We are pleased to announce Soracom Query Intelligence, a new feature of Soracom Query for analyzing large volumes of data using natural language and generative AI.

Soracom Query, released as a technology preview last year, is a managed data warehouse service that allows customers to stream or import device data from Unified Endpoint or Harvest Data into a highly available distributed database. This enables advanced queries using tools such as Power BI, Tableau, and Amazon QuickSight without the overhead of complicated data handling operations.

For more information, please visit the Soracom Query (Japanese) product page.

The new Soracom Query Intelligence feature allows customers to perform complex analyses by simply asking for the information they need using natural language. Query Intelligence leverages the underlying device and SIM data provided by Query, along with the latest generative AI technologies, to return responses in text and graphical charts.

In addition, Soracom Query will also support querying data related to SIM session history. This enables customers to perform complex data analysis, such as identifying which devices have an unusually high reconnection frequency, or visualizing which networks are being used on a map, without needing to know SQL or other tools.

Limitations

At release, Soracom Query Intelligence will only support SIM session history data. We look forward to supporting additional SIM data based on your feedback.

Availability

Soracom Query and the new Soracom Query Intelligence feature are currently available as a technology preview. If you are interested, please contact us for more information or to request access.

We are pleased to announce the release of WebSocket support for the Soracom Beam Website Entry Point. WebSocket technology enables high efficiency, real-time communication between your devices and servers.

• We intend to upgrade the Soracom Beam Website Entry Point to this WebSocket-supported version for all customers in the future.
• At present, we do not have plan to incorporate WebSocket support into the existing Soracom Beam HTTP Entry Point or Unified Endpoint.

Website Entry Point (WebSocket-Supported Version) Pricing

Soracom Beam usage is calculated based on the number of requests made. For more details, please visit the Soracom Beam Pricing & Fee Schedule.

Please be aware that establishing a WebSocket connection between the device and the destination server with the WebSocket-supported Website Entry Point will count as 2 requests.

• Once the connection is established, sending and receiving messages will not count as additional requests.
• Data communication charges for Soracom Air / Soracom Arc will apply.

This feature is currently offered as a limited preview. If you are interested in accessing this feature, please reach out to our support team.

We are excited to announce enhancements to the Soracom Support Bot, first launched on December 19, 2023. Based on customer feedback, we have made the following improvements:

• Upgraded AI model with more accurate responses
• Number of responses per ticket increased to 5 responses

Previously, the Soracom Support Bot was limited to providing only one response per support ticket. Now, customers can interact to rephrase their questions or provide further information, allowing the Soracom Support Bot to better understand the context and provide more appropriate answers.

Please note that Soracom support staff may terminate responses from the Soracom Support Bot if the dialogue is deemed inappropriate.

For more details about the Soracom Support Bot, please refer to the Creating a support request documentation.

The Soracom Support Bot is currently available as a public beta, free of charge. We welcome your feedback as we continue to improve its functionality.

We are excited to announce availability of the Soracom Support Bot, an Azure OpenAI-powered feature that can provide answers to technical questions based on Soracom's official documentation.

When creating a support inquiry from the Soracom support site, you will now see a new option to Get an answer from SORACOM Support Bot:

When selected, the Soracom Support Bot will generate an answer based on the Subject and Description of your support request.

Please note that the Soracom Support Bot option is only available for the "I have a question about technical specifications or usage" category. For additional details and limitations, please refer to the Creating a support request documentation.

The Soracom Support Bot is currently available as a public beta, free of charge. We welcome your feedback as we continue to improve its functionality.

The Soracom Support team is pleased to announce SORACOM Support Office Hours (hereafter "Office Hours"), a new support program that allows customers to make an appointment to consult directly with our support staff via web meeting.

Office Hours is an opportunity for customers to more quickly resolve concerns in their IoT projects, learn how to utilize the features of the Soracom platform, and other issues that are difficult to explain via support tickets, by speaking directly with our support staff.

While Office Hours are intended for customers with a paid support plan (Priority Support and Enterprise Support), during the month of Septembre 2022, customers without a paid support plan are also eligible to request Office Hours appointments.

If you would like to request an appointment, please read the following information and submit a support ticket to apply.

