. Interview with Gianluca Redolfi, CBO of Sateliot and promoter of the 'Early Adopters Program’
. Receives orders for several million lines a year before commercialization
. ‘Early Adopters Program' has already more than 500 companies and potential customers
Sateliot, the Spanish company based in Barcelona and San Diego, will put into orbit the first commercial constellation of 5G NTN NB-IoT nanosatellites and offer a service that will allow end customers to connect to the satellite constellation with IoT equipment that currently are in use with cellular operators. Its launch is key to Sateliot's growth plan, which envisages an investment of up to 300 million euros for the commercial deployment of satellites.
Sateliot recently launched a program called Early Adopters Program (EAP), with which it intends to fulfill a dual objective: to create a customer base that can first test and then uses the commercial service associated with the constellation of satellites it plans to deploy in 2023. In the short time that has elapsed since its launch, the EAP has aroused the interest of numerous companies in a program that "is not very common in the space sector and is also very innovative, as it is being implemented so far in advance of the launch of the satellites and their commercial use," says Gianluca Redolfi, Chief Business Officer (CBO) of Sateliot and promoter of the Early Adopters Program.
The figures speak for themselves: "We have already surpassed 500 companies signed up, we are adding new ones every day and we are receiving orders for several million lines a year before the service goes commercial. We expect to convert the vast majority of these companies into customers."
The advantages of the program for companies are several. They can perform field tests in real environments, which provides them with very useful information for the evolution and design of the constellation. In addition, it includes technical support for technical integrations and interoperability testing; free connectivity for testing up to 100 devices for months; and all this without the need to change from their usual operator and become part of the standard technology community.
"The main advantage of the program for participating companies is to be ahead of their competitors in commercial development and economic performance since they know before they do how the system works and how to obtain the maximum benefit. This allows them to be among the first to have the solution commercially and gain market share," summarizes the Chief Commercial Officer of Sateliot.
For the moment, the names of the companies that have registered cannot be provided, "for reasons arising from confidentiality agreements," he argues. However, companies such as Podgroup and EMnify, among the 10 largest operators specialized in IoT; or DFM, which provides innovative solutions for the agricultural sector and is based in South Africa; or Telefónica which is one of the largest producers of IoT equipment and solutions in the world, "have collaborated with us and participated in joint webinars, sharing our solutions together".
Agreement with Telefónica
Sateliot has also closed a partnership agreement with Telefónica, the first mobile operator with which it is integrating. It is doing so through Telefónica Tech and Telefónica Global Solutions, thus covering all geographies of the Telefónica group. The first pre-commercials will be up and running by the end of this year.
In addition to these, more than 40 IoT operators that have a unique focus on providing connectivity services globally, representing more than 200 million lines, are also interested.
The goal of this program is to reach 1,000 participants, coming from the entire value chain, not only from Internet of Things solutions, but also solution providers, mobile operators, mobile virtual network operators, module providers and chip providers. The program is still open and accessible from our website.
Redolfi says that the companies that have shown the most interest in participating "are mostly from large countries where there are large areas without population, and therefore cellular coverage only covers a very limited part of it". These include the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, Australia, China, India, Pakistan, and others.
The constellation of small satellites acts as telephone towers in space
As for the use cases that attract the most attention and that are going to be early adopters of Sateliot's solution, Redolfi cites "maritime logistics, with container tracking (there are more than 25 million in the world), agriculture, oil and gas industries, electric power transportation, and environmental protection and wildlife conservation."
In addition, Sateliot - within the ESG framework that is integral to its purpose - has just opened a specific EAP program for NGOs that is getting very good attraction internationally.
Connecting objects
The Spanish company Sateliot is considered the first satellite operator to offer IoT connectivity through the 5G Narrowband-IoT standard. This is stated by the company in its presentations, where it points out that its constellation of small satellites acts as cell towers in space, "extending the coverage of mobile operators and providing global connectivity to unmodified commercial terrestrial devices wherever they are".
The interview was originally published on elEconomista.es
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