Q&A 总结.

You’ve spent over a decade at Iridium, now leading its IoT business. How did you get started, and what drew you to this niche within the satellite industry?

I began my career building small satellites for the Navy and Air Force, which sparked my interest in space and communications. That experience introduced me to Iridium’s technology and reputation in the industry. When I joined Iridium over 12 years ago, I started as a product manager for IoT modules,devices like the 9602 and 9603 that enable low-data-rate communication from remote environments. Since then, I’ve moved through business development roles and now oversee our entire IoT business. It’s been a front-row seat to the evolution of satellite connectivity, particularly as IoT has matured into one of our fastest-growing business lines.

Iridium has been around for a while, but not everyone knows how it operates. Can you give us a snapshot of Iridium’s business model and where IoT fits within it?

Iridium runs a constellation of 75 low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, including operational units and in-orbit spares. These satellites operate in polar orbits, giving us truly global coverage, including the poles,something few networks can claim. We provide connectivity to a range of verticals: government, aviation, maritime, and land mobile, including satellite phones.

But unlike traditional telcos, we’re primarily a wholesaler. We sell our services through a global network of partners who develop and deploy the end-user solutions. That includes everything from fishing enforcement systems to SCADA networks in utilities, to asset tracking in mining and construction. Our IoT business is built on this partner-first model,our job is to ensure reliable global connectivity; theirs is to build innovative solutions that serve specific market needs.

You mentioned the transition from M2M to IoT. How has the market evolved in terms of performance expectations,bandwidth, latency, and coverage?

It’s a fascinating time. For years, the market was dominated by low-data-rate use cases,remote sensors sending tiny data packets once a day or week. And that still makes up a huge portion of IoT demand, particularly in applications like predictive maintenance or compliance monitoring. Many of our customers move less than a kilobyte of data per month.

But there’s also been a growing appetite for higher-throughput use cases. That’s why we launched our 9704 module,a small device that maintains the same size and antenna footprint as previous generations, but with significantly improved data capabilities. It supports transmission of images and voice snippets, opening the door to more advanced monitoring scenarios.

Take Heimdall Power, for example. They’re using the 9704 in a device called the Neuron to monitor high-voltage power lines across Europe. It’s measuring tilt, load, and environmental conditions to optimize grid performance,things that simply weren’t possible with earlier low-data-rate modules.

That sounds like a significant jump in capability. But the broader industry seems to be moving toward standardized protocols and chipsets. How is Iridium adapting to this shift?

We’ve historically used proprietary protocols, Short Burst Data (SBD), for instance, which we fully control and optimize for satellite performance. That’s been a strength in many ways. But the market is pushing toward more standardization, especially with the rise of non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and 3GPP-defined protocols like NB-IoT. Device makers and OEMs increasingly want to integrate satellite as just another radio option on a multi-mode chipset.

To support this, we’re upgrading portions of our network to support NB-IoT. Later this year, we’ll begin tests with Nordic Semiconductor on modules that use NB-IoT over our network. This gives customers the flexibility to build with familiar tools while still leveraging Iridium’s global reach. So going forward, we’ll support both proprietary and standardized protocols side-by-side.

Satellite connectivity used to be a niche solution. What's changed to make it viable for so many new use cases today, both industrial and consumer?

The tipping point has really been economics. While many satellite use cases were technically feasible a decade or two ago, the cost-benefit equation didn’t make sense. That’s changed. The cost of connectivity and hardware has come down significantly, enabling new business models and value propositions that were previously out of reach. This shift is particularly visible in IoT, where even remote sensors or consumer wearables can now justify satellite connectivity.

Iridium operates primarily as a wholesaler, offering flexible data plans across a range of markets. Whether it's a complex utility monitoring solution like Heimdall Power’s Neuron sensors or a hypothetical child-tracking wearable, the model is the same: customers buy a device, subscribe to a monthly data plan, and transmit as needed. Data pricing is structured by region and value, but remains relatively consistent between IoT and consumer applications.

With the advent of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) and Iridium’s integration into 3GPP standards, we’re seeing hybrid solutions emerge. Imagine a smartwatch that uses cellular or LoRa when in coverage, but seamlessly switches to Iridium satellites when outside terrestrial range. That’s where we're headed: integrated, intelligent roaming between earth and space, often without the user even knowing they’ve switched networks.

