Satco has ambitious plans for global 5G S-band IoT constellation
US-based global satellite provider EchoStar Corporation has signed multi-year commercial agreements with seven European IoT service providers to sell solutions using its pan-European, satellite-based, LoRa-enabled network.
The providers API-K, Cyric, DalesLandNet, Dryad, Galaxy1, ProEsys and Symes will use Echostar’s real-time network to enable massive IoT deployments for applications such as outdoor personal geo-safety, soil moisture monitoring, ultra-early forest fire detection, utility metering and pipeline monitoring.
EchoStar’s XXI S-band geo-satellite is compatible with Semtech Corporation’s LoRa-enabled wireless platform so can deliver two-way connectivity seamlessly across Europe without requiring roaming agreements across geographies. The satco’s European subsidiary Echostar Mobile said customers will be able to upgrade existing commercially deployed devices with its low-power dual-mode satellite-terrestrial EM2050 module.
“These deployments validate our customer value proposition by integrating seamlessly into the existing IoT ecosystem, achieving ubiquitous service continuity for our customers without requiring expensive terrestrial infrastructure,” said EchoStar Mobile VP and GM Telemaco Melia.
Linking satellite to 5G
EchoStar has been busy signing up partners after announcing earlier this year that it is developing an S-band constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) IoT satellites, called EchoStar Lyra, to create a global non-terrestrial 5G network in the S-band.
The 28-satellite constellation, expected to be launching by late 2024, will provide global 5G-based IoT, machine-to-machine and other data services. Echostar has a jump on some IoT satellite providers through an obscure acquisition it made spanning Canada and Australia.
In 2019, it acquired Vancouver-headquartered satellite IoT company Helios Wire Corporation, which brought with it Helios’s Australian subsidiaries Sirion Global and Sirion Holdings. Sirion Global held global spectrum rights for S-band mobile satellite services (MSS), administered by Australia through its regulator the Australian Communications and Media Authority – the so-called the ITU SIRION-1 satellite filing.
Despite objections from regulatory authorities, including the UK and Papua New Guinea, Helios gained the rights to 30MHz of S-band spectrum in 2013, originally allocated to failed medium-earth orbit satellite venture ICO Global Communications.
Killer punch
Echostar believes its constellation – featuring an advanced software-defined radio with onboard storage and processing to power smart two-way device connectivity – packs a killer punch because the satellites are LoRa-enabled delivering seamless integration with terrestrial LoRa deployments, eliminating the need for LoRaWAN roaming.
LoRa-enabled devices are typically very low-cost and long-lived meaning they can cover a broad range of applications across many industry sectors. Lyra will be fully compatible with EchoStar’s existing XXI satellite in Europe.