Global SIMs
The Global SIMs page is a super-admin-only surface for every data SIM CleverCam manages, wherever it lives. It is deliberately not a tracker page: trackers are the first devices to carry these SIMs, but CleverCam hubs (CCUs) and serial→IP receiver gateways carry them too, and each type follows different rules.
CleverCam's SIMs are supplied by SIMcontrol (Flickswitch). This page mirrors their account and drives it — assigning a SIM to a device, applying that device class's data policy, suspending or activating a SIM, and flagging SIMs that look wrong.
Accessing Global SIMs
- Sign in with a super admin account.
- Activate Super Admin mode via the sidebar toggle.
- Click Super Admin in the sidebar, then open the SIMs tab.
Every action on this page is restricted twice over: the page checks you are a super admin with Super Admin mode on, and the server re-checks super admin before it will touch a SIM. Control-room members never see this tab. The SIMcontrol account key is held server-side and is never sent to your browser.
Nothing here updates by itself
SIMcontrol does not notify us of anything. There is no live feed of "this SIM ran out of data" or "this SIM went offline" — every figure on this page was pulled by a sync, and it stays as it was until the next one.
That is why every SIM has a Synced column, and why a SIM that has not been refreshed for a while raises a stale_sync note. Press Sync from SIMcontrol whenever you need current numbers.
Balances work in two steps and are not instant. Check balance (or a full sync) asks SIMcontrol to go and measure the SIM; the new figure appears a little later. If CleverCam's balance callback is configured it appears within moments, and if it is not, it appears on the next sync — either way you get it, just sooner or later.
Layout
Stats
Cards summarise the estate: total SIMs, how many are in a device, how many are spare, how many need attention, and how many of those are high severity.
Needs attention
The heart of the page — a list of SIMs that look wrong, most serious first.
| Check | Severity | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| IMEI mismatch | High | SIMcontrol says the SIM is sitting in a different device than the one it is assigned to. Usually means the SIM was physically pulled and put in something else. |
| Suspended in service | High | The SIM is suspended at SIMcontrol but is still assigned to a live device — that device is offline. |
| IMEI not locked | Medium | The device class requires an IMEI lock, but the SIM is not locked. |
| APN mismatch | Medium | The SIM is on a different APN than the class expects. |
| Low data | Medium | The remaining data is under the class's alert threshold. |
| Billed but unassigned | Low | SIMcontrol is billing for the SIM, but it is not in any device. |
| Stale sync | Low | The SIM has not been refreshed recently, so its figures cannot be trusted. |
| Rule not applied | Low | The class's SIMcontrol rule is not attached to this SIM. |
Only some devices have an identifier that can be compared with what the SIM reports. A tracker has an IMEI, and it is the same kind of number the SIM reports — so a disagreement is meaningful. A hub is identified by its serial number and a gateway by its MAC address; neither is comparable, so the check is skipped for those classes and the IMEI check column shows "n/a".
Policy per device class
Each device class — GPS tracker, CleverCam hub (CCU), Receiver gateway — has its own row, setting what happens to a SIM assigned to a device of that type:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| SIMcontrol rule | The data policy for this class. Assigning a SIM attaches this rule to it at SIMcontrol. |
| Expected APN | The APN this class's devices should use. A SIM on a different one is flagged. |
| IMEI lock | Whether SIMs in this class should be locked to their device. |
| IMEI check | Whether this class's device has a comparable IMEI. Not editable — it depends on the device type. |
| Low data (MB) | Raise a warning below this much remaining data. Leave blank for no alert. |
| Stale after (h) | How long before this class's figures are treated as out of date. |
The SIMcontrol rule is a pointer, not a copy. The actual quota, schedule and limits live in your SIMcontrol account, where their network enforces them. CleverOps only records which rule each class uses.
That means changing a class's data allowance is a two-part job: set the allowance up as a rule in SIMcontrol, then put that rule's id in this table. Once a class points at a rule, every SIM assigned to that class picks it up automatically.
Edit any field and press Save on that row.
SIM registry
A searchable, filterable table of every SIM. Filter by device class or by state (in a device / spare / needs attention), or search by ICCID, MSISDN or IMEI.
Each row shows the ICCID (with a badge counting its open issues), the MSISDN, which device it is in, its SIMcontrol status, remaining data, the IMEI it reports it is sitting in and whether it is locked, who is billed for it, and when it was last synced.
In device names the device and the number printed on it — the IMEI for a tracker, the serial for a hub, the MAC for a gateway — so you can match a SIM to the hardware in your hand. The same link reads the other way: the Trackers, All Hubs and Receivers / Gateways tabs each carry a SIM column showing the SIM in that device, or "no SIM".
A SIM can only be in one device, and a device can only hold one SIM. The system enforces this, so assigning a SIM to a device that already has one is rejected rather than quietly creating a second link. Release the old SIM first.
A SIM has no billing of its own. The Billed to column shows the control room that is billed for the device the SIM is in — so moving a SIM between devices never moves the billing, and the SIM's data cost stays part of the device it serves.
A SIM sitting in no device shows CleverCam stock: nobody is being charged for it, which is why a SIM that SIMcontrol is billing while it sits in nothing is worth spotting (see billed_but_unassigned above).