For use cases like tracking or critical infrastructure monitoring, location precision is paramount. How is Iridium approaching geolocation accuracy and security?

Location tracking in the Iridium ecosystem leverages both external and internal capabilities. Devices typically use GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, or other GNSS systems to get location data. On top of that, Iridium overlays its own geolocation services through satellite triangulation, providing a second layer of positional information. This redundancy ensures location awareness even when GPS is degraded or spoofed.

Iridium has recently introduced a significant advancement in this area: the Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) service. Born out of the company’s acquisition of Satelles, PNT adds an encrypted layer of secure location validation. It’s particularly useful in environments where GNSS signals are jammed or spoofed, an increasingly common concern in both civilian and military applications.

This capability allows customers not only to detect GPS spoofing but also to pinpoint exactly when it occurs. It’s already being used in government operations, but Iridium is actively bringing it into the commercial sphere. For critical IoT applications, whether tracking high-value assets, ensuring integrity in remote operations, or confirming user identity, this kind of secure, authenticated location data could be a game changer.

AI and edge computing are transforming IoT. What role does satellite connectivity play in enabling AIoT?

The use of AI in satellite IoT is less about the hype and more about long-standing operational efficiencies. For years, satellite customers have faced the constraint of limited bandwidth and high transmission costs. That forced them to innovate early, moving computation to the edge, filtering data locally, and transmitting only what was essential. In that sense, satellite IoT has been a quiet pioneer in edge computing and lightweight AI inference.

Now, with AI more accessible and embedded in toolchains, we’re seeing those practices mature. Customers are using AI to decide which events or data points warrant satellite transmission, optimizing payload and cost. AI is also making its way into the satellite operations side, helping manage constellation health, allocate capacity, and predict demand patterns across geographies.

Iridium’s approach is to support these edge-AI architectures by ensuring the satellite link is reliable, predictable, and simple to integrate. Whether or not developers brand their edge decision-making as “AI,” the underlying benefit is the same: smarter, more selective communication that balances performance, cost, and battery life, especially critical for remote, battery-powered devices.

How does Iridium position itself in relation to other network technologies like NB-IoT and 5G?

Iridium’s philosophy is one of complementarity. Rather than competing head-to-head with terrestrial technologies, Iridium aims to be a seamless extension of them. Take NB-IoT, for example. It’s a widely adopted protocol for low-rate, low-power IoT communication. Iridium’s NTN integration means customers who already build around NB-IoT can access satellite failover or extension coverage using familiar standards.

The same logic applies to 5G. While the 5G rollout has perhaps underdelivered in some sectors, it remains a backbone for high-speed terrestrial connectivity. Iridium is part of 3GPP, and its satellite frequencies are included in Release 19. This ensures that when 5G device makers or carriers want satellite fallback, Iridium will be there with certified, interoperable modules.

For product developers or companies considering satellite-enabled solutions, how does one get started with Iridium?

Iridium’s developer support ecosystem is designed to lower the barrier to entry. Their latest module, the 9704, exemplifies this. Everything needed to get started, from design specs and source code to libraries and schematics, is openly published on GitHub. No NDAs, no proprietary lock-in. Developers can immediately begin experimenting with Iridium’s capabilities.

Iridium also provides plug-and-play development kits, which include the module, antenna, battery, and even airtime. Within minutes of unboxing, a developer can be transmitting messages over the satellite network, testing latency, evaluating signal strength, and exploring device integration.

This hands-on experience is essential. While spec sheets and marketing claims are helpful, they rarely substitute for real-world testing. Iridium understands that product managers and engineers need to feel how the device works in the field. And once that confidence is built, Iridium supports partners through the next phases: pricing discussions, hardware certification, and commercialization.

Looking forward, Iridium plans to introduce new multi-protocol modules that combine satellite, LTE, and GNSS in a single chip, opening up even more hybrid connectivity pathways. Their goal is simple: to let developers build globally-connected products without needing to be satellite experts.

As a final word of advice, what should companies consider when choosing a satellite network partner?

Not all satellite networks are equal. Some offer broadband; others focus on niche use cases. Some operate in geostationary orbit (GEO); others like Iridium are in low Earth orbit (LEO), which impacts latency, coverage patterns, and device design.

