Rethinking the Satellite Internet of Things: Requirements, Technological Choices, and Market Landscape
Satellite Internet of Things (IoT) has become an important branch of the IoT. In recent years, the industrial chain of the satellite IoT has been continuously improved, and market demand has been continuously released, making this field a hot topic. Various organizations have also conducted in - depth research on the satellite IoT and presented new research findings.
Recently, market research firm Transforma Insights and the US - based Globalstar jointly released a report titled "Rethinking the Satellite IoT", which analyzes the market opportunities and limitations of the satellite IoT from factors such as spectrum strategy, network architecture, and technological evolution. In June this year, IoT research firm IoT Analytics also released a "Satellite IoT Market Report 2025 - 2030", which surveyed more than 100 satellite IoT - related suppliers and analyzed the market landscape of the satellite IoT. These research results all express the view that although the satellite IoT has attracted much attention, its implementation is not smooth sailing, and the factors to be considered are also very complex.
Demand and Technology Selection for Satellite IoT
From the perspective of current application requirements, the scenarios supported by the satellite IoT are relatively concentrated, mainly including the following aspects. Firstly, it is applied in agriculture and environmental monitoring, especially for sensors deployed in remote farmlands or forests. These sensors measure soil moisture, crop health, water levels, or the status of wild animals. Secondly, it is used in maritime and logistics applications, relying on the satellite IoT to track ships, containers, and various assets crossing the ocean and sparsely populated areas. Thirdly, it is applied in energy and utilities, monitoring critical infrastructure such as oil drilling platforms, pipelines, wind farms, and substations through satellite connections. Fourthly, it assists in emergency and humanitarian operations, especially in disaster - stricken areas where ground infrastructure is damaged, providing reliable connections for situational awareness, asset tracking, and aid coordination. In addition, mining, aviation, remote infrastructure management, and national defense may also use satellite networks. Of course, all kinds of scenarios may be hybrid systems combining cellular and satellite links to ensure seamless visibility in scenario applications.
However, each application uses satellite connections in very different ways. Different applications vary in terms of data volume, latency, power consumption, and geographical scope. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the characteristics of each application to determine the appropriate technology to solve the problem. Moreover, satellite IoT suppliers also differ in protocol design, spectrum ownership, and constellation architecture. To promote the high - quality development of the satellite IoT, it is necessary to conduct evaluations from these multiple dimensions to reveal which satellite solutions can efficiently and economically solve which types of deployment problems.
From the perspective of demand and operation, the satellite IoT needs to be evaluated from multiple factors:
Coverage requirements: Some application scenarios require true global satellite coverage, while others operate within national or regional boundaries. Therefore, the geographical characteristics of the combined use of ground connections and satellite links will affect the choice of suppliers. Some operators have international coverage capabilities, while others rely on local or shared allocations.
Data volume: The amount of data generated by IoT devices varies greatly. Some sensors may only transmit a few bytes of data occasionally, while some video or telematics systems may require high bandwidth.
Latency: The importance of real - time communication varies for different scenarios. Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites are far from the Earth, with a latency of about several hundred milliseconds, while Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are closer, with a latency of about 20 milliseconds. Application scenarios need to select satellite deployments according to latency requirements.
Cost and complexity: The economics of the satellite IoT depend not only on service fees but also on hardware costs, integration work, and the scale of operation. Currently, hardware costs are continuously decreasing, and spectrum efficiency is continuously improving, expanding the market covered by the satellite IoT.
Energy efficiency: Many IoT devices are powered by batteries or solar energy. Therefore, low - power consumption protocols are crucial.
From the perspective of the technological landscape, practitioners and participants in the satellite IoT currently face more urgent choices because the technological route determines the market landscape in the next few years. The main aspects include:
Standard selection: In the early stage, many suppliers developed proprietary satellite communication protocols. However, this requires suppliers to build a strong ecosystem on their own. Currently, the NTN standard launched by the 3GPP camp is favored by more suppliers, relying on the large - scale ecosystem of the 3GPP camp to lower the threshold. In addition, the LoRa Alliance has also launched the LoRaWAN satellite communication standard to develop its own ecosystem. Transforma Insights believes that proprietary systems perform well in ultra - low - power or message - centric applications, while systems based on unified standards (such as 3GPP NTN) have advantages when integration with ground cellular networks is important.
Message transmission selection: Another factor to consider is the choice between protocols optimized for small, infrequent data packets and IP - based traffic protocols supporting higher bandwidth. The former is an ideal choice for asset tracking, metering, and environmental monitoring, while the latter can meet the broadband requirements of applications such as video or connected vehicles but requires more complex and energy - intensive hardware.
