Billing

Cloud Connector for 5G (CC5G) charges a one-time fee for Internet of Things (IoT) cards and pay-as-you-go service usage fees. The pay-as-you-go billing method means you pay for services after you use them. This topic describes the billing rules for CC5G.

IoT card fees

The 5G Express Cloud Connect service includes an Internet of Things (IoT) card that requires a one-time fee. The specifications and pricing for the card are as follows:

Billing rules for 5G Express Cloud Connect

The usage fee for 5G Express Cloud Connect consists of the Traffic Processing Fee and the Connection Fee.

The traffic processing fees and connection fees are described as follows:

• Traffic processing fee = Unit price (CNY/GB) × Traffic usage (GB). Traffic processing fees are billed hourly. Note Traffic processing fees are not rounded and are accurate to three decimal places.

• Connection fee = Unit price (CNY/connection/month) × Number of connections. Connection fees are billed monthly. The number of connections for CC5G is the number of activated IoT cards in a calendar month. A minimum of 100 cards are charged per month. If you activate fewer than 100 IoT cards, you are charged for 100.

CC5G connection fees are billed monthly based on the number of activated IoT cards. IoT cards have a testing and cool-down period that totals three calendar months from the purchase date. If a card is not manually activated during this period, it is automatically activated at the end of the period. Connection fees are charged starting from the month in which a card is activated.

The unit prices for CC5G traffic processing fees and connection fees are listed in the following table.

5G Express Cloud Connect Billing Calculation Example

Assume that you create a CC5G instance at 12:00:00 on October 1, 2021, and request 2,000 5G IoT cards. The destination address in the access rule is an OSS address on Alibaba Cloud. By 12:00:00 on November 1, 2021, a total of 1,000 cards are activated. The total traffic usage for all IoT cards is 1 GB per hour. The total traffic is 1 GB × 24 hours × 30 days = 720 GB.

The fees are calculated as follows:

• Traffic processing fee: CNY 6/GB × 720 GB = CNY 4,320.

• Connection fee: CNY 2/connection/month × 1,000 connections = CNY 2,000/month.

Total fee for this period: 4,320 + 2,000 = CNY 6,320.

The cool-down and testing period for IoT cards totals three months. If some of the 2,000 cards that you requested are not manually activated by 23:59:59 on December 31, 2021, they are automatically activated starting from the fourth month. As a result, all 2,000 cards are activated by default starting from 00:00:00 on January 1, 2022. From January 1, 2022 to January 31, 2022, assume the total traffic usage for all IoT cards is 1 GB per hour. The total traffic is 1 GB × 24 × 30 = 720 GB. The number of activated IoT cards is 2,000.

The fees are as follows:

• Traffic processing fee: CNY 6/GB × 720 GB = CNY 4,320.

• Connection fee: CNY 2/connection/month × 2,000 connections = CNY 4,000/month.

Total fee for this period: 4,320 + 4,000 = CNY 8,320.

• Note

  Traffic processing fees are billed hourly. A bill is generated each hour for the usage in the previous hour.

• Note

  Connection fees are billed monthly. A bill is generated on the first day of each month for the usage in the previous calendar month.

Overdue payments

The system calculates the average bill for your CC5G service over the last 24 hours. It compares this average with your account balance to determine if the balance is sufficient to cover the next two bills. If the balance is insufficient, a reminder is sent by text message or email.

If you enable the balance alert feature, a reminder is sent by text message or email when your account balance falls below the specified threshold.

• If your account has an overdue payment but is within the service suspension protection quota, your CC5G instance is not suspended. Note Alibaba Cloud provides service suspension protection. This feature lets you continue using pay-as-you-go services for a specific period or up to a specific quota after your account has an overdue payment. Billing continues as normal during the protection period. The protection quota is not an upper limit on the total overdue amount. Your protection quota or period is automatically calculated and updated each month based on factors such as your historical spending on Alibaba Cloud. For more information, see Service suspension protection.

• If your overdue payment exceeds the service suspension protection quota, your CC5G instance is suspended. The service and billing for the instance are stopped.

• If you top up your account and pay the overdue amount within 7 days after the service is stopped, the service automatically resumes.

• If you do not pay the overdue amount within 7 days after the service is stopped, the instance is deleted. A reminder is sent by text message or email one day before the instance is deleted. After an instance is deleted, its configurations and data are permanently removed and cannot be recovered.

Top-up instructions

Pay-as-you-go CC5G instances are billed based on actual usage and do not require renewal. You can top up your account in the Alibaba Cloud console.

For more information about how to top up your account, see How do I top up my account?.