SIMcontrol reports balances by phone number, not by ICCID. If the MSISDN column says "not set", balance results for that SIM cannot be matched to it and will not appear. Record the number to fix this.
Provisioning a tracker from a SIM
This is the fast path for bringing new trackers online, and it works in bulk. It starts from the SIM because that is the identity you actually hold before installation — the tracker's IMEI is often still in a box, but the SIM's ICCID is in the registry the moment it is synced from SIMcontrol.
- Find the spare SIM in the registry (search by ICCID or MSISDN) and click Provision — or tick several spare SIMs and click Provision selected (n) to run them as a batch.
- Pick an SMS template — the ordered configuration messages the tracker model needs (APN, then server). The preview shows exactly what will be sent. Templates are managed from SMS templates in the page header.
- Pick the category (fleet or resale), the company and control room (VCR) — and, for resale, the consumer site. This is the owner the tracker is created under when it connects, so there is nothing to move afterwards.
- For a single SIM you can also set a label, vehicle registration, and an expected IMEI (scan the device's barcode) — the expected IMEI lets the claim match the device the instant it connects, even before it reports its SIM identity.
- Click Provision. From here everything is automatic.
What happens next, visible live in the Provisioning runs card:
- The configuration SMS go out one at a time with a random pause ("jitter") between them, so the device receives and applies them in order. SMS delivery uses CleverCam's SMS provider — SIMcontrol itself cannot send SMS.
- The device applies the settings and connects to the CleverCam endpoint.
- The moment it reports, it is claimed automatically: the tracker row is created under the chosen owner, the SIM is bound to it in the registry, and the detected-device entry is cleared. The card shows the matched IMEI and why it matched — the device reported this SIM's ICCID or IMSI, the scanned IMEI matched, or SIMcontrol reported the SIM is in that device. A device is never claimed just because it happened to be "the only one waiting", so batches cannot cross-claim.
- SIMcontrol policy is then applied exactly as a manual Assign would: class rule attached, IMEI lock (guarded — refused while SIMcontrol still reports the SIM in a different device, retried automatically once their side catches up), roaming, and a readable description in their portal.
If the tracker was already reporting (its telemetry being dropped as a detected/unclaimed device), starting a provisioning run claims it immediately and skips the SMS — the device is evidently already configured. This is exactly what to do when you see a device sitting in Detected / unclaimed devices on Global Trackers: provision its SIM from here rather than typing its details by hand.
Runs that go wrong stay visible: Cancel stops a run, Resend SMS repeats the script for a device that never connected, and a run that never sees its device expires by itself after 48 hours. A SIM with no MSISDN cannot receive SMS — provision it with Send configuration SMS unticked if the device was configured some other way.
Assigning a SIM to a device
Manual assignment remains for the non-tracker classes (hubs, gateways) and for correcting records — for new trackers, prefer the provisioning flow above.
- Find the SIM in the registry and click Assign.
- Choose the device class — GPS tracker, hub, or receiver gateway.
- Search for and select the device.
- Read the summary of what will happen, then click Assign SIM.
Assigning does five things: it binds the SIM to the device, attaches that class's SIMcontrol rule, locks the SIM to the device's IMEI if the class requires it, sets roaming if the class specifies it, and renames the SIM in SIMcontrol so their portal shows which device holds it.
If the SIM reports it is in a different device than the one you selected, the modal warns you before you assign, and the IMEI lock is refused.
This is deliberate. Locking pins the SIM to whichever device it is physically in at that moment — so locking a SIM that has already been moved would tie it permanently to the wrong device instead of flagging the problem. Find out where the SIM actually is first.
The assignment itself still goes through; only the lock is held back.
Releasing a SIM
Release takes a SIM out of its device and returns it to spare stock. Its class rule is removed at SIMcontrol and any IMEI lock is lifted, so the SIM can be used elsewhere. The SIM stays in the registry and keeps its assignment history.
Releasing a SIM only breaks the registry link — the tracker carries on running on that SIM, and the device now shows no SIM everywhere in CleverOps. Running a new provisioning job against the freed SIM cannot fix it either: provisioning only ever creates a tracker and refuses an IMEI that already exists, so the job waits for a device that never re-announces itself and eventually expires.
To move a tracker to a different owner, leave its SIM alone and use Reassign on Global Trackers instead.
Suspending and activating
Suspend stops a SIM passing data at SIMcontrol immediately. If it is in a live device, that device goes offline — the confirmation names the device so you know what you are taking down. Activate restores service.
Where SIMs come from
You do not add SIMs by hand. Pressing Sync from SIMcontrol reads the whole account and registers anything new as spare stock, ready to be assigned. Nothing is ever guessed onto a device.
A SIM that disappears from the SIMcontrol account is never deleted — it is flagged on its row so you can see what happened.
SIMcontrol issues some SIMs with only a phone number and no ICCID. Those still appear in the registry, but with a placeholder in the ICCID column beginning NOICCID-. They work normally — the phone number does the identifying — and they are shown rather than hidden because they are usually still being billed for.
Trackers and SIMs
A tracker's SIM still shows on the tracker itself. Open a tracker from Equipment → Trackers and its SIM appears in the detail panel with the carrier, status, phone number and remaining data. If the SIM reports it is in a different device, a warning appears there too.
New trackers can still be provisioned with SIM details in one step from Global Trackers — those SIMs join this registry automatically.