Soracom Air for Cellular

Subscription Containers

Subscription containers are a feature of plan01s SIM cards and eSIMs which allow you to add extra subscription plans to the same SIM. These optional subscriptions allow you to unlock lower data rates in specific regions, or extend coverage to more countries and networks.

By default, each plan01s SIM is preprogrammed with an operator profile from Soracom, which includes a corresponding plan01s subscription plan. When your device connects to a cellular network, it uses the information stored in this subscription plan, such as Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and authentication keys, to authenticate itself.

In addition to the default plan01s subscription, the Soracom profile is capable of storing additional subscription plans. Adding more subscriptions means that your SIM will have additional sets of IMSIs and their corresponding keys, which will allow your device to connect to more networks in more countries, or to access cheaper data rates.

Switching between subscription plans is handled automatically by an applet built into the Soracom profile. Your device does not need any special configuration, and the SIM will automatically pick the best subscription based on the country where your device is located.

The data for each subscription (IMSI, authentication keys, etc.) is packaged into a subscription container, which can then be securely sent to your device and installed on the SIM through a simple Over-The-Air (OTA) update.

Delivery

Subscription containers are delivered wirelessly to plan01s SIMs through an OTA update. As long as your device is connected using a plan01s SIM, you can add a subscription container to the SIM no matter where it's located.

Subscriptions can be added by simply logging into the Soracom User Console, selecting a plan01s SIM, and adding a subscription. Soracom takes care of packaging subscription details (such as IMSI and authentication keys) into a subscription container, and sending the container to your device.

Once your device receives the container, it is automatically added to the plan01s SIM Soracom profile. The profile applet will then check if your device is currently located in a country supported by the new subscription, and if so, automatically switch subscriptions.

Application Compatibility

To reduce the complexity of managing multiple subscriptions, Soracom automatically synchronizes subscription settings for all subscriptions within a particular SIM. For example, if you give your plan01s SIM a Name, change its Speed Class, or add custom Tags, these settings will also be updated for other subscriptions in the SIM. This way, you do not need to worry about updating settings for each subscription separately.

This synchronization also applies to Group assignments and any settings that you configure in the group. If your SIM is added to a group where Custom DNS, Metadata Service, or another option is enabled, your device will also receive those settings when it connects to a network using a different subscription container.

Since groups are where you can enable other Soracom platform services, such as Beam, Funnel, Funk, and Harvest, your device will also have access to the same service configurations when it uses its other subscriptions. That way, if you build your application using the default plan01s subscription and later decide to add another subscription to expand coverage or reduce data fees, you do not need to update any of your group assignments or configurations.

Some Soracom services use or report the subscription IMSI, such as appending the IMSI to a topic name when using Beam MQTT, adding the IMSI to a request header, payload, or token claim when using Beam HTTP, Funnel, or Endorse, or capturing data and viewing it with Harvest Data and Lagoon. These options allow you to uniquely identify which device the data is coming from. Although the SIM will use a different IMSI when it connects to a network using a different subscription container, Soracom will automatically find the IMSI of the original plan01s subscription and use this primary IMSI instead. With this behavior, regardless of which subscription your device is currently using to connect, it will always be identified by its plan01s IMSI, so that you do not need to re-associate your data.

Available Subscriptions

Currently, the following subscriptions are available and can be added to any plan01s SIM:

^{*1 - Refer to the Supported Carriers documentation for carrier information
*2 - Actual network availability varies by country and local operator
*3 - Mobile Terminated SMS, or SMS delivered from Soracom to a device}

Subscription Priority

Since plan01s, planP1, planX1, planX2, and planX3 subscriptions have overlapping coverage, your device will have more than one subscription that can be used to connect to local networks. The built-in Soracom profile applet will check which country your device is located in and automatically activate the best subscription available for that country. The following table describes which subscription is activated based on what subscriptions you have added to your SIM and which country or region you are connecting from:

^{*3 - Actual coverage in APAC depends on which subscription is activated; Refer to the Supported Carriers documentation for carrier information.
*4 - Connectivity in Japan is provided by NTT Docomo and SoftBank for plan01s; by SoftBank only for planP1; by SoftBank and au/KDDI for planX1; by au/KDDI only for planX2; and by NTT Docomo only for planX3
*5 - Configurations that include both planX1 and planX2 subscriptions are not shown. If your SIM includes both of these subscriptions, planX2 will be prioritized.
*6 - Configurations that include planX3 will automatically prioritize planX3wherever coverage is available. In some cases, this may result in reduced coverage compared to plan01s. Refer to the Supported Carriers documentation for carrier information.}

Requirements

In order to add a subscription container to your plan01s SIM, your device must support the following requirements:

• SMS functionality (MO-SMS and MT-SMS)
• SIM Toolkit (STK) commands
• Network type (such as 2G, 3G, and LTE) and frequency bands for both the original plan01s subscription as well as the additional subscription container

Limitations

Before adding a subscription to your plan01s SIM, please be aware of the following limitations:

• Once a new subscription container is added to a SIM, it cannot be removed. In order to terminate a subscription, you must terminate the corresponding plan01s SIM.
• When one or more subscription containers are added to a plan01s SIM, the SIM will no longer incur the plan01s daily basic fees. However, the SIM will continue to incur the monthly basic fee for each subscription container as follows:
  • For planX1 and planX2, the subscription container monthly basic fee will still be charged even if the SIM is set to Standby or Suspended status.
  • For planP1 and planX3, the subscription container monthly basic fee will be charged when the SIM is set to Active or Inactive status. The monthly basic fee will not be charged when the SIM is in Ready, Standby, or Suspended status.
• Currently, planP1 subscriptions do not support MO-SMS functionality. Your device will not be able to send SMS to the network while it is connected using this subscription, however you can send MT-SMS to your device. Full SMS functionality will still work in other countries when the device is connected using the plan01s subscription.
• Similarly, planP1, planX1, and planX2 subscriptions do not support USSD functionality, and your device will not be able to send USSD while using these subscriptions. USSD functionality will still work in other countries when the device is connected using the plan01s subscription.
• When a planX3 subscription is added to a plan01s SIM, the planX3 subscription will be prioritized wherever coverage is available. In some cases, planX3 may have access to fewer networks compared to plan01s, which may result in reduced carrier coverage.

Adding a Subscription

To add a subscription to a SIM:

1. Login to the User Console. From the Menu, open the SIM Management screen.

2. A message should appear offering to let you switch to the new SIM Management console. Click the new SIM Management console link.

   https://console.soracom.io

   

   Compared to the old SIM Management screen, the new screen will include a SIM ID column.

3. From the list of subscribers, click the for the SIM you want to manage.

4. Click the Actions menu, then select Add subscription....

   https://console.soracom.io

   

5. Click the for the subscription you want to add, then click Add Subscription.

   

Soracom will then begin the OTA update process.

Delivery Status

While using the new SIM Management screen, each SIM will display which subscription containers have been added to the SIM:

For each SIM, the IMSI column will contain the plan01s IMSI (the primary IMSI), as well as the IMSIs of the additional subscriptions below it. Similarly, the Subscription column will indicate the names of the subscriptions that have been added to the SIM.

When adding a planP1, planX1, planX2, or planX3 subscription to a SIM, a subscription delivery status may appear in parentheses next to the subscription name. The following table describes the meaning of each status:

If you no longer see a status next to the additional subscriptions, this means that your device has successfully started to use the new subscription. From now on, you can refer to the Subscriber Status to see the current online or offline status of your SIMs.