Traditional livestock management through cellular IoT ear tag devices has been able to predict and control the spread of contagious diseases, such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) as well as to track animals’ locations, preventing cattle theft and increasing both farmer and livestock safety.
Nevertheless, this way of livestock management is inaccessible to most farmers across the globe because most of the land has no cellphone coverage, and proprietary network protocols make the purchase and maintenance of 5G devices out of reach for many of them. When coverage is not limited and maintenance costs are low, possibilities expand enormously.
Sateliot and Streamline are joining forces to solve these hurdles, improving livestock management services to farmers worldwide.
In 2023, South African company Streamline will deploy 400,000 cellular, 5G, NB-IoT livestock devices capable of connecting seamlessly to cellular towers and Sateliot’s constellation. Streamline’s goal for the coming years is to reach a landmark of seven million devices worldwide; in 2019, this number was only 40,000.
Streamline accounts for 7.95 million livestock in the South African market. Their expertise in livestock management devices has relied traditionally on conventional cellular connectivity. However, Sateliot’s Non-Terrestrial Networks act as cell towers in space, giving Streamline’s 5G NB-IoT devices the ability to work in uncovered areas. Sateliot’s solution is more efficient and affordable for both Streamline and the final user than proprietary solutions from a legacy satellite carrier.
Furthermore, with no need for cell phone coverage and low device-to-satellite transmission costs, starting from less than $1 per device, per month, Streamline’s service, supported by Sateliot, facilitates expansive growth and grants the ability to operate in uncovered areas, giving more flexibility to farmers.
Jaume Sanpera, CEO of Sateliot, said, “Streamline has a state-of-the-art product, the ear tag Model STR-TG103/4, giving farmers certainty to have cattle under good condition. Nevertheless, farmers need coverage that only we can provide, using our 5G-NB IoT satellite constellation to provide support and coverage to broader areas and even larger farms without a terrestrial network. This proves the IoT market is showing unstoppable growth, and is accelerating much faster than any other tech industry.””
Due to the scale of the project and the need for collaborative projects between multiple ecosystem players, the virtual core of Sateliot and Streamline’s service is built by AWS (Amazon Web Services), the leading cloud service provider.
Sateliot is launching the first LEO satellite constellation based on the 5G standard, allowing commercial, unmodified cellular IoT devices to connect from space. This is the first time in history that cellular terrestrial telecom is merging seamlessly with satellite connectivity, and Sateliot is leading this revolution. Sateliot’s cost-effective technology and the possibility to use commercial, low-cost (<$5) devices to connect to satellites opens infinite possibilities in the untapped market of massive IoT in remote areas, and it is in line with Sateliot’s mission to make IoT connectivity available everywhere and to everybody.