On April 27, 2021, the Soracom Lagoon service received a major upgrade. Due to some changes which were not backwards compatible, the previous version of Lagoon was rebranded as Soracom Lagoon Classic so that existing customers could continue to use it. Customers were allowed to either continue using Lagoon Classic or migrate to the upgraded version of Lagoon, and we also announced that Soracom Lagoon Classic would be deprecated in May 2022.

On May 31, 2022, Lagoon Classic was deprecated accordingly. Customers still using Lagoon Classic could continue to use it in read-only mode, and we similarly announced that Lagoon Classic would be fully discontinued in December.

As of December 1, 2022, Soracom Lagoon Classic has now been discontinued and is no longer available. The upgraded version of Soracom Lagoon is still available for use.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the discontinuation of Lagoon Classic, please feel free to contact our support team.

When purchasing SIMs directly from the User Console, Soracom pre-registers each SIM in the order to your account. Once you receive your order, the SIM registration process will be completed automatically, saving you time from having to register each SIM one by one.

However, SIM settings such as Group and Speed Class can only be configured after each SIM has been registered and added to your account. While it is possible to select multiple SIMs and configure such settings, doing so for a large number of SIMs has been tedious and has still required waiting until after the SIMs have been registered.

Now, users can now select what initial settings to apply to each SIM in an order prior to registering the SIMs.

After placing an order from either the User Console or Soracom IoT Store, you can specify the following initial settings for each of the subscription plans included in your order:

• Group
• Speed Class
• Tags

These initial settings can be configured right away, even before your order has shipped. Once you receive your order and click "Register," the initial settings that you specified for the order will be automatically applied to each SIM as they are registered.

Please note:

• Certain options or services are configured in a Group and are automatically applied to all SIMs that have been added to that group. When specifying a Group initial setting, this may result in a corresponding increase in option or service fees as soon as the SIMs have been registered and initial settings applied.
• When placing an order from the Soracom IoT Store, you must log into the User Console after completing your order to be able to configure the initial settings for that order.

For additional details, please refer to Soracom Air for Cellular: Registration documentation.

We are pleased to announce that plan01s and plan01s Low Data Volume coverage now includes Reunion.

For complete details about data rates, supported carriers, and coverage in other countries, please refer to the Supported Carriers documentation.

We recently announced a new renewalFeeStatusSetTime SIM property which indicates the date and time when a Soracom IoT SIM was registered in the Ready status, or when the status was set to Standby or Suspended. When a SIM remains in one of these statuses for more than one year, an annual renewal fee is charged. The renewalFeeStatusSetTime property allows you to calculate the amount of time remaining until a corresponding renewal fee will be charged.

While the renewalFeeStatusSetTime property is now returned as part of a Soracom API response from the related APIs, this update allows you to check the same information directly from the User Console.

To find the date when the SIM was set to its ready, standby, or suspended status:

1. Open the SIM Management screen, select a SIM, and click Details.
2. The date will be displayed in the Renewal Fee Tracking Date detail.

As previously mentioned, please note that renewal fees apply only to the following subscription plans:

• plan01s
• plan01s - Low Data Volume
• plan-NA1-package
• plan-KM1
• planP1
• planX3

For more information on renewal fees, please refer to the Soracom Air: SIM Types and Pricing & Fee Schedule documentation.

Virtual Private Gateway (VPG) is a customer-created dedicated gateway that provides Soracom Air for Cellular and Soracom Arc devices with a private network environment on the Soracom platform. When an IoT SIM is connected to a VPG, its data communication is handled by the dedicated gateway rather than by Soracom's default shared gateway, which in turn allows you to:

• Configure the VPG to allow or block access to certain destinations.
• Connect the VPG to your own private network, which in turn allows your devices to access servers or other network resources in your private network without data going over the Internet.

