Which Hologram etc. data plans are you using?

The "T-Mobile only" plan: 250 Mb for $7.50/month. I never use more than 50 Mb in a month, but there isn't a smaller plan (and $7.50 isn't that bad).

My OVMS is the only device I have using Hologram, so I use the pilot plan.  That means no monthly fee, 1 free MByte per month and $0.60 / MByte thereafter.  The OVMS documentation is correct in estimating normal usage at about 3 MByte / month - at least in my case.  That adds up to $1.20 in a typical month.

I'm still using the $5 free credit that came from signing up with the OVMS voucher code.  The $20 minimum top up I paid on signing up might take a year to use up.

The most expensive part of the exercise was obtaining the Hologram sim card itself.  This is because the international version of the OVMS does not come with the sim and the OVMS supplier does not stock them.  Hologram will only supply internationally at very expensive international courier.rates.  I did discover, however, that importers of Sparkfun products will supply the Hologram card as a Sparkfun item.  Hologram only have one sim card, despite them sometimes being described differently.  The card from Sparkfun can even be used as your 'pilot' - you don't need to import the 'free' pilot card from Hologram.  My local Sparkfun stockist charged me perhaps 20% of what Hologram wanted to courier a free pilot card.

I hope this helps.

Unless you have a compelling reason (such as cheaply being able to add an additional SIM to your existing family plan, or low cost data only SIMs available in your region), I would suggest to use Hologram IO. OVMS modules purchased from the regional distributors (USA and Europe) include that as standard (but note that OVMS modules from China (Fasttech) do not include the Hologram SIM).

I have two cars permanently connected (although they are on wifi when parked at home overnight so using little cellular data overnight), and a couple of development modules only intermittently used. I use about 2.,47MB / month for all that (so about 1.2MB/month for each of the cars). That is using just server v2 protocol, and simple App connectivity. No ABRP plugin, no server v3, no frequent API usage, etc. I have it set to auto-refill US$20 when the balance is low enough, and my history of that is US$20 Feb 17 2022, Aug 30 2021, Mar 30 2021, Sep 25 2020. So seems about US$20 per car per year.

But the caveat is that your data usage will increase if you use plugins (ABRP, etc), server v3 protocol, API usage, or leave the Apps connected for long periods of time.

Sparkfun CEL-17117 is exactly what I bought.  Yes, plug it in, power it up, set up your account, add your card's number.  It might take a few minutes to get started so work on your OVMS settings  next.  From your Hologram account you will be able to monitor your OVMS data connection and determine whether data is flowing and even which tower you are onnected to.  Most of the time it will be connected with no data flowing on the cellular network because it will be in range of your wifi network and using that instead.

<p>Looking forward of using this contents soon! Thank you!!</p>

Looking forward of using this content soon! Thank you!

R.O.C. Use only for a membership account.

For ROC membership to maintain everyone that I know in the organization.

For ROC membership to maintain everyone that I know in the organization.

i hope this is not intended as spam, i'm in italy and i have a twizy, it use about 45 mb/month, then the hologram cost isn't so cheap, yesterday i buy (it's on his way) a sim froma local MVNO operator), 4 euro at month for 1 gb data

https://www.spusu.it/spusu1

but it has another plan, 4 euro /GB, i ask them to clarify if is it usefull for IOT device, how the cost is applied over the consumed data. i'm waiting for the answer

Since Hologram is not supported in Canada, what provider/plan do people use?

From their website they do support Canada as a 'specialty country', but you have to enquire with them as to status.

While I don't have any recommendations (living far from Canada),please let us know what you find.