Companies need to do their homework. Evaluate what the network offers not just in terms of raw bandwidth, but also latency, power requirements, module availability, standards compliance, and developer support. Iridium doesn’t position itself as a broadband provider like Starlink. Instead, it provides resilient, reliable, global narrowband connectivity ideal for M2M, IoT, and low-data-rate applications.

Ultimately, it’s about understanding your use case and matching it with the right technology stack. With the growing convergence of terrestrial and satellite systems, companies that take the time to evaluate options early and test them will be better positioned to build scalable, globally deployable solutions.

音频文字.

Erik: Ian, thanks for joining me on the podcast today.

Ian: Erik, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Erik: Yeah, and it's good to have you guys back. I spoke with one of your colleagues about four years ago. We'll put that in the show notes. So if anybody is listening to the podcast here and you want to have a really deeper dive on what Iridium was doing in 2021 at least, you can check out that episode. This is a fast-moving industry, so I imagine, actually, there's probably been quite a few updates. Ian, I know you're coming in particular from the IoT line of the business. Before we jump into the topic, can you give us a little bit of background personally, and how did you end up in this unique space within the broader IoT market?

Ian: Yeah, absolutely, Erik. So I started my career building small satellites for the Navy and the Air Force with a small company called AeroAstro. No longer in business these days, but that's kind of where I got my start in satellite. Then being part of the industry, I'd always kind of looked at who are the big network operators. Iridium kind of stood out as kind of a class act in terms of what they were providing, and it was a technology that I was exposed to my previous role. So I applied for a job as a product manager, and I was onboarded about 12 years ago. And so I began my career at Iridium primarily as a product manager around our IOT modules. And so I focused on our small aperture devices 9602, 9603. I was responsible for that product line for many years. I transitioned into some business development. Then not long after that, I've kind of taken over the role of the general manager of the IoT line of business here at Iridium. And so that's kind of what I've been doing and how I landed in this particular position.

Erik: When you first landed at Iridium, was the commercial sector already the primary focus, or at that point, was it still more of a government-focused business?

Ian: The commercial business was up and running and was very healthy at that point. We were transitioning from what we used to call M2M to IoT at that point. And so it was a really interesting time in Iridium when I joined because we were just getting ready to launch the new batch of satellites. So it was a really exciting time. We had put all of our eggs in one basket as it relates to the launching. We were one of the first to go with SpaceX as a launch partner. And so being part of kind of the rejuvenation, Iridium, the transition of the business unit from M2M to IoT—and really, IoT these days at Iridium is our fastest-growing unit—it was just a really exciting time to be there. Launching satellites into space and being able to attend some of those launches has been one of the highlights of my career. It's just pretty interesting stuff.

Erik: Yeah, absolutely. Well, that was a brave time to be in the industry, right? Because really, on the one hand, IoT matured and, on the other hand, the cost of sending satellites into space came down, right? It was really quite a niche business and seems like a shaky business for the first years. Now, obviously, the technology on both sides has matured, and there's much more robust demand and scale. I know we're going to focus on IoT here, but it would be great if you could give everybody listening kind of the 101 on Iridium's business, so we can understand what are you selling, how do you sell it, who do you sell it to, and then we can dive more into the IoT line that you're running.

Ian: Yeah, absolutely. So Iridium is a satellite constellation where a LEO orbit. We run about 75 satellites. That includes the operational in-orbit devices, as well as our spares. We are a global network. So we are a polar orbit, which means that our satellites cover the entire globe as they are traversing in their orbits. We provide service to a variety of sectors. As we mentioned, we do a lot of government work with IoT. We do aviation. We do maritime, and we do land mobiles. So that's the side of the business, the satellite phones as an example. So we're quite varied in what we do in terms of the types of customers that we service. We're primarily a wholesaler, and so we deal primarily with partners. Partners are our lifeblood as it relates to our business and IoT specifically. So we go to market through global partners. They're operating their niche applications all over the globe—whether that's phishing, industrial IoT, SCADA applications, heavy equipment, mining. We're in a variety of industries.

Basically, anywhere that needs connectivity, Iridium is there to provide reliable, always-on global connectivity. So we're really good at kind of global deployments and being able to manage the waters as it relates to getting your device into pretty much any country, any location that you need to operate in. And so that's been our calling card for quite some time. But I'd stress that, again, we've been doing this for a long time, and the evolution of our business is something that's very important to us. And so one of the things that we always do is try to bring all of our services with us as we bring on new network elements. And so we've never sunset any services. 
That's really about IoT specifically, those devices are in the field for many, many years at a time, and so we don't want our customers to have to up and replace devices as we change network characteristics. And so one of our big things is to ensure that we don't sunset services as old as they might be, while bringing on some of the newer, more exciting technologies that we'll talk about here in a bit.

