Iridium’s satellite network operations center (SNOC). Photo: Iridium

[Via Satellite 01-28-2015] Appareo Systems, an electronics and software service provider for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) has entered a long-term partnership with Iridium to provide its customers with satellite connectivity. Customers in agriculture and general aviation will be the first focus, followed by the aerospace and construction industries.

Appareo provides a variety of telematics solutions to the agriculture industry, such as precision agriculture, planting, diagnostics and vehicle control. In aviation, the company provides services such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and flight data monitoring.

Appareo will also integrate the Iridium 9603 chipset, a small two-way satellite data transceiver for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, into its products. The chipset will be compatible with Iridium Next, which begins launching this year.