Platform and account terms
Hologram dashboard
Hologram’s IoT management portal at dashboard.hologram.io where you manage SIMs, usage, billing, and users. When support refers to “your dashboard,” this is the whole app — not a single page. The dashboard is divided into sections in the main menu, such as SIMs, Usage, Billing, and Settings. See the dashboard overview.
Organization
The shared account for your company or team, and the single entity that owns SIMs and is billed. An organization is not a “workspace,” “team,” or “profile” — those aren’t Hologram terms. One login can belong to more than one organization, and every user also has a personal organization by default. See organization details.
Account
Your business “account” is represented by an organization. Billing, SIM management, data usage, and user management is performed at the organization level.Your user account is your personal login (name, email, password) managed in Settings → My account. API keys are associated with a user account. Your user account can be associated with multiple organizations.
Owner
The user who owns an organization and is its primary billing contact. Billing notifications are sent to the Owner’s email address. See billing email recipients.
SIM state terms
Active SIM
Any SIM that able to use data and is registered on the Hologram network, including SIMs in a Ready, Connected, or Paused status. Active SIMs are charged a monthly recurring charge (MRC) whether or not they used data in the current billing period. A SIM becomes active once it is activated. A SIM configured with Test Mode is not an active SIM until it exits testing. See SIM states and statuses.
Pre-deployment SIMs
This is a blanket term for all SIMs that have not yet been activated and are not charged a monthly recurring charge (MRC). This includes Test Mode SIMs In testing, Inactive, and other SIMs that are not active. See SIM states and statuses.
Paused by user
A SIM that a member of your organization manually paused. It cannot send or receive data or SMS until someone resumes it. This is reversible by your team at any time. See pause or resume SIMs. For organizations with an active contract, these SIMs can qualify for zero-data rates if they use 0 B of data in a billing period.
Paused by system
A SIM the system paused automatically because of an insufficient account balance, reaching a data usage limit, reaching an SMS limit, or missing contractual payments. These SIMs resume automatically once the underlying cause is resolved. See what causes the “Paused by system” status.
Suspended SIM
The industry term for a “suspended” SIM isn’t an exact match for how Hologram’s billing works, as Hologram SIMs can operate across multiple mobile cores and profiles. When paused, SIMs are still charged a monthly recurring charge (MRC) unless it was due to missing account balances. Talk with our Sales team to see if you qualify for “suspended rates” (zero-data rates) for SIMs that use 0 bytes of data in a billing period.
Deactivated
A SIM that has been permanently deactivated. Deactivated SIMs are not charged a monthly recurring charge, unlike a paused SIM. However, deactivation is permanent and cannot be undone. See deactivate SIMs.
In testing (Test Mode)
A pre-deployment state that lets you validate a SIM on the network before it activates. A SIM in testing auto-activates when the testing period ends, it uses 100 KB of data, or it sends 10 SMS messages. See Test Mode.
Billing terms
Monthly recurring charge (MRC)
The fixed monthly per-SIM charge that reserves your SIM’s access to the network and the Hologram platform. It is billed on a 30-day cycle starting the day the SIM activates, and applies to every active SIM regardless of data usage — including paused SIMs. For Included data plans, the MRC also covers the plan’s included data. For organizations with monthly invoicing, this charge is billied at the beginning of each calendar month instad. See breakdown of billing and SIM charges.
Data usage rate
The per-megabyte cost for data, billed by the kilobyte at the close of each session. On Pay as you go plans it applies to all usage; on Included data plans and Data pools it applies only to overage above the included amount. See breakdown of billing and SIM charges.
Data usage limit
A cap on the data a SIM can use in a billing period. When the SIM reaches it, data usage is paused (the SIM moves to Paused by system). Limits are checked at the close of each data session, not in real time, so a SIM can pause slightly before or after the exact number. Data usage limits are checked against the SIM’s 30-day billing period that began on the day it was activated (making it an Active SIM), which may not align to billing perios for organizations with monthly invoicing. See set data usage limits.
Billing period
The 30-day cycle for a SIM’s charges, beginning at the time and day that SIM was activated. This is per-SIM and is separate from the reporting windows in the Usage section. See how billing works.
Prepaid vs. postpaid billing
Most organizations pay-as-you-go (prepaid) for all charges, and draw down from an account balance like a transit card, debit, or checking account. Contracted organizations can instead receive monthly invoices (postpaid). See billing overview.
Reporting terms
Recent vs. historical usage
Recent data usage covers the last 90 days in near-real-time. Historical usage covers at least 365 days, updates every 60 minutes, and is available to contracted accounts and self-service accounts with over $100 USD in monthly recurring charges. Data usage reporting is independent from a SIM’s billing period. See view and track fleet data usage.
Event
A record of something that happened for a SIM. Events include messaging, IMEI changes, data limits reached, Conductor configuration changes, and more. Each event is tracked with event tags you can subscribe to with alerts to receive webhook or email notifications. Per-SIM events appear on the Events tab; fleet-wide events appear in event history.Events are different from and do not include state changes like activation, deactivations, data plan changes, and SIM or profile state changes.
Note: Can’t find a term? Is something in your dashboard not clear? Contact our Support team and we’ll point you to the right page, or send our Product team direct feedback in your dashboard using the Support menu.