This specific board is very similar to many other GSM-GPRS shields available on the market. It uses the same chip and many of the instructions on these pages are valid for all of them. It also uses the same software power-on feature of the other boards but it's not well documented, the schematic is a little bit different. In order to enable this feature you must short circuit the pad marked as R13 close to the J15 header (expand the picture for details). In this case the Arduino sketch can power on the shield with a pulse on the pin 9 digital I/O. It is alway possible to switch it on and off manually via the S2 PWRKEY.

In my example I've used two digital I/Os as steady contacts and one for a temporary switch, useful, for example, to activate an electric lock. They can be connected to electro-mechanic or electronic relays or whatever else able to control your load.

Alternatively, if more outputs are needed, you can use an expander like the PCF8574 I2C I/O expander, as used in the remote controlled rack Power Distribution Unit shown on the left, hacked for this purpose.

At the power on the PWR LED lights on. If a SIM is active and installed in the shield, After a while the Status LED also lights on steadily and NetLight LED start blinking rapidly. When the board joins the cell network the NetLight LED blinks slowly and you can start using the system.