Integration of satellite and ground networks: The hybrid connection model of satellite and ground networks is becoming the focus of the IoT architecture. The 3GPP NTN standard extends cellular technologies such as NB - IoT and 5G NR to satellite links, allowing the same chip to operate in both environments and achieving near - seamless switching between ground and satellite coverage. This is particularly suitable for most applications that communicate through cellular networks but need satellites as backups. Another model uses gateways to aggregate data from local devices through technologies such as Bluetooth or LoRa and transmit it to the cloud via satellites when ground coverage is unavailable. All methods have trade - offs. From a hardware perspective, NTN integration is highly efficient but not very suitable for devices with extremely limited power consumption. Gateway - based systems are very flexible and efficient for cluster deployments but increase latency and potential single - point failures.
Spectrum situation: Spectrum availability determines where and how satellite IoT services operate. The International Telecommunication Union is responsible for managing global spectrum coordination, while each national regulatory agency issues specific licenses. Differences in frequency allocation between regions increase the complexity of product manufacturing and application deployment, usually requiring multiple device variants.
Orbit type: Orbit type is another decisive factor in satellite IoT design. LEO systems are close to the Earth, enabling low latency and high capacity, but maintaining continuous coverage requires large constellations, and devices usually require complex antennas and power management. In practice, the choice between LEO and GEO depends on the balance between latency requirements, device costs, and total cost of ownership.
In terms of market operation, some established manufacturers such as Globalstar and Iridium have decades of operating experience. Although the implementation of 3GPP NTN is still in its early stages, it has a strong ecological foundation. For enterprises, the balance between technological innovation and operational stability is crucial.
What is the Market Landscape Faced by the Satellite IoT?
IoT Analytics pointed out in its report that in 2024, the number of satellite IoT connections was 7.5 million, accounting for 0.04% of the 18.8 billion global IoT connections in 2024 and 0.17% of global cellular IoT connections. However, the average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) of the satellite IoT is between $40 and $70, almost 15 times that of the cellular IoT. In 2024, the revenue share of the satellite IoT relative to the cellular IoT was 3.8%, and it is expected to continue to grow in the next few years.
In addition, IoT Analytics found that the market of satellite IoT suppliers will become more fragmented. Before 2024, the market share of seven satellite IoT operators exceeded 80%. With the entry of companies such as Starlink, Skylo Technologies, and Sateliot, the market of satellite IoT operators is facing more intense competition, and the market landscape will be further differentiated.
Meanwhile, 63% of satellite IoT operators have constellations in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In addition to connection advantages, LEO constellations also have significant cost advantages in manufacturing and launching. For example, British satellite manufacturer OneWeb uses standardized mass production and can manufacture two lightweight (147 kg) satellites per day. SpaceX has significantly reduced launch costs through its reusable rockets, bringing the cost down to less than $3,500 per kilogram.
However, players in the satellite IoT market also face some difficulties. The author pointed out in the article "Satellite IoT: A Luxury Business, Limited Connections, and a Crowded Track" that although the satellite IoT solves many problems that existing technologies cannot connect, its connection scale is expected to be relatively limited, and its proportion in the total number of IoT connections is not high. Although the ARPU is relatively high, a large number of manufacturers have flocked to this market, making this track seem a bit "crowded".
Therefore, the author believes that there will be a reshuffle in the satellite IoT market in the future, and a number of manufacturers with few connections and weak operational capabilities will eventually be eliminated. In this process, it is expected that on the one hand, more manufacturers will choose the 3GPP NTN standard as their technical route, which can rely on the mature ecosystem of 3GPP to quickly form a large - scale user base. On the other hand, corresponding mergers and reorganizations will continue to occur. There have been several major merger cases before, and recently there have been rumors that Globalstar will be sold, and it has started negotiations with companies such as SpaceX.
In China, the satellite IoT is still an emerging field, and related applications have not been launched. As the world's largest IoT application market, China is also expected to form the world's largest satellite IoT market. Since a large number of IoT applications that can use satellite technology in China will be deployed within the national border, and overseas satellite IoT operators have certain restrictions on conducting business in China, domestic satellite IoT suppliers have broad prospects.
At the beginning of October this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Notice on Organizing Commercial Trials of Satellite IoT Services (Draft for Comment)" to solicit opinions nationwide. The purpose is to enrich the supply of the satellite communication market, stimulate the vitality of market players, improve the industry's service capabilities, establish a safety supervision system, and form replicable and promotable experiences and models through commercial trials of satellite IoT services, so as to support the safe and healthy development of emerging industries such as commercial space and low - altitude economy and serve the construction of a new development pattern.
In the author's opinion, although the satellite IoT features a "luxury business, limited connections, and a crowded track", in China, this market has not really started. Moreover, the combination of the satellite IoT and the ground IoT provides ubiquitous connection solutions for all industries, enabling the "Artificial Intelligence +" initiative to have more data sources for more innovation, forming new business forms and achieving the goal of digital and intelligent transformation.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Internet of Things Think Tank" (ID: iot101), author: Zhao Xiaofei, published by 36Kr with authorization.