Astrocast satellite network. Photo: Astrocast

IoT company Soracom has added satellite connectivity to its global IoT platform through a partnership with Astrocast. The launch of native support for satellite allows customers to bring their own satellite-compatible hardware for remote monitoring, asset tracking, and other use cases, and manage all of their connections and billing in one place. The feature is now available on a technical preview basis, Soracom announced Tuesday. 

This follows after Soracom and Astrocast first announced their partnership to add satellite-IoT to Soracom’s platform in July. They plan for additional satellite services to come. 

“With the addition of native satellite support, we are empowering our customers to build new experiences around connected devices while reducing total cost of ownership, accelerating speed to market, and ensuring complete control over every connection,” said Kenta Yasukawa, co-founder and CTO at Soracom. 

Astrocast, based in Switzerland, has IoT satellites in orbit and is preparing for an October mission with four satellites through Spaceflight and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). Astrocast uses L-band spectrum through a strategic alliance with Thuraya, and is in the process of acquiring Hiber, which will give it access to Inmarsat’s L-band spectrum over the Americas. 

Astrocast estimates that while cellular networks reach 90% of the world’s population, only 15% of the Earth’s surface is covered. Satellite connectivity can enable IoT in remote locations for industries such as agriculture, mining, and energy. 

“Cost effective, low power, bi-directional satellite technology brings new opportunities for a broad range of innovative use cases. Combining the Soracom platform’s capability and ease of use with Satellite IoT gives integrators and organizations a chance to explore and develop a new dimension to their IoT deployments,” commented Fabien Jordan, co-founder and CEO at Astrocast.