Data usage is counted in KB (kilo-byte) and totaled across the entire account at the end of your billing cycle. The total data usage for all subscriptions is then charged at the appropriate price for that data volume band. MB (megabyte), GB (Giga-byte) and TB (Tera-byte) figures are based on a 1024 multiplier.
Because machines have a different connectivity usage than mobile phones, and with the variety of IoT projects that people are engaged in, it is difficult to say how much data you are likely to use. \
As a guideline: 1 SMS (text message) exchange in Ireland is .33KB (less than 1c each).
IoT CONNECT calculates the percentage of data usage per device in relation to the cut-off point that you have set on your network. If you have no cut-off point set, you will still be able to see how much data your devices are using. You can check these levels at any time by logging into your account and viewing the device list. The average numbers of the home page will help you with this.
Customers IoT projects vary in size and complexity so it is difficult to say how much data you are likely to use. Please see the following examples to guide you in selecting your data usage limits:
- Low
If your IoT project involves reading a sensor every hour on a one-way communication e.g. temperature reading from a refrigerated truck, you might use around 1MB a month.
If you need a more frequent 2-way communication every 30 seconds e.g. the speed of a pump or motor, you could use 5 – 10 MB a month. - Medium
If your IoT project involves sending and/or receiving rich text files you will use much more data than the binary data used in the above examples.
For instance, a word document with the word “hello” sent one direction 10 times a day would use around 16KB working out at around 5MB a month. An image, such as a photo of a car from a speed camera, is a much larger file size and would use up much more per month. - High
Video or voice data will bring your usage into the top tier and you should allow between 100 and 500MB or more per month for this type of data.
Please keep in mind that these just reference estimations and your project might be vastly different from these scenarios.