Examples of consultations

• You have a question or issue related to the use of the Soracom Platform in your IoT project.
• You would like to learn more about Soracom Platform services, features, and how to make the most of Soracom support services.
• You have an issue that requires direct consultation with Soracom support staff, such as sharing information on screen or confirming operations.

In principle, support services provided in Office Hours will follow the Scope of Support Services (Japanese).

Dates and times

Office Hours for the month of September 2022 are as follows:

• September 12-16 (Monday-Friday), between 10:00 and 18:00 JST

Customers may apply for a 30-45 minute appointment during this time.

Application Deadline

Friday, September 9 (Friday) by 15:00 JST

Cost

Free of charge

How to apply

To apply, please submit a new support ticket by copying the following information and filling in your Office Hours request details:

Subject: SORACOM Support Office Hours Request
Inquiry Category: Other Inquiry
Description (of inquiry): 

- Preferred Date and Time (1st choice): 
- Preferred Date and Time (2nd choice): 
- Preferred Web Meeting Tool: 
  - If you do not specify, we will send you the URL of Google Meet. If you would like to use other tools, please feel free to contact us.
- Details to be discussed: 
- Other requests: 

Conditions

• Before applying, please make sure to confirm that the nature of your request adheres to the Scope of Support Services (Japanese).
• Office Hours will be provided as a Limited Preview. Accordingly:
  • We may limit your participation or adjust the date and time based on the details of your request.
  • We reserve the right to stop accepting applications prior to the application deadline without prior notice.
• Only one application per customer (SORACOM account) is allowed.
• If we are unable to answer your questions during your appointment, we may follow up with a support ticket afterwards.
• We kindly request your participation in filling out a survey, to be sent to you at a later date.

Office Hours schedule for the month of October 2022 (and later) will be announced at a later date.

Extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) and Power Saving Mode (PSM) timers are cellular network parameters that control the intervals at which a device wakes up to receive signals from the network. With LTE Cat-M1 (LTE-M) networks, these parameters can be increased in order to reduce the wake-up frequency and potentially improve battery life.

With this update, eDRX and PSM timers can now be configured directly within a group. When a Soracom SIM belonging to the group attaches to a cellular network, the eDRX and PSM timer parameters will be sent to the local network, allowing these parameters to be configured by the network without the need to modify device firmware.

This feature is currently available as a limited preview. In some cases, a local network may override eDRX and PSM timers regardless of the parameters sent by Soracom. If you are interested in using this feature, please contact us in order to request access.

For more information on LTE-M network availability, please refer to the Supported Carriers documentation.

The SORACOM Lagoon Pro plan provides a Snapshot feature that allows you to publish a Lagoon Dashboard.

Using the Snapshot feature, you can generate a public URL to share a view-only Dashboard with other users. Users can then access the URL without the need to log in to Lagoon, and will see the Dashboard, including data for a specific time period, as it appeared when the Snapshot was saved.

In this update, Snapshots now have an Automatically Update option that will update the Snapshot approximately every minute:

• For existing Snapshots or new Snapshots created with the Automatically Update option disabled, the Dashboard layout and data will stay the same, regardless of when the URL is accessed. You can use this option to publish a Dashboard that shows data for a specific point in time.
• When creating a new Snapshot with the Automatically Update option enabled, the latest data will be loaded periodically while the Snapshot is being viewed. You can use this option to publish a Dashboard that automatically shows the latest data.

Please note that the Automatically Update option of the Snapshot feature is currently released as a beta, and may be subject to change without notice.

SORACOM Lagoon, a customizable dashboard service that allows you to create powerful data visualizations and share them with third parties, now supports creating pie chart visualizations and reduce transforms. Both of these features are currently available as a beta, and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Pie Chart (Beta)

You can now create pie chart to visualize percentages of data.

For example, when combined with an Expression function, you can visualize the percentage of sensors from a fleet of CO2 monitoring sensors that exceed CO2 concentrations of 1000 ppm.

Reduce Transform (Beta)

You can now add a Reduce transform to an Expression function, which will allow you to calculate the minimum (Min), maximum (Max), average (Mean), total (Sum), or count (Count) of a data set.

For example, by adding a Reduce transform to temperature data, you can quickly calculate average (Mean) temperature from a specific time period. Then, by further combining it with a Math Expression, you can create a graph that visualizes the temperature difference relative to the average temperature calculated from the transform.