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Skylo focuses on cellular satellite IoT and D2D services
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The CEO says sectors to be supported include energy, shipping and agriculture.
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Analysts say cellular satellite IoT still faces early problems
After raising $37 million in venture funding from BMW, Intel and Samsung in February this year, startup Skylo is moving ahead with its satellite Internet of Things (IoT) projects and launching direct-to-device (D2D) services in North America. Key to the company’s future plans is Release 17 of the 3GPP 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) specifications.
In a phone interview with Fierce, Skylo CEO and co-founder Parthsarathi Trivedi claimed that around 90% of chipset manufacturers have now implemented Release 17. “We’ve started seeing device launches in the fourth quarter of this year and we expect that to ramp up in the first quarter of next year,” Trivedi said.
Chipmakers such as MediaTek, Sony Semiconductor and Qualcomm have developed chipsets compliant with Release 17, which was initially frozen for March 2022, followed by Release 18 earlier this year.
Qualcomm is investing in 4G IoT technology as well as 5G, having just acquired 4G technology from IoT chip designer Sequans for an undisclosed amount, and Qualcomm sees IoT, and particularly satellite-based IoT, as a key market segment, Skylo’s Trivedi noted.
I found a cow
Skylo’s CEO said the company is already supporting cellular IoT projects such as cow tracking and has partnered with three or four cow tracking ventures.
Tracking is one of the most promising satellite IoT projects right now. “Where are my cows? That’s obviously important,” commented Trivedi. He said Skylo is starting to see other features being added to its tracking business, including tracking what cows are eating and whether they’re in heat.
Trivedi said other IoT sectors Skyro will serve are the maritime and energy sectors. He argued that the 5G NTN system will require less cost, weight and power than traditional satellite and ultra-high frequency (UHF) systems.
The CEO said cellular satellite IoT and D2D infrastructure is just starting to accelerate, which he compares to five generations of terrestrial cellular technology.
“In the satellite world, I think we’ve already reached 1G,” Trivedi said.
IoT Satellite Challenges
Tim Farrar, an analyst at TMF Associates, said several other companies have struggled to offer cellular satellite services because to succeed, they require large numbers of users who need low-bandwidth connections that transmit data infrequently.
Farrar said Swiss satellite company Astrocast just took itself private again and is seeking investors, according to its CEO, while SpaceX-owned Swarm has shut down its IoT services to focus on a D2D strategy that analysts say could also be used for IoT.
Skyro said it uses satellites from Viasat, Ligado Networks, Telestar and EchoStar to provide its service, and Farah said that could be key for the company. The fact that Skyro doesn’t have the expense of setting up its own constellation of satellites, unlike companies like Astrocast, Sateliot and others, could be a boon, he said.
“IoT is a very niche market in terms of what will grow and what won’t,” he points out. “There are a lot of success stories in personal tracking, but not so much in other applications. Globalstar has been looking at cow tracking for 10 years.”
Chris Gray, Globalstar’s vice president of emerging technologies, said in 2020 that cattle tracking and agriculture will be key areas for Globalstar in the coming years. At an investor conference in May, Globalstar suggested that the connected agriculture sector (which of course includes livestock tracking services) could be a $1 billion to $2 billion market between 2025 and 2035.
So, you can bet we’ll be hearing more about standard satellite technology in the future, along with 4G/5G IoT cellular satellite services.
