Hello readers!

This week, we’re talking about the evolution of satellite IoT, finding a reliable IoT connectivity provider without lock-in, and more!

For most of satellite IoT’s history, the hardest part of connecting a remote sensor was the satellite itself. It meant a separate modem for one operator's network, a separate antenna, a separate contract, and a certification process that turned every product into a fresh engineering project. Most deployments decided the coverage gap was cheaper to live with. That calculation is changing, and the reason has less to do with rockets than with work moving upstream. Chip vendors and mobile operators are absorbing the effort that used to land on each device maker. That pushes the hard problems somewhere else: into application design, and into knowing when a device has gone quiet.

As recently as late 2024, the case for skepticism was strong. Standards-based satellite networks hadn't shipped and still faced unresolved spectrum deals, and using them looked likely to require new 3GPP-compliant hardware across whole fleets. The hardware objection is eroding fastest. Nordic's nRF9151 gained satellite support through a firmware release. In August, LooUQ's modem built on that part became the first to inherit Nordic's Skylo certification rather than earn its own. It needs two external components and one antenna for both terrestrial and satellite bands. Remsight is already using it to keep irrigation sensors online across parts of the American West that cellular never reliably reached. Certification, long one of the slowest steps, now flows down the supply chain with the silicon.

The network side is converging on the same idea. Iridium and Deutsche Telekom IoT have integrated their networks under a roaming agreement that treats Iridium's LEO constellation as another roaming domain on Deutsche Telekom's Global SIM, with no second modem or contract. In a recent demo, a Toyota vehicle carrying an nRF9151 development board sent a voice message over Iridium using standards-based NB-IoT, squeezed through a Fraunhofer IIS codec running at 1 kb/s or less. Few IoT deployments need voice, but the lesson generalizes: the link stayed narrow, and the application was reshaped to fit it. Commercial service is planned for the fourth quarter, so this is still a test result. The architecture looks settled, though.

What's left is harder to see. Once satellite sits inside the cellular standards, the demanding work in global asset tracking becomes orchestration. That means switching, provisioning, and policies that make several networks behave like one service, plus reporting schedules matched to each link. Meanwhile, trackers already go dark on terrestrial networks. In one example, a refrigerated trailer traveled 280 miles overnight without a single report, even though coverage existed the whole way. Satellite fallback removes one cause of silence and complicates another. A narrowband link may legitimately report less often, and a store-and-forward buffer makes gaps in the data normal. If the platform doesn't know which network a device is on and what cadence to expect there, a healthy tracker over the Pacific and a dead one in Nebraska look the same on the map.

For hardware headed beyond reliable coverage, the cheapest time to add satellite is at the bill of materials. An NTN-capable module that already carries operator certification beats a satellite subsystem bolted on later. Design firmware and payloads for the narrowband case first. Then do the work no vendor can do for you: define a reporting cadence for each device class on each network, alert when a device misses it, and test the fallback before an incident does. Proprietary networks still suit high-throughput and mission-critical links, and Iridium's standards-based service hasn't launched commercially. For water sensors, trailers, and pipeline telemetry, though, satellite is on track to become one more entry in the roaming table.

A reliable IoT connectivity solution isn't simply one that keeps a device online today. It should give you the flexibility to adapt how that device connects as your business, networks, coverage, and fleet change. That's important because IoT devices often stay in the field for years. The connectivity decision you make on deployment day shouldn't have to be the connectivity decision you're stuck with three years later.

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