Iridium, Skylo execs detail plan to shake up D2D
L-band non-terrestrial communication players Iridium and Skylo Technologies have targeted strategies to provide direct-to-device services which vary from more well-known rivals including AST SpaceMobile and Lynk Global, and they have a few factors in their favour.
Caleb Henry, director of research for satellite and space financial research company Quilty Space, told Mobile World Live (MWL) satellite operators with L-band spectrum have been big supporters of 3GPP-based approaches to direct-to-device communications because it makes use of their existing assets.
“This has a clearer regulatory approach, but more technological hurdles as custom chipsets are required,” he noted.
On the other hand, Henry explained AST SpaceMobile, Lynk Global, and Space X and T-Mobile US are seeking to use cellular frequencies from space, with little to no emphasis on 3GPP specifications.
“This has a bigger regulatory barrier but could be easier technologically as smartphones require no modification to use these services,” Henry said.
Apple iOS 18 could spur Android
Direct-to-device competition is heating up as AST SpaceMobile, T-Mobile US and SpaceX, and Apple plan to deploy various commercial services over the coming months, but there is also an impetus for L-band services.
Tim Farrar, president at TMF Associates, told MWL he sees increased interest in the direct-to-device sector among Android smartphone manufacturers in the wake of Apple’s decision to add satellite messaging in iOS 18.
“That provides an opening for some of the other L-band satellite providers, such as Skylo Technologies and Iridium, to provide services via those smartphone OEMs, who will need to add satellite frequency compatibility to their devices,” Farrar said.
He noted an Iridium deal with Qualcomm collapsed because smartphone OEMs did not see Apple selling more phones as a result of adding emergency messaging and therefore could not justify the added cost of a new Qualcomm chipset.
“But Apple’s new more general-purpose messaging solution could do more to stimulate iPhone sales and force other smartphone OEMs to respond,” Farrar stated.
Like Henry, he noted providers which plan to rely on terrestrial mobile operators to provide spectrum will not need the smartphone OEMs to make changes to their devices.
While providing messaging services to devices is not exactly a side hustle for Iridium or Skylo Technologies, executives from the companies told MWL they are already seeing significant revenue growth from satellite-based IoT services.
By contrast, AST SpaceMobile and Lynk Global have required additional funding through various arrangements.
Iridium
Brian Aziz, executive director of business development at Iridium, said the company sensed there was some reluctance from Qualcomm and smartphone OEMs prior to the deal with the chip vendor unravelling near the end of 2023.
“In parallel to Qualcomm, we were already doing a pretty deep dive into our network and studying the ability for us to come out with a standardised solution.”
Iridium was founded in 1987 and currently has 66 active satellites with 14 spare in low earth orbit (LEO) which Aziz said have a life expectancy until 2035.
AST SpaceMobile is in the process of moving its first five satellites to a SpaceX launch site, with a goal of lift-off in September.
“If they launched five satellites that means they’ll have 20 minutes of coverage over North America twice a day,” Aziz said. “We have a truly global offering.”
The company has around 800 employees and joined 3GPP in 2023.
It is now in the process of waiting for 3GPP’s Release-19 to be finalised to create a standards-based service.
Release-19 is due to be finalised by the end of 2025.
“We see IoT as the larger opportunity for a standards-based solution,” he said. “I believe there’s going to be a space for both a proprietary solution and a standardised kind of 3GPP solution.”
Once Release-19 is ready, Iridium will offer emergency SOS messaging services and an ability to conduct location-tracking over Google Maps.
“Voice is not currently on our roadmap,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but we have been in the voice business pretty much since our inception and today we’re really good at satellite voice. But voice is really hard to do when you have not custom designed the handset that you’re trying to deliver that service to.”
He said the benefits of L-band are it is highly rated and reliable.
On the reliability front, it is used for global maritime distress safety services and aviation cockpit safety services.
“It is weather resilient, so you’re not worried about rain fade and things like that. When it comes to kind of mission critical or life-saving services, those always rides over L-band.”
Aziz stated Iridium’s closest L-band competitor is Skylo Technologies, but the difference is his company owns its network while the latter is a wholesale provider.
“We’ll be partnering with global MNOs and their customers will be able to roam on and off our network as needed.”
Skylo Technologies
Parth Trivedi, CEO and co-founder of Skylo Technologies, told MWL it is a non-terrestrial network (NTN) which connects the infrastructure of other satellite service providers including Viasat, Ligado and EchoStar, to end users.
Those satellite partners employ L- and S-band.
“End users can access our network through our carrier relationships in some cases, or OEM relationships.”
“But the key benefit is you don’t need to change the way you design your hardware. You don’t need to change your power profile on the device.”
Skylo Technologies has 55 employees, and provides satellite and terrestrial roaming across agriculture, automotive, maritime logistics and mining in the IoT sector, along with mass market consumer devices spanning smartphones and wearables.
“We’re actually installed in nine earth stations covering multiple different geostationary satellites and that essentially provides us access to global coverage,” Trivedi explained.
It has launched messaging services across Europe and North America, with plans to expand into Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Brazil.
Trivedi said Skylo Technologies has mobilised more than 10 million messages over its network and voice services are on the roadmap.
“We’ve successfully tested voice over narrowband NTN and very soon we’re going to offer this experience to our users. Our plan is for next year.”
The CEO said Skylo Technologies’ service is based on 3GPP Release-17 and it works closely with chipset partners Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek and Sony.
“Leveraging those partners allows us to punch above our weight,” Trivedi stated. “We can integrate Skylo’s technologies into the way they implement their firmware.”
Skylo Technologies was founded in 2017 by a team from Stanford University’s space laboratory and has reseller partnerships with cellular IoT providers Soracom, Deutsche Telekom and FloLIVE.
Trivedi said it is also in the process of negotiating with several tier-1 operators including some in North America.
He said because Skylo Technologies controls the underlying RAN, it can develop capabilities including multicast and switching which are not in 3GPP Release-17.
“There’s a physical component, which is software defined radios that sit inside these Earth stations and then there’s a digital or virtual component, which is cloud native functionalities for our RAN as well as our core.”
In February, Skylo Technologies raised $37 million for its 5G NTN services from Intel, BMW and Samsung, among others.
While there are various approaches for direct-to-device services, Skylo Technologies’ CEO said its focus is on “getting the user experience right and getting the go-to-market model right”.
“We’re excited about the path that we are forging,” he said. “It’s a unique path and I think that our partners are finding a lot of value in the accessibility, the ease of use that we are bringing to this market.”
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