Twilio’s developer-first approach to programmable cellular communications

Cloud communications software company Twilio has announced Twilio Programmable Wireless.

This is programmable cellular communications software that offers APIs to power web-connected Internet of Things (IoT) products.

To be clear, Twilio is making the cellular connectivity element itself programmable… the technology proposition is that Twilio handles the complexity of dealing with carrier business models.

IoT devices need a connectivity provider, obviously.

But says Chetan Chaudhary, general manager of IoT at Twilio, existing connectivity providers have antiquated ordering, billing and reporting, non-existent documentation and often require developers to wait weeks to get started, deterring developers and slowing adoption.

“With Twilio Programmable Wireless, developers now benefit from a platform that is self-service, pay-as-you-go, has extensive documentation and enables them to begin building IoT solutions immediately,” says Chaudhary and team.

Connecting a device to the Internet requires a subscriber identification module (SIM) that is standard in every mobile phone today. Twilio provides developers with SIM cards that give them access to global connectivity in more than 120 countries.

Twilio Programmable Wireless enables developers to see where and when SIMs are connected and monitor data consumption in real time with individual SIM reporting. They can also minimise data costs by using Twilio’s Commands API to send and receive machine to machine (M2M) commands using the SMS transport protocol.

The firm insists that cellular IoT connectivity enables developers to build applications that require a persistent, always on connection and integrate systems for a whole suite of use cases.

In private beta, Twilio customers have built new services in healthcare, transportation and hospitality using this software.