM, ColdChase is able to create powerful tools for all stages of the supply chain.
Amlani believes the company’s success comes from its customer-centric view, which provides solutions to issues that aren’t addressed in other technologies. “We focus on providing value to customers that realize how important having a safe, reliable, and functional piece of custom equipment is.”By partnering with a connectivity provider like Soracom, ColdChase can confidently count on reliable connectivity for their end customers.
Since 2006, CO2Meter has grown to become one of the most trusted and reliable leaders in the gas detection industry. The company’s founders combined proven technical expertise and trusted sales and management experience in both the gas detection field for mining as well as photonics, and have only grown more “sense” since then.
In 2019, Travis Lenander, a successful business professional with Fortune 500 companies, purchased the business and became CEO. With the leadership change came a new focus on product diversification, sales penetration, brand recognition, and international development. Now, with two decades of extensive industry expertise, it is no surprise that the company continues to grow at a rapid pace.
Despite what its name may suggest, CO2Meter’s technologies track and monitor more than just carbon dioxide, with sensors that cover oxygen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, methane, nitrogen, argon, and other gases. They also offer fixed-gas safety systems, gas data loggers, and accessories that help make that data accessible and actionable.
It is no surprise, then, that CO2Meter serves a vast array of business types and organizations, with its customers including those found in restaurants and food, breweries and wineries, indoor agriculture, scientific and medical, industrial safety, and welding applications – to name a few.
With such a versatile solution covering countless industries and applications, CO2Meter required a robust and adaptive backend. That is what led the company to AWS, whose nearly universal accessibility and broad potential allowed the company an easy and secure means of connecting their devices to cloud applications and other devices.
Yet even though AWS is the most prominent cloud platform on the market, not every device is designed to integrate with the service easily. Managing software and certificates for such a large fleet – particularly with most deployed devices being in the possession of end-users can be complicated – and that complexity only grows with each new customer.
The complexity does not end at the backend either, as a global operation involving connected devices may also run into some difficulties when it comes to international pricing structures. As such, CO2Meter needed a connectivity provider that not only covered their operational area but helped simplify the integration process and cut through the red tape of international pricing, as well.
“With its ease of use, fantastic support, and competitive price structure, Soracom was an easy choice for us. It has significantly reduced the overhead in our data transmission thanks to the backend tools available, made onboarding of new devices completely seamless, and required no software changes other than updating the endpoint.”
This search is what led them to Soracom, a provider of international IoT connectivity that was also built on an AWS infrastructure. Yet what truly sets Soracom apart from other MVNOs is its suite of backend tools that help secure and provision connected devices at a scale that works for a business as big as CO2Meter.
Key to this functionality is Soracom’s Beam and Krypton services – TLS encryption proxy and device provisioning services that provide both secure connectivity and device management with direct integration to AWS IoT Core. CO2Meter further deploys the data management tool Soracom Harvest to help monitor and track usage down to the specific SIM, a factor that has proven essential to the success of development and data management for their prototype devices.
Combine this with Soracom’s competitive pricing and single-rate, pay-as-you-go cost structure, and CO2Meter found a connectivity partner that has helped it scale its operation into what it is today.
“Coming from another IoT partner, the backend tools and integration with our AWS environment from Soracom is simply second to none,” said Robert Miller, CO2Meter’s Vice President of Engineering. “Where others offer SIM and Usage tools as well as routing, Soracom offers an entire platform meant to make the integration of any cellular-based project into AWS as easy as we could possibly imagine. All while still offering great rates and support with our preferred carriers, as well as global support.”
Soracom’s tools and services have helped CO2Meter expand to a global – even interstellar – operation. With Soracom’s data management controls and efficient setup, CO2Meter has seen data usage for its devices dip by around 30%, resulting in significant cost savings. Meanwhile, using the Soracom SIM and device authentication service (Krypton) to automate the device provisioning process, the setup time for each device has been reduced from about 5 minutes to less than one.
These additions have allowed CO2Meter to introduce new devices, expand its operations, and emerge as a global leader in sensor technologies. The company hopes to continue this spirit of innovation, saying that customers should expect more integration of their products and improved IoT features designed to expand the potential uses of their devices.
UK-based Sollatek is a global leader in commercial refrigeration control, delivering cutting-edge hardware and IoT management solutions for the world’s top beverage companies and other refrigerated consumables. The company offers a range of solutions focused on power management, asset tracking, monitoring and optimization, and also provides the necessary data and operational insight to enable businesses to thrive.