Erik: Yeah, I know. I imagine that's important to a lot of your infrastructure customers. I know a lot of companies like to put an asset, a sensor out in the field, and ideally not touch it too much for maybe 10 years, right? So that's an important part of their business to be able to have that security, that it's going to continue to operate for the lifetime of the device. Can you help us understand? Within the IoT space, where are we? What's kind of the state of the art today in terms of bandwidth? For remote data transfers in terms of latency, I know there's been a lot of progress recently in terms of improving the performance of connectivity or remote devices. So where are we today? Then if you can share a little bit on that trajectory, what are the metrics that we're monitoring that are kind of moving the industry forward in this space?

Ian: I mean, as we talk about IoT specifically, I think kind of what we're seeing is a move towards a standards-based approach, right? And so, we see that as part of our general strategy, but overall, we see that in other networks as they begin to adopt kind of a more standards-based approach, right? So kind of where we are today is, Iridium is still developing our own modules. We've got a suite of IoT modules that we manufacture and that we distribute. Those are running our proprietary protocols. Those are, as I mentioned, are devices like the 9602, the 9603, which run our Short Burst Data. Then we've got our 9704, which is a newer module that offers a little bit more throughput, the capability, but still the same size and cost of the previous generations.

And so kind of where we are right now is transitioning from this very proprietary closed environment to a more standard and open environment. I still see the need for having both of those applications in place in time. But I think that's really kind of the trend that we're seeing. It's really this move towards NTN. It's really kind of the big catchphrase at the moment. So what we're doing on our end is, we're converting a few bands of the network to be able to handle the NB-IoT standard that's from 3GPP. So later this year, we'll be going on air with a few devices with Nordic Semiconductor. They'll be testing our network capabilities running NB-IoT over the Iridium network. And so we'll be offering both of those services to our customers—the proprietary and the standards-based approaches.

But I think to answer your question more directly and where we're seeing things, we're really in an environment now where customers want to be able to buy the chip of their choosing and have a variety of different radios on that chip for backup communication or for primary comms. And so I think what we'll see are more companies like Nordic adopting satellite capabilities, and Iridium will be there to provide a standards-based approach for those companies that are wanting to do that. And so I think that's what we'll see. So we'll see more mainstream chip manufacturers providing satellite connectivity on the back of their existing modules. And so I think that's kind of where we're headed from that device perspective. I think, always, it's about cost. And so cost will continue to be driven down as more manufacturers enter the space. That's kind of how I see it from my end as it relates to the modules and the technology.

From an IoT perspective, from a data throughput perspective, I think that there's plenty of applications in IoT that are less than a kilobyte a month in terms of their usage, right? They're just sending very small amounts of data. And so from that perspective, we'll continue to offer devices that push the boundaries and that offer more data. But I think there's still a sweet spot of IoT, which is still very low data rate, very low power, meant to be out there for years and years at a time. So I think we're going to see more applications that are using higher throughput, but I think we'll continue to see the traditional low throughput sensor-driven IoT applications continue to thrive.

Erik: Okay. This shift towards a standards-driven approach, does this impact your business model? I suppose you're providing the connectivity. I'm not sure if you have a business model around the proprietary protocol. But does that impact your business model, or is it primarily a shift in terms of just the middleware, that companies are deploying on their modules?

Ian: Yeah, it'll be a slight shift. I mean, we still go to market as a wholesaler today. That's the same intent. It's for us to go to market as a wholesaler when we enter NTN, 3GPP, and NB-IoT. And so from that perspective, I think we're well versed in being able to deliver those types of services to our partners. I think what we'll see now though are going to be more partnerships from Iridium. We just announced a partnership with Syniverse. That's going to be a partnership that enables us to be able to better deliver our services more ubiquitously, right? Syniverse is a global operation much in the same way that we are. And so I think what you'll see are maybe just more distribution partnerships through Iridium, but the wholesale model remains the same for us. It's proven to work in our situation, in our case. I think we'll have to make some modifications and adopt to kind of the new world that we're entering. But for the most part, it should be to apples-to-apples transition for us.

