Newbie here 
I saw that "it runs on theParticle IoT Platform-as-a-Service — included for free for your first 100 devices" and I'm wondering if connecting to the Canadian providers is included.
If free, how much data or messages can be sent/received for free in Canada?
If not free, where can I see some subscription costs for different levels of usage (light anticipated)?
Is there some Canadian coverage/providers map?
Also, do the messages have to go through the particle cloud or can they go device to device?
Thanks and best,
Cat
@CataCluj, welcome to the Particle Forum! Take a look at the pricing plan section of the Getting Started documentation.
- Up to 100 devices, any mix of cellular and Wi-Fi
- 100K Data Operations (100,000) per month, for both cellular and Wi-Fi, pooled across all devices
- Up to 100 MB of cellular data per month, pooled across all devices, at no charge
I am located in Ottawa and everything works as you would expect in Canada. You can find the coverage for a given Particle device type here:
The idea is that in the free tier, up to 100 devices share 100K "data operations" and 100MB of data per month. The best way to get messages out from one device to another is by using the built-in pub/sub capabilities which are encrypted end-to-end. The Particle devices themselves do not directly support https or tls encryption though there are community (not official Particle) libraries which may support that. The Particle Cloud has too many benefits to list here including webhooks, OTA, device "twins", products, etc.
With new devices like the (new) MSOMs which support WiFi, Cellular, Lora and GPS, connectivity goes to another level. If that isn't enough, a development board like the Muon may be all you need or the upcoming Linux-based Tachyon. Both of these boards have 40-pin connectors that support most Raspberry Pi hats.
Are you looking at a project for yourself or a small product to deploy?
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Thank you @peekay123.
It seems I should be able to try some things for free.
It's a small project for myself, that ... could grow, if it works well.
A sort of messenger.
May I ask you some other things, maybe DM?
Thanks again.
Absolutely!
Thank you @peekay123 .
It looks like I don't know how to DM here.
I didn't think I'm stupid, but these new interfaces (especially mobile but it seems not only) have me beat.
Anyway, this project is for a low/free subscription messenger for people that for any reason don't want or can't afford cellphones. There's a sale on the Boron in the title, but I have another deadline in Dec. so I was wondering if it's worth buying this sale to have them when I'm freer.
The plans seem good at first look, but are not so easy to me to understand beyond the free, having to calculate based on messages, etc and not knowing overheads or what's involved in sending simple text messages between units.
Also, I'm not sure what I'd need to surround the Borons with, for a simple text interface with a touch screen.
I hope you can help a bit, if it's not too much trouble, but I realize my wondering may be wandering 
@CataCluj, I would not consider the Particle devices or platform as "free" if you are developing a "volume" product. Though Particle devices could send and receive ASCII text messages, you would need to build a backend to hand subscriptions and somehow allow one to many and many to one messages.
Particle considers each "message" sent as a "data operation" and provides a data limit depending on the operating "tier" you pay for. Depending on the number of units and how you implement your messenging, you could quickly reach the limits and need to upgrade to a higher tier.
Perhaps @rickkas7 or @gusgonnet can chime in with their thoughts?
It might be free if only for my family; but it would be nice to know how much it would cost/month in "volume", for, say, 20 (text) messages/day.
I can't fathom calculating that with the info available.
@CataCluj, the free tier includes 100K operations for max 100 devices. If you have 10 people in your family, that would be roughly 10K operations per person per month. Or, that is about 300 data operations per person per day. Each operation can send max 1000 chars.
Hey, doing a quick search comes up with a $10 phone:
Add the cheapest plan in canada for $20 (koodomobile).
Seems like that is going to be hard to beat that at scale. It's a noble cause though.
Best,
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You're not wrong as such, but the monopoly we have here bothers me immensely! It's still much more than double what it'd cost in Europe, etc. And for poorer people, it adds up. $20 here, another there... EVERY MONTH!
For now, I'm lucky, but I still don't like it.
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