Soracom has announced that its collaboration with Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) service operator Skylo has transitioned from Private Beta to a global initial service rollout for select Soracom customers.
Speaking at the keynote session of Soracom Discovery 2024, Soracom CTO and Co-Founder Kenta Yasukawa, alongside Skylo CEO and Co-Founder Parth Trivedi, revealed that qualified customers worldwide can now activate Skylo connectivity on their Soracom SIMs/eSIMs, enabling seamless switching between cellular and NTN.
In 2023, Soracom and Skylo announced a partnership aimed at providing customers with IoT solutions and M2M devices access to Skylo’s direct-to-device 3GPP NTN connectivity, in conjunction with Soracom’s advanced fully-virtualised cellular platform. Following a successful Private Beta phase, this service is now commercially available in Limited Preview and can be activated directly by qualified customers in consultation with Soracom.
Skylo’s satellite NTN allows chipsets, modems, modules, and devices designed for terrestrial networks to connect via existing satellites using the global 3GPP Release 17 standard. Customers with devices in North America, Europe, and Oceania, equipped with 3GPP R.17-capable LPWAN modules, can now use Soracom’s Subscription Containers feature to add the Skylo-based satellite connectivity plan (termed “planNT1”) over the air (OTA) to Soracom “plan01s” and “plan-US” IoT SIM cards.
While NTN typically incurs higher latency and base data costs compared to cellular, Soracom’s platform services enable customers to minimise data transmission and handshakes over the satellite link while maintaining integration with their preferred cloud service. This method maximises coverage, including satellite failover, and integrates billing and connectivity management via the Soracom connectivity management portal.
“Soracom is committed to an Internet of Things without limits, where anything can connect to any cloud from anywhere,” said Kenta Yasukawa, CTO and Co-Founder of Soracom. “Now, customers can add Skylo’s breakthrough 3GPP NTN coverage to their devices while still taking full advantage of Soracom’s CMP and platform to control their connections, cloud integrations, and data use.”
“We are very happy to expand our partnership with Soracom as we move beyond our Private Beta,” said Parth Trivedi, CEO and Co-Founder of Skylo. “Deep platform integration, seamless switching between NTN and cellular, and the ability to add NTN gives Soracom customers the ability to unlock the full potential of IoT at any time, regardless of their location or infrastructure constraints, enabling real-time data access, monitoring, and control in areas not currently served by cellular connectivity.”
During the Discovery stage, Ray Ozzie, CEO and Founder of Blues Inc., highlighted the benefits of the Soracom/Skylo integration: “Blues simplifies wireless communication so that our customers can transform physical products into intelligent services. Key to our approach is supporting all major Radio Access Technologies. The ability to connect via satellite where cellular is not an option while allowing customers to maintain control and minimise data overhead promises to help Blues build a safer, more intelligent connected world.”
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