Chief among these offerings is a unique suite of commercial refrigeration solutions designed to monitor and control the temperature, energy usage, and voltage stability of everything from beverage coolers and refrigerators to display cabinets and freezers. Additionally, the solution provides real-time cooler location tracking, can mark cooler sales based on door openings, monitor cooler misuse, and remotely control cooling system functionality.
The benefits of a properly maintained refrigeration system (safeguarding product quality, preventing spoilage, meeting regulatory requirements, etc.) are critical for day-to-day business, so ensuring that your equipment is working smoothly and efficiently is essential for modern business.
Commercial refrigeration is a highly energy-intensive process, with one estimate saying that a commercial refrigerator can use up to 17,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity over its lifetime. A separate survey from the Energy Information Administration found that refrigeration systems accounted for 14 percent of the 1.35 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity produced by the commercial sector in 2017. Coca Cola bottlers alone have over 10 million beverage coolers deployed in the field and purchase at least another million per annum.
This makes refrigeration systems a major factor in global energy usage, as well as a potentially costly marker on a customer’s bottom line. Monitoring refrigeration deployments for warming trends, power surges, and other events can do more than maintain stock and reduce spoilage; it can enable preventative maintenance to help preserve the longevity of mission-critical equipment in the field.
Furthermore, everything from the location of the cooler, to the cooler type, to the ideal cooling parameter settings, sales efficiency, and cooler operations can best be achieved when there is regular information flow from coolers deployed in the field to a system that can analyze the data and guide business owners to take the right decisions.
Sollatek offers a number of devices designed to help customers remotely manage and control their refrigeration operations. The company offers various Always On temperature controllers that can be mounted to equipment or simply adhered for display, with features that promote energy efficiency to help keep operations running smoothly. Other products include voltage stabilizers, and power controls, as well as ancillary equipment designed to improve and extend the features of Sollatek’s line.
All of Sollatek’s temperature controllers come with built-in or external connectivity options that allow customers to keep close tabs on any commercial refrigerators and beverage coolers they have deployed. This connectivity is provided by Soracom, which allows each and every device to access top-tier cellular connectivity across multiple connectivity technologies and carriers in 170 coun
Many of the world’s largest beverage producers have already discovered the power of Sollatek’s Always On solution, with more than a million coolers and freezers deployed with Sollatek technology worldwide.
Monitoring and management systems for refrigeration equipment require near-constant data uploads to be viable, and the challenge is only exacerbated when operating across international borders. Scaling an operation that spans multiple countries and continents presents myriad challenges. No single carrier can ensure devices will stay connected across the globe, meaning that deploying refrigeration solutions in disparate parts of the world might involve multiple vendors, bills, and relationships to manage.
This is what makes Soracom a natural connectivity provider to Sollatek. Soracom partners with many of the biggest MNOs in the world, ensuring strong, reliable connectivity virtually wherever it is needed. Considering Sollatek’s customers include some of the largest names in the beverage world, the ability to support deployments in multiple countries is a must. Beyond that, Soracom’s network is packed with redundancies and automatic failover, which means that devices have the best chance of staying connected, even if a customer’s preferred network goes down.
With refrigeration deployments only growing in complexity, the combination of Sollatek’s monitoring technology and Soracom’s best-in-class connectivity solution provides customers with the perfect solution to protect their investments.
Commercial kitchens are busy, high-pressure environments where food preparation, inventory control, equipment maintenance, and staff coordination happen all at once. Small inefficiencies can quickly translate into wasted food, increased costs, and potential health risks. According to the National Restaurant Association, 92% of restaurateurs list food costs as a top concern, with about a half-pound of food wasted per meal served. Poor air quality, equipment downtime, and lack of data visibility further complicate operations.
Recognizing the need to digitize outdated “pen and paper” processes, SmartKitchen developed a suite of IoT-enabled solutions to track performance, improve safety, reduce waste, and extend the lifespan of costly kitchen equipment. Their offerings include:
“Our goal is to make the busy day of the kitchen staff easier by automating routines,” said Matti Verkasalo, CEO of SmartKitchen.