Enabling connectivity with a VPG

When configuring an IoT SIM to connect to a VPG, the SIM must first be added to a group, and the group's Virtual Private Gateway setting must be enabled and configured to use the VPG. In addition, if the SIM is already connected to a cellular network, the ongoing session must be deleted and re-established in order for the data to be routed through the VPG.

If an ongoing session is not deleted, data from the SIM will continue to be routed through the previous gateway instead of through the VPG. However there has not been a way to check whether the ongoing session is routed through the VPG or not.

Checking VPG connectivity status

With this update, you can now check whether a SIM's data session is routed through a VPG according to its group settings, in order to determine if a session should be deleted to reconnect accordingly. If you have more than one VPG, you can also check which VPG the connection is routed through. VPG details are available from a SIM's Session History tab:

As of November 1, 2022, prices for the following Japan-only devices have been revised. Prices are in Japanese Yen (¥) and include Japanese consumption tax.

Antenna for 3G/LTE Cat.1/LTE Cat.M Module HW-MULTI-GA-RSMA

• Old price: ¥1,188 (includes a ¥100 Soracom platform service coupon)
• New price: ¥1,628 (includes a ¥100 Soracom platform service coupon)

For more details, visit the product page (Japanese).

IP65 antenna for LTE Cat.1/LTE Cat.M module Taoglas GA.130.201111

• Old price: ¥2,288 (includes a ¥100 Soracom platform service coupon)
• New price: ¥2,618 (includes a ¥100 Soracom platform service coupon)

For more details, visit the product page (Japanese).

When a Soracom IoT SIM is registered and remains unused in the Ready status for more than one year, or when its status is changed to Standby or Suspended and remains in either status for more than one year, an annual renewal fee is charged.

To help determine when renewal fees will be charged, we have added a renewalFeeStatusSetTime property to the response of the following APIs:

• Sim:listSims
• Sim:getSim
• Subscriber:listSubscribers
• Subscriber:getSubscriber
• Query:searchSims
• Query:searchSubscribers

The renewalFeeStatusSetTime property is a timestamp (in Unix milliseconds) that indicates the date and time when the SIM was set to its ready, standby, or suspended status. Using this timestamp, you can calculate the amount of time remaining until a corresponding renewal fee will be charged.

Note that renewal fees apply only to the following subscription plans:

• plan01s
• plan01s - Low Data Volume
• plan-NA1
• plan-KM1
• planP1
• planX3

For more information on renewal fees, please refer to the Soracom Air: SIM Types and Pricing & Fee Schedule documentation.

Starting October 2022, the availability and application process of the SORACOM Support Office Hours support program, announced previously as a Limited Preview service, will change according to the following:

• Office Hours will be available to customers who currently have a paid support plan (Priority Support or Enterprise Support).
• To schedule an Office Hours appointment, please open a support ticket regarding your inquiry and indicate that you would like to receive a web meeting response using the Office Hours program.
  • Please also indicate a preferred appointment date and time that is at least 5 business days from the date of your request.

Please refer to the documentation (Japanese) for additional details such as requirements and precautions. If you have any questions regarding the Office Hours support program, please don't hesitate to contact us.

As previously announced, the number of past billing information and order history has now been limited to the most recent 18 months. Bills and orders older than 18 months are no longer available for download.

This change also applies to billing information and order history that is accessed using the following APIs:

• Billing:getBilling
• Billing:getBillingPerDay
• Billing:exportBilling
• Billing:getBillingHistory
• Order:listOrders
• Order:getOrder

If you require a copy of billing information or order history that is no longer available, please contact our support team by logging into the User Console and selecting Support > Contact Us.

For more information on downloading and using billing information or viewing and managing orders, please refer to the Billing Information and Order Management documentation.

We are pleased to announce that the Soracom Cloud Camera Services API, previously available as a Limited Preview, is now available for all users. This API allows users to download recordings as well as snapshot images generated from the recordings.

In order to use the API, a supported camera with a Sora Cam Cloud Recording License is required, however there are no additional charges for using the API.

For more information, please visit the Soracom Cloud Camera Services API product page (Japanese).