A new report from Berg Insight, called The Satellite IoT Communications Market, addresses a market growing at what the independent industry analyst and firm describes as “a good steady pace”.
And there are undoubtedly opportunities for much more growth. As the report, published this month, points out, only about 10% of the Earth’s surface has access to terrestrial connectivity services, which leaves a massive opportunity for satellite IoT communications.
As Berg points out, satellite connectivity provides a complement to terrestrial cellular and non-cellular networks in remote locations, especially useful for applications in agriculture, asset tracking, maritime and intermodal transportation, oil and gas industry exploration, utilities, construction and governments.
Not surprisingly, both incumbent satellite operators and more than two dozen new initiatives are now betting on the IoT connectivity market. This study covers a total of 40 satellite IoT operators, although only 17 of these offer commercial satellite IoT connectivity services today.
Will more follow? The global satellite IoT subscriber base grew to surpass 5.1 million in 2023. The number of satellite IoT subscribers will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.2% to reach 26.7 million units in 2028.
Satellite IoT connectivity revenues are forecasted to grow from EUR302.9 million (US$330.4 million) in 2023 to approximately EUR1.35 billion (about US$1.47 billion) in 2028. However, the monthly ARPU is expected to drop to EUR4.20 (US$4.6) by 2028.
The big names in this market are Iridium, Orbcomm, Inmarsat and Globalstar but there are other players with connections in the tens of thousands, such as Thuraya in the UAE, and new initiatives have appeared on the market recently, many of them based on low-earth orbit (LEO) nano satellite concepts.
While some rely on proprietary satellite connectivity technologies to support IoT devices, several are starting to leverage terrestrial wireless IoT connectivity technologies, like 4G/5G, LoRaWAN and Bluetooth.
This isn’t just about high-income regions. This a market with potential in developing regions where some businesses may be a long way from reliable connectivity.
For example in March we reported that global communications provider Omnispace was planning to develop a next-generation standards-based mobile and satellite IoT network designed to serve markets addressed by MTN, the largest mobile network operator in Africa.
Other initiatives have included an MoU in July 2023 between energy giant Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, and satellite 5G IoT operator OQ Technology, and news at the start of that year that satellite communications company ST Engineering iDirect had delivered its flagship IoT solution to ARSAT, the national telecommunications company of Argentina.