For SmartKitchen, the challenge was to securely connect a large and diverse fleet of IoT devices in kitchens around the world. They needed reliable, multi-carrier connectivity for uninterrupted service, as well as a secure way to protect sensitive operational data.
As Verkasalo explains, “We are particularly proud to have developed a complete software stack from embedded firmware to cloud server, focusing on the food industry. We use three different wireless technologies in IoT solution measurements, and the IoT devices are designed and manufactured by SmartKitchen. All collected data is processed and analyzed in SmartKitchen’s own cloud service with guaranteed data protection. It’s unique that we don’t rely on 3rd party software or hardware.”
SmartKitchen partnered with Soracom to meet their connectivity needs, deploying Soracom Air SIM cards in every mobile device and gateway. This ensures devices automatically connect to the most reliable available network, backed by Soracom’s global multi-carrier infrastructure.
“From the very beginning, Soracom provided good help and advice in getting started,” said Verkasalo. “During our three-year journey with Soracom, we have always received fast and professional support.”
Security was just as important as connectivity. SmartKitchen uses Soracom Virtual Private Gateway (VPG) to isolate devices from the public internet, enabling secure, bi-directional communication strictly between deployed devices and SmartKitchen’s servers.
“Implementation of VPG was quick and has resulted in significant business benefits,” said Verkasalo. “There have been no communication interruptions, which is very important to our customers.”
With Soracom’s connectivity and private networking in place, SmartKitchen has been able to expand into many of Europe’s top hotels and restaurants while adding new features such as POS integrations. Customer feedback continues to drive innovation, ensuring their solutions stay ahead of the industry’s needs.
“With Soracom’s SIM cards, we can easily expand our operations to new countries,” said Verkasalo. “We want to be at the forefront and offer our customers the latest reliable technology. We are currently expanding our distributor network, especially in Central and Western Europe.”
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, known globally for its Dunlop and Falken tire brands, is at the forefront of automotive innovation. From new mobility solutions to autonomous vehicles, the company’s goal is to make driving safer and more efficient. One persistent challenge they set out to address is under-inflated tires, which reduce fuel efficiency, impair performance, and can lead to dangerous blowouts due to heat buildup.
With 28% of vehicles on the road estimated to have at least one under-inflated tire, the opportunity to improve safety and performance through IoT technology was clear. A remote monitoring solution could not only improve safety for drivers but also reduce maintenance burdens for fleet operators and rental car companies.
Sumitomo had deep knowledge of tire performance but little experience in cloud data utilization or telecommunications. They needed a partner to help them bring an advanced tire monitoring solution online while ensuring secure, reliable connectivity.
The system also needed to work in real time across a wide variety of vehicles, delivering actionable data to maintenance teams and fleet managers without requiring in-person inspections at every stop.
To bring their Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) to life, Sumitomo equipped vehicles with IoT sensors capable of tracking tire pressure, temperature, and location. This data is sent via in-vehicle communication systems to the cloud, where it can be accessed on PCs, tablets, and smartphones in real time.
Public testing with commercial and rental fleets demonstrated significant efficiency gains. Maintenance teams could check tire conditions remotely instead of spending hours on manual inspections.
“The service utilizing sensors and cloud computing is a new concept for our customers,” said Mr. Teramoto, one of the project’s engineers. “Through the testing process, we were able to outline how maintenance teams’ workload had been reduced through concrete numerical values. At times, we discovered values that we had not anticipated in advance.”
Sumitomo selected Soracom for its reliable connectivity and robust security. Using Soracom Air, TPMS devices connect to cellular networks with consistent performance. Data security is ensured through Soracom Canal, which provides a private, direct connection between Sumitomo’s AWS-based cloud and the Soracom platform. This setup keeps fleet data off the public internet and allows Sumitomo to control which devices can access its virtual private cloud.
Data from TPMS deployments with leased vehicles and Budget rental cars has enabled the creation of algorithms capable of detecting slow leaks and small punctures that would otherwise be missed during visual inspections. These insights help fleets extend tire life, prevent accidents, and improve customer relationships.
“Even though they may not have the speed of a venture company, companies with a large enough fleet can gather their own data and use it to improve their operations,” said Teramoto. “I would like to use the data to further improve our on-site capabilities.”
The TPMS is now part of Sumitomo’s Smart Tire initiative, aimed at placing Dunlop and Falken tires at the center of future automotive innovation, from connected and autonomous vehicles to electric mobility solutions.