The Crawler Excavator XE380DK, Photo: XCMG

Iridium Communications has signed a new heavy equipment deal to connect excavators built by Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG). 

XCMG will deploy Iridium IoT services using the Iridium Edge hardware on the company’s excavators, expanding to loaders and crane trucks as needed. Iridium Edge is a plug-and-play satellite IoT terminal that can be paired with existing satellite and cellular solutions. XCMG will use Iridium’s services to maintain connectivity with its heavy equipment in Australia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia.

Iridium announced the new customer on Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, including the number of pieces of equipment that will be connected. 

“As a world class OEM, XCMG continues to demonstrate their forward-thinking approach and innovation in the heavy equipment industry,” said Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium. “By leveraging Iridium’s truly global, weather-resilient satellite connectivity on their machinery, XCMG is enabling a better user experience with advanced, cutting-edge solutions to their customers worldwide.”

Iridium also provides IoT connectivity to Sumitomo Construction Machinery for its Link-Belt Excavators, and some of AGCO’s tractors are connected with a dual-mode telematics service for diagnostics and predictive maintenance.