Written by James Blackman for RCR Wireless News
Seven IoT service providers in Europe have signed multi-year deals to develop and sell IoT solutions using EchoStar Mobile’s satellite LoRa network. The customers are API-K, Cyric IoT, DalesLandNet, Dryad Networks, Galaxy1, ProEsys and Symes. They will use the service, offering satellite coverage in European territories, for their various IoT applications, which include outdoor geo-safety, soil moisture monitoring, forest fire detection, utility metering, and pipeline monitoring.
Dublin-based EchoStar Corporation, operating satellite IoT services under the EchoStar Mobile brand in Europe, claims to be the first to offer bi-directional, real-time LoRa-enabled connectivity across Europe in licensed S-band spectrum via a single geostationary satellite (EchoStar XXI). It claims to offer LoRa-based multinational service continuity in Europe to meet the needs of mobility customers in sectors including utilities, transportation, railway, logistics and agriculture.
The S-band service delivers pervasive two-way connectivity in Europe without the need for roaming agreements with different terrestrial operators, and with coverage in black-spots and not-spots where ground-based mobile networks do not reach. Meanwhile, EchoStar is developing a larger S-band constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, under the brand EchoStar Lyra, to support global non-terrestrial 5G S-band connectivity for IoT applications.
