New Partnership Targets Global IoT Coverage

The Spanish satellite firm Sateliot has made a sort of strategic partnership with Telenor IoT, which is the division of the Nordic telecommunications group Telenor. In practice, this collaboration is built to offer a “smooth” connection between terrestrial mobile networks and satellite systems, for Internet of Things, the IoT devices.

The deal is also supposed to fix the annoying connectivity problems in far away places, where normal mobile service is limited, or just not there at all. So by putting satellite capabilities together with ground based networks, the two companies are aiming to deliver a more dependable, global communication service for everyone, in a way that feels more continuous.

Supporting Multiple Industries

The partnership is expected to make openings across a wide range of industries. Potential uses could show up in agriculture, maritime operations, transportation and logistics, energy infrastructure , utilities, environmental sensing, and wildlife research. 

For instance farmers could keep an eye on remote fields , shipping firms could follow vessels out at sea, and energy providers could supervise infrastructure that is set up far from city zones.

Successful Testing Demonstrates Potential

Field tests that were done in Spain showed rather promising outcomes. During the trials, Telenor IoT SIM cards managed to get linked to Sateliot’s satellite network, for long stretches of time, and still kept communications secure as well as dependable.

After these wins, both companies intend to roll out further trial runs in more countries… in order to judge the approach more carefully and to line things up for a broader deployment.

Built on Existing 5G Standards

One of the key advantages of Sateliot’s technology is that it works with regular NB-IoT devices that a lot of businesses are already using, without you having to move everything around. The company’s low earth orbit satellites operate on the 3GPP Release 17 5G Non Terrestrial Network standard. 

So in practice, devices can link straight to satellites without needing special antennas, custom hardware, or proprietary software, as long as they support the standard.

Growing Satellite IoT Ambitions

The Telenor agreement sort of echoes a partnership that was recently announced between Satellit and Telefónica España. In a way, these  collaborations   show a rising interest in hybrid connectivity approaches, where mobile networks and satellite links get tied together, more or less seamlessly. 

By widening reach across the globe and making deployment less painful, Satellite and Telenor IoT are looking to speed up the take-up of IoT capabilities. Especially in regions that have, for a long time, missed dependable communications infrastructure.