Service providers that offer data plans to IoT/M2M customers often allow multiple SIM cards to share a single data pool. Instead of managing a separate allowance, e.g., 10MB/month for each SIM card, a customer gets a single shared pool that covers the combined volume of N eligible SIM cards (N is the arbitrary number assigned by the admin). This allows devices with lower usage to offset those with higher usage, cutting unnecessary excess-usage charges. For example, a logistics company may equip its delivery vehicles with SIM cards for GPS tracking. Some vehicles may travel much more than others and therefore consume more data. With a shared data pool, vehicles with lower usage leave more of the allowance available for vehicles with higher usage, helping the company avoid excess usage charges as long as data remains in the pool.
Customer pool, renewable by calendar bundle type lets you create and manage shared pools directly in PortaBilling. PortaBilling automatically tracks usage for each participating SIM card and deducts it from the shared pool. The pool is formed as the service volume times the multiplier – for example, a 10 MB service volume with a multiplier of 10 creates a 100 MB pool. Pool size depends on business needs, and the logic for adjusting it is also business-specific. If you need the pool size to change automatically as conditions change, you must implement this logic in a custom workflow or application script and use the PortaBilling API to update the pool. For example, if the pool size should depend on the number of active SIM cards, a custom workflow can track active SIMs and update the pool size accordingly. PortaBilling does not apply this business logic automatically. Adding or removing SIM cards does not automatically change the shared pool. For example, 10 SIM cards may share a 100 MB pool. If 5 more SIM cards are added, all 15 SIM cards still share the same 100 MB pool. The pool remains unchanged until an external workflow or an admin manually updates the multiplier.
Customers can manage their shared pools through the IoT and M2M Portal (available via the Add-on Mart) or your custom self-care portals built using the PortaBilling API. When the shared pool is exhausted, PortaBilling can notify an external system, such as an IoT device management platform, allowing you to implement custom business logic such as alerting the customer that they’ve used up their monthly data plan and offering to top it up or triggering other automated actions.
- Service providers offer competitive data pools.
- Customers save money by sharing one combined data allowance across SIM cards and managing their usage in one place.
- One data pool can be assigned to a customer at a time. New Customer pool, renewable by calendar bundle cannot be assigned directly to accounts and products.
- Adding or removing SIM cards from the pool does not change the total volume in the shared pool. For example, a 10 MB pool shared by 10 SIM cards remains 10 MB when 5 more SIM cards are added.
- To increase service volume in the shared pool, assign a new data pool with a larger number of participating accounts to the customer.
- Service volume can be prorated, so when a data pool is assigned for a customer in the middle of a billing period, its service volume is adjusted to the remaining part of the period. This adjustment is applied at the customer level and does not depend on the number of participating SIM cards.
- Data pools are unavailable for resellers and their subcustomers. This functionality is intended for a future release.
Configuration
In PortaBilling, an admin should perform the following:
- Create a Customer pool, renewable by calendar bundle, that will be used by a customer, e.g., IoT Essentials, and define the pooled data allowance, e.g., 1 MB of the Internet service
- Create a Renewable by calendar bundle that will be used by an account, e.g., IoT Essentials_account, that:
- Has the same service and code group as the customer bundle, e.g., Data Service and Fleet Data code group
- Allows the customer’s data pool (enable the Can use the customer’s pool toggle)
- Assign the IoT Essentials bundle to the customer and specify the multiplier. This creates the shared pool with the corresponding volume
- Assign a main or add-on product that includes the IoT Essentials_account bundle to each account (SIM card) that should draw from the pool. The allocated volume can be shared among the customer’s accounts that have this bundle assigned
