Partnership fast tracks service providers to enter IoT marketplace
Thomas Van den Driessche
of ST Engineering iDirect
ST Engineering iDirect, a subsidiary of ST Engineering North America, is previewing a new IoT platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution at the SATELLITE 2020 conference in Washington DC.
The new solution is designed to give its service provider partners the ability to offer cost-effective, satellite-based connectivity for the industrial Internet of Things (IoT) market. Powered by hiSky‘s reportedly robust, cloud-based solution with small form-factor terminals, and delivered with iDirect and Newtec platforms, the partners say this scalable, geostationary-based (GEO) satellite solution supports flexible business models for immediate market access.
“According to a Northern Sky Research report, the global commercial satellite IoT market is expected to grow to about US$1.4 billion by the end of 2028,” says Thomas Van den Driessche, president of the executive strategic board and chief commercial officer of ST Engineering iDirect. “We believe now is the time to capture addressable market segments and do that as quickly, broadly and cost-effectively as possible. With our flexible platform-as-a-service model, our customers have a first-mover advantage, delivering an innovative IoT solution, while leveraging their existing infrastructure investments and capacity.”
The IoT PaaS solution utilises a family of compact, lightweight terminals that feature a tightly-integrated satellite modem and flat-panel antenna design in Ka-band or Ku-band variants. The initial IoT PaaS offering includes Low Data Rate (LDR) and Medium Data Rate (MDR) service for deployment within both fixed and mobile environments. ST Engineering iDirect is offering a range of creative business models to reduce the upfront capital investments and operational complexities service providers traditionally face in creating their own IoT platforms.
For mobile use cases, the dynamic IoT terminal can be deployed for vehicle and fleet tracking or management, mining, agriculture, construction sensor aggregation, and fishing fleet applications. The fixed IoT terminal is designed to be deployed in extremely remote areas for utilities, pipeline and other energy use cases, and agricultural sensor backhaul applications where the lack of existing infrastructure offers unique deployment challenges.
Service providers will be able to utilise the IoT PaaS solution from Q2 2020.
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