What Soracom Query Means for IoT Engineers
Written by: Daniel O'Connor
Published: December 8, 2025
I’ve spent most of my career as a telco engineer, digging through 3GPP specs, tracing MAP dialogues, debugging CAMEL triggers, untangling Diameter messages, etc. Yet somehow, over and over, I’ve ended up as the “accidental DBA.” Suddenly I’m writing reports, tuning queries, and explaining to customers why “just one more data report” sometimes takes hours to complete.
If you’ve been there before, you know the pain of endless customer report requests eating up time that should have gone into engineering. My teams and I spent far too much time doing work the customer should have been able to do themselves, but lacked the know-how or access to do so.
That’s why Soracom Query hit me differently.
Finally, a Way for Customers to Ask Real Questions of Their Own Data
In most MNO’s/MVNO’s, customer data visibility is a bit of an afterthought. You get pre-baked dashboards, maybe an API, and then a mountain of manual reporting requests because nothing actually lets the customer explore their data how they’d like.
Soracom Query flips that on its head.
Query gives customers a near-real-time database-level interface to their fleet’s behaviour. Queries can cover almost anything you would need, from SIM registrations and locations right down to data uplink and downlink on a per-session basis.
For someone like me, who’s written endless custom reports for questions like these, it feels like a liberation. No more messy exports, no more “can you just run this for me?” calls. Customers can take the questions they have, turn them into a query straight against a copy of their operational data, and get report or graph back that gives them the answers.
AI-Powered Natural Language for Non-Technical Users
Here’s the bit that really surprised me. I’m usually cynical about AI claims, as buzzwords tend to overpromise and underdeliver, but Soracom Query is genuinely useful. It can take natural language input from a non-technical user and turn it into fully-formed SQL queries.
This means someone who doesn’t know an INNERJOIN from a WHERE clause can type: “Show me all SIMs in Europe that exceeded their data bundle last month”…and the system will generate the SQL report for them. It’s not smoke and mirrors, it’s actual productivity.
For teams that don’t have a DBA or SQL-savvy analyst on hand, this capability transforms “I don’t know how to ask the question” into actionable, real-time insight.
Real data access without the confusion – The Soracom standard
What makes this genuinely impressive is that Soracom exposes real telco-level insight without dropping customers into the world of MAP, Diameter, or CDR dumps.
Traditionally, the “good stuff”(i.e. session counters, billing records, authentication logs, roaming footprints) stays locked away. It’s designed for billing, audit, and compliance, not customer analysis.
Soracom Query abstracts the complexity while keeping fidelity. You get structured, explorable, real-time connectivity data. That’s powerful. And it’s exactly what engineers and power users need to make operational decisions without waiting for someone else to produce a report.
BI and Real Power User Access
The thing that really sealed it for me? Direct integration with a customer’s Business Intelligence (Power BI for example) tools.
Customers can run their reports straight from their own BI environment, no CSVs, no clunky exports, no waiting. For real power users, this is essentially direct database access – the kind of freedom that lets teams:
- Treat fleet data like a live, queryable dataset
- Build their own dashboards and models
- Run enterprise-grade analytics without MNO intervention
Finally, the tools are in the hands of the people who actually need them.
Why This Feels Like the Future of IoT Data
I may have had my doubts, but Soracom Query actually delivers the tangible empowerment that customers need to be more self-sufficient – real access, control, and insight over their own fleet data.
IoT deployments are dynamic. Devices misbehave, firmware updates change traffic patterns, radio conditions shift, roaming behaviour drifts, etc.. As such, static reports just aren’t enough. With Soracom Query, customers get the ability to explore and act on their data in real time, on their own terms.
For someone like me, who has been the accidental DBA one too many times, this feels like the progress the IoT world needs.
It leaves you wondering if all customers had this level of visibility and control over their data, how much faster could the IoT ecosystem evolve.
Got a question about Soracom? Whether you’re an existing customer, interested in learning more about our products and services, or want to learn about our Partner program – we’d love to hear from you!