Erik: Got you. You mentioned an acronym a few minutes ago—NTN, non-terrestrial networks. How does that differ from the way we might think about satellites operating, let's say, 10 years ago?

Ian: I mean, that's just the thing. NTN has always been the thing for me, right? I've always worked for NTN, for a non-terrestrial network. And so it's really, I think, being brought more into the stream. That's really through the standardization that I talked about before. And so, 10 years ago, I think satellite was very similar to the way that it is today, still providing ubiquitous service to locations and customers that were outside of terrestrial coverage. But I think what we see now is really that more standardization. It's become more of a desire for terrestrial carriers to have that capability for their customers. And so I think that's how the industry has changed over time. But at its core, it's still providing satellite connectivity to locations that are compromised from a terrestrial coverage perspective. So I think that's kind of the big shift. It's really the attention that's put on it now and this kind of shift, specifically around consumer, to have these capabilities on your smartphone or on your wearable device becomes more important to those companies that are selling those services.

Erik: Okay. Clear. Let's discuss some of the major use cases here. I'm quite interested in what trends. I guess there's trends in terms of device categories. There might also be trends in terms of customer segments. I suppose there are certain customer types like the military, like maybe an offshore oil and gas company that was investing in these solutions 20 years ago, because they had a very strong need and they had a business case. I imagine there's other customer groups, for example, consumers, maybe in developing countries who absolutely could not afford this technology before where those uses might not be more viable for them. So if you look at the major product categories or device categories and the major customer segments, where are you seeing the most growth in the recent years or in the coming few years?

Ian: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a great question. I mean, the way that I kind of divvy up the business, the IoT business at Iridium, is kind of two different ways. We've got everything that falls under consumer, and then we've got everything that falls under what I call industrial IoT. Consumer is obviously IoT that's driven by a person or a user. And so that business continues to thrive at Iridium. It has been very strong since its inception. And so we are very focused on the consumer and how the consumer can use the Iridium network, right? So again, the way that we operate is through a wholesaler, but we go to market through our partners that are experts in those particular categories. And so those partnerships are really kind of what would drive the adoption of the consumer market.

In the industrial IoT side, it's quite varied. It is all the things that you mentioned. It is industrial IoT for the most part. Heavy equipment is a big market for us. Regulated fishing is another big market for us, ensuring that fishing markets are staying within the waters that they're supposed to be fishing in, catch reporting, those types of applications. But those tend to be kind of the more burgeoning or fastest-growing segments within our business. But yeah, you kind of hit it right on the head. We have to provide both services that are applicable to the consumer and applicable to the industrial IoT space, but they're also quite regional in terms of their delivery as well. And so those partnerships that we have across the globe allow partners to sell similar products, but they're geared to their very specific industries, their specific regions. So whether that's an Asian manufacturer building a consumer device for that market, or whether it's an OEM in a particular market that's attracting very particular regionalized type of sale, those are all key aspects that we look at in terms of how we're distributing our product. It's not only a regional sale in terms of being able to work with the partners to provide very specific products for their regions, but it's also being able to provide airtime and services that make sense for those partners, if they want to do global deployments.

I'm not sure if I answered your question 100%. But I think, again, both sides of that business are growing significant for us—both the consumer side and the industrial IoT side. But the underlying service that we provide is still that Iridium kind of core network. It's really what our partners are doing and kind of manipulating and offering new features and adding value to what we do. That's really kind of the lifeblood of the business primarily. But I mean, again, going back to what are the drivers of the IoT business today at Iridium, I'd say it's a pretty good split between consumer applications and industrial IoT. As I mentioned, that industrial IoT runs deep in our history.

A really good example, one that I can point to, that's using a little bit higher throughput today: we launched this 9704 product at the end of November last year. It's a very small module, uses the same types of antennas that we used before—so very small packet antennas—able to be packaged into very small devices but able to send more extreme data, so able to send images, able to send voice snippets, and things of that nature. So there's a company in Norway called Heimdall Power. They've created this really neat product called the Neuron. You can look it up online. Again, Heimdall Power out of Norway. They've created these grid sensors that are essentially monitoring the power lines all over Europe and their location. They can attach this Neuron device. It's got the 9704 inside. They're able to monitor the load on the network.

