Registration and Initial Status
When you purchase a Soracom IoT SIM, it must be registered to your Soracom account before use. This process is similar to activating a SIM card with a traditional mobile network operator. The SIM registration process is required to confirm your receipt of the SIMs and to associate basic fees and data usage fees from the SIMs to your account.
When you register an IoT SIM to your account, its default Subscriber Status is set to Ready. This status indicates that the registration process was completed successfully, that the SIM is now ready for use, and that you will be responsible for all fees associated with the SIM until you decide to terminate it.
For detailed instructions, refer to the Registering Soracom IoT SIMs documentation.
Automatic Registration for SIMs Purchased Directly from Soracom
If you do not manually register your order, your SIMs will be automatically registered to your account based on the following schedule:
- Orders containing IoT SIMs (under Global coverage) will be automatically registered to your account 14 days after shipment.
- Orders containing IoT SIMs for Japan (Japan coverage) will be automatically registered to your account 4 days after shipment.
If you have not received your order due to a shipping delay, lost package, or other issues and would like to pause the automatic registration of your order, please contact support as soon as possible.
Automatic Activation
There is no need to manually change the status from Ready to Active. Soracom will automatically activate the SIM and change its status to Active as soon as a device using the SIM connects to a cellular network.
When your device attempts to connect, Soracom checks the SIM's Subscriber Status to determine whether or not your device should be allowed to connect. To connect, your SIM must be in one of the following statuses:
- Ready
- Active
- Standby
If the SIM is in Ready or Standby status, Soracom automatically changes the status to Active as soon as your modem has registered to a network. You can verify this change in the User Console. No (re)activation fee is incurred for this first transition out of Ready.
Exceptions and Notes:
- Test Mode: If Test Mode had already been enabled for the SIM, its subscription status will automatically change to Testing instead of Active upon its first cellular connection request. Do not manually change a testing SIM to Active, as it cannot be returned to Testing.
- One-Way Transition: Once a SIM changes from Ready to another status, it cannot be changed back to Ready.
- Manual Activation: While activation is typically automatic, you can also change the status of a SIM on a per-SIM basis using the activateSim API.
Subscriber Status vs. Session Status
It is important to understand the difference between a SIM's subscriber status and its session status:
- Subscriber status (Ready, Testing, Active, Inactive, Standby, Suspended, Terminated) controls the SIM’s subscription state, including connectivity permissions and billing behavior.
- Session status (Online or Offline) indicates whether the SIM currently has an active data connection.
When your SIM automatically changes to Active after registering to a network, the data connection status may still appear as Offline until the modem successfully requests and establishes a data session with the configured APN settings.
Preventing Communication and Fees
To prevent data usage, you can change the status to Inactive:
- From the User Console, select the checkbox next to the IoT SIM.
- Click the Actions menu and select Deactivate.
Alternatively, you can use the deactivateSim API.
When an IoT SIM is Inactive, new session requests are rejected, so no data usage fees are incurred. However, the basic daily fee still applies.
Long-Term Storage
If you do not intend to use the SIM for a long period, you can change the status to Suspended. While in Suspended status, the SIM cannot maintain an active data or SMS session and cannot connect until the subscription is manually reactivated.
A reactivation fee will be charged when moving a SIM from Suspended status to Active or Inactive status. For more information, see Soracom's Pricing and Fee Schedule.