The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) recently announced that 2.6 billion people, or about one third of the world’s population, remain “offline”, without access to the internet. Recognising this, social inclusion and national broadband strategy programs around the world have been attempting to address this challenge, including with the development of fibre networks taking centre stage,.
In August 2021, SpaceX made waves by making its first ever acquisition by purchasing Swarm Technologies, a start-up known for its early adoption of proprietary ultra-narrowband satellite IoT solutions, signaling its intention of expanding its capabilities and diversifying its offerings to cater to a broader range of customers. However, what raised eyebrows was Swarm’s announcement.
Satellite IoT has for years been a niche market compared to the overall M2M and IoT market and something that hasn’t been too seriously considered by mobile network operators (MNOs) to date. Although there has been desire for “dual-mode” services that can connect to terrestrial networks and satellite networks, this has traditionally added great complexity,.