Sateliot, a satellite telecommunications operator, is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a cloud native 5G service designed to provide customers with secure and reliable narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) connectivity over non-terrestrial network using the company’s LEO satellite constellation.
These satellites will act as cell towers from space, providing global cellular outdoor coverage for unmodified, standard, NB-IoT devices. Sateliot is on a mission to provide seamless coverage extension for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) with the integration of a simple, roaming agreement.
Using AWS, Sateliot has built a fully-virtualized cloud-native 5G core for NB-IoT with Magma, a project run by The Linux Foundation that aims to provide flexible, low-cost, and scalable broadband solutions to support rural Internet access needs. 5G allows Sateliot’s customers to attach an unmodified commercial 3GPP r.17 compliant device to the Sateliot network, providing capability for both MO (send a message from device to the internet) and MT (receive a message from internet to an unmodified commercial device).
This means that customers can continue using the same commercial RF module or device and SIM that they currently use to switch between their terrestrial network and Sateliot’s satellite constellation, without any additional hardware cost.
5G based connectivity for narrowband IoT over satellite is expected to be a key enabler for massive universal IoT adoption across the world as it allows IoT service providers to connect directly to satellite networks using inexpensive RF modules compared to expensive current solutions.
Sateliot is planning a series of launches for its satellite constellation starting in Q1 2023 including a commercial launch in the second half of 2023.
Steliot, based in San Diego, California and Barcelona, Spain, is the first satellite telecommunications operator that will provide global and continuous connectivity to all the elements that will make up the Internet of Things (IoT) universe, such as the logistics, smart-agriculture, connected cars and many others, under the 5G protocol. Thanks to a constellation of last generation nanosatellites, located at low altitude that act as mobile towers, Sateliot is the perfect complement for large telecommunications companies by providing them with the necessary infrastructure where terrestrial technologies do not arrive.