They're able to monitor tilt, for example, on the power line. And so these are applications that were not necessarily possible for them using some of our earlier technology. But continuing to invest in IoT and being able to provide more power for modules for some of those higher-end use cases attracts customers like Heimdall that really want to push the boundaries of what's possible from a satellite perspective. And so that's just one example of a new application brought by a partner simply by engaging with Iridium. We kind of talk about what's possible. They're able to go off, take our core module, and create a very compelling solution on top of that. Again, I kind of keep going back to that. But Iridium's IoT business wouldn't be where it is today without the innovation that our partners bring. And really, my job is to provide technologies that they can morph into something great. And so seeing something like Heimdall Power's Neuron solution come to market with our solution that was just released in November is pretty special for me. And so I think that's the benefit that we provide. It's the core value of the Iridium Network.

Erik: Yeah, I think a lot of these use cases, they were technically feasible maybe 20 years ago. I mean, some certainly weren't, right, maybe if it's a higher bandwidth. I think, often, they were technically feasible, but the business case just didn't make sense, right? That feels to me in a lot of the IoT space that it's the cost of connectivity coming down to a point, the cost of the hardware coming down to a point where, whether it's a consumer device or it's a remote sensor, all of a sudden, you can make a strong business case around this. Can you help us understand? Maybe if we use two examples, one could be Heimdall Power's Neuron sensors. That sounds like it's a bit more of a sophisticated solution, a higher-end connectivity. The second could be maybe a consumer device. I don't know what that might be for you. Let's say, I have a child. I don't know if this is a solution you offer. I mean, I'm sitting here in China. So I can tell you there's latent demand for being able to track your child anywhere they are in the world. So let's say you have a consumer device that requires kind of a lower cost model. What would be the pricing mechanisms for the higher end and the lower end for your range of solutions?

Ian: So for the higher-end range of solutions, it's very similar to a standard cellular plan. You buy a device, you buy a monthly plan for that device, and then you're able to send data according to that plan. You're able to top off your data. We offer bulk plans. And so we really are kind of flexible in the way that we offer customers to use the network. And so that's extremely important when we're operating as a wholesaler. And so, from that perspective, it's really just looking at the markets. We do price to specific markets, right? Different markets carry different value, and so we do have kind of disparate pricing throughout our operation. But what I would say is that it's fairly level across the board. So we don't necessarily price any different for consumer than we would for IoT. It's still very similar, a wholesale approach. We're still providing usage data. We're providing a fee for monthly access. That's pretty much it. We try to kind of keep it very simple for customers to be able to buy the data from us wholesale and then repackage that into solutions that make sense for their partners.

Now, what I would say is that, if we're going back to the child tracking application, kind of where that lies within Iridium's kind of set of features, what I would say is that as we shift towards NTN, those types of applications with Iridium on board will begin to make more sense. Think about a wearable, for example, watch. The child has a watch that might be cellular connected most of the time. Or maybe it's on a LoRa or something local, but it's connected via cellular technology. But if that child or if that watch were to go outside of terrestrial coverage, we'd be able to roam on to Iridium and then be able to close that link, send a message, and locate that child.

And so I think, as we move towards a more standards-based approach and more of these organizations, like Nordic, taking our technology and embedding it into theirs, you'll begin to see a lot more things like wearables, consumer devices that have Iridium technology kind of already baked in. Whether the consumer knows it or not, they will have the ability to transmit both at the terrestrial level and at the satellite level using the same piece of device, same watch, same kit. So I think that's kind of where we're headed from the connectivity perspective. Iridium, in most cases, will be obfuscated to the user. They won't know that they're on the Iridium network or what satellite network they're on. But I think that'll be part of the beauty of the types of services that we'll offer in NTN.

Erik: There's one metric. I'm not actually sure how important this is for many of your use cases, but for this particular use case, it would be important. This metric of granularity of location tracking, how is that developing? So what I mean by that is, how accurately can you pinpoint the location of a sensor on your network?

Ian: That's a really good question. That brings up a variety of different kind of concerns from a security perspective that are going on in the world today. I think, in general, customers attach a GPS chipset to the Iridium solution. So they're pulling location off of GLONASS, or GPS, or BeiDou, whatever they happen to have in their region. So, from that perspective, they're using an off-board technology to be able to locate their device. On top of that, we do provide geolocation services on top of the transmissions that we send. So you'll get not only your internal GPS position, but you'll also get a position from Iridium. So we give you an approximate location based on the triangulation that you have with the satellite network.

