A Connected World is a Better World

In our increasingly connected world, the demand to access data collected from anywhere on the planet is constantly on the rise. One of the ways to address this is non-terrestrial networks. I recently spoke to Gianluca Redolfi, Chief Commercial Officer of Sateliot, to hear how they plan to revolutionize the communications industry.

Q: Can you provide an overview of Sateliot?

A: Sateliot was founded in 2018 and we always thought that the main communications industry had been disrupted and was evolving, whilst in the satellite communications sector this was not happening. There were just a few companies around the world who were having all of the market share. This resulted in all the solutions being very expensive and restricted the satellite connectivity to very few applications.

Most of the applications, the economics where not working, you could not pay that much money just to send information for IoT (Internet of Things) or even for to connect your phone. So we thought that it was time for a change. We got into 3GPP, which is the association that sets all of the standards for communications worldwide.

We have been the largest contributor to the new release, that includes non-terrestrial networks which we’ve been the pusher of it. Since June 2022, there is a standard extension of 5G into Space, that means that for the first time in history the standard covers satellite connectivity, that has not been the case before.

What does this mean? It means that a standard, normal cellular device can connect not just to terrestrial networks but without any changes can also connect to satellite when the terrestrial coverage is not there. This is a big revolution.

Q: What made you take the approach to focus on IoT?

A: We are focused on narrowband, so messages, not to stream video or make calls. Why? Because the cellular networks have always been designed to serve humans beings. However there are also 6 million sensors that are outside the coverage as well.

We have billions of devices that are IoT that are already connected through cellular. There are many applications, most of which we would not see on a day-to-day basis: sensors on traffic lights; on garbage bins; on cars; on street lights. There are sensors absolutely everywhere, but there is a limitation to it. If you do not have the coverage of the terrestrial carriers, then you cannot retrieve the information. So for some of these applications there have a big section of it out of coverage: agricultural; oil & gas; utilities; mining; livestock. All these things at the moment have around 20-25% coverage. That is where we are targeting. We have our market of sensors, and device that need connections at an economical level everywhere outside of the cellular coverage.

Q: Previously, how would the data been retrieved from these devices?

A: They would just collect the data from the coverage area. So for instance, if you are a company that provides smart agriculture services, then you would only be able to put it in the areas where there is coverage, which becomes a limitation. It also depends on the countries, I’m from Italy and most of the fields are very well covered by the terrestrial networks, but if you look at Brazil around 60-75% of the fields do not have any coverage.

Q: So your solution allows these previously underserved areas to now make use of the sensors and get the data that they require?

A: Correct, so from a company perspective the market is what we have just discussed. From a final customer perspective, I can now multiple my business by 2/3x because I was previously limited to the area that had the terrestrial coverage and now I can operate everywhere.

Q: Typically with Satellite Connectivity there is the issue of latency, but for IoT is this less of a issue?

A: For the applications that we are targeting, these are what we call delay tolerant, so we can deliver the data a few minutes/ hours after it is collected. For example, if you wanted to know the temperature of different parts of your fields, you can have this date 1 hour after. It is not a real time action, they collect this data for reference points.

Q: In 2023, you launched your satellite ‘The Ground Breaker’. Is this now operational?

A: This satellite was always meant to be for test purposes, and to progress on our new constellation that is due to start launching in 2024. By the middle of the year, we expect to have customer traffic on our network. The full constellation of 250 satellites will be launched over a 3 year period.

Q: The constellation is designed with no gateways to be required, how does this benefit the solution?

A: That is the whole point of our platform, it is direct to commercial unmodified devices. This is taking the same device that you are using at the moment with cellular and connecting it to satellite. You don’t need any gateways which is the beauty of it. For the backhaul, it is connecting directly into the existing terrestrial networks. The end customer has the SIM of the carrier and we are providing the extended coverage for the MNOs (mobile network operators). So we act like a transparent roaming partner for the MNOs.

Q: How important is it that your network is compatible with non-modified existing devices?

A: Whenever a standard gets approved, it gets taken on. If you go back, an example is the GSM standard. All the mobile phones now comply with this but in the past that was not the case. Every company had its own protocol, its own infrastructure and there was not interoperability. Now all devices are made in the same factory without knowing where in the world they are going to be used. This provides economy of scale and makes the production inexpensive. So wherever there is a standard, everything else disappears naturally as the standard is adopted. It could take 6 months, 1 year and then it is in place. Looking back at computers, how may operating systems do we have? A handful, Windows, MacOS, Linux.

When you have a customer that has to buy from a legacy satellite operator, they need an expensive device to access their network and to pay a monthly fee. If they then find out that they are not happy with the service they have signed up for, they cannot use this device with another satellite operator. With our approach, I can buy a cellular IoT device that costs $5 and it now works both with cellular and satellite. And if I find that I’m not happy with the provider, I can switch to another as the device is interoperable. This is a huge advantage, as you bring the device cost down by around 80-90%. In terms of pricing, since all this infrastructure is much lighter in CAPEX, we are all able to provide a much more economical solution, either a few cent per message or a fix fee that is very similar to what you would pay for a terrestrial network.

Q: The end user wouldn’t notice who the data is collected?

A: Correct, it could use the satellite network or the terrestrial network and the customer would not know. For example, with your smartphone it just works whether it is connected to Wifi or 5G. It will be the same between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.