On top of that, we now have a new service which is called PNT, your position and timing. Iridium PNT, Iridium Timing and Location, is a way for users to be able to validate where they are with even more granularity. This is a new service that we have just launched. It was part of a company that we invested in early on called Satelles, still using the Iridium network. So Iridium acquired Satelles about two years ago. We're now starting to bring that position and timing service to our commercial users. So it's been something that's been primarily used in the government space. But as you can well imagine, nefarious actors in a variety of locations are spoofing GPS or doing weird things with GPS. 

And so what Iridium offers is this additional enhanced capability to be able to not only determine the fact that you're being spoofed or that your GPS position is compromised, but also be able to determine the moment in which it happens—the detection of that. So that's a service that we offer on top of our standard services. And so we have a group of customers that are interested in making sure that they have validated GPS across their operation. And so that's a service that we will continue to push into the commercial market. It'll make its way into IoT inevitably. There are IoT customers that want to ensure that their asset is exactly where they say it is without the presence of any nefarious type of action going on on their devices. And so that's a really new service for us, really key service for us, really exciting service for us. We see it very much complimentary to our IoT business for those types of customers, where security, identification of an authorized user, as well as location are all able to be verified through this type of service.

Erik: Yeah, true. There's one topic that we haven't touched on yet, which I think is becoming increasingly important, the topic of AI for IoT or AIoT. Certainly, this is an important topic in the IoT field in general, or satellites. I'm not actually sure how much satellites play in this space right now. What is the role for satellite networks in enabling AIoT for edge cases?

Ian: That's another really good question. I'd say that, obviously, AI is the big buzzword these days. It wouldn't be a complete conversation without including that. AI can be used in a variety of functions across a network, right? So it could be used theoretically to help fly satellites. It could be used to ensure that you've got proper capacity in the right locations. And so those are ways in which satellite operators could leverage AI inside of their operation. What I would say is that operators that have been providing IoT for some time have been the pioneers of AI in all reality. I mean, in satellite specifically, there's a high cost to be able to send your data. And so customers early on found out that by processing the data at the Edge versus sending it all back to a server somewhere to be processed was an operational efficiency—saved a lot of money to be able to process the data at the Edge and then send over the satellite link only the data that was very, very much required or needed.

So customers. Our customers specifically have always been at the forefront of Edge computing, right? And so within that, the adoption of AI and machine learning is very natural for them. Our customers have been adopting those technologies for some time. Now that it's more in the mainstream, it's obviously more evident that it becomes more of a selling feature for some of those devices. But yeah, what I would say is, it's not necessarily new to us in terms of kind of the gist of what they're trying to do with the edge computing. We embrace AI across the board and being able to make operations more efficient. Then really, it's about being able to optimize what you're sending over the satellite link, so that you're saving costs, you're maximizing your operational efficiency. You're getting the data you need, but you're also processing a lot of that data at the edge—and you may or may not be employing AI to help make those decisions. But it's very much been something that's part and parcel to satellite, especially satellite IoT. Whether it was AI back then, it was still taking data, making decisions at the edge, and then confirming or providing acknowledgement on the backside of what happened.

Erik: There's a couple of other technologies that have been, well, let's say, impactful in some use cases. I'm thinking 5G has probably been less impactful than we anticipated five years ago. That's 5G and, also, NB-IoT. I think NB-IoT, the Narrowband Internet of Things services, also have a lot of potential. How is satellite interacting with those two technologies?

Ian: So for the most part, I think what we're really trying to do is be able to offer a variety of services to our partners, right? And so I think from an NB-IoT perspective, it's a widely-adopted IoT protocol. And so we want to have that capability in our toolbox so that customers that need that are able to have that. And so really, I think, from that perspective, we're trying to be a service provider that is providing low rate-data, whether it's on a proprietary or standards-based approach. And so, yeah. I mean, again, I think we'll have a variety of options ready for our partners. And so that's for NB-IoT.

For 5G and kind of some of the cellular technologies, I think we'll continue to evolve as those continue to evolve. We're always going to be part of 3GPP. And so as those releases continue to move, we'll be ready for release 19. That is the release that the Iridium frequencies get added and that we begin to be able to go on network. And so I think, for us, it's really just coalescing around having an option for partners no matter where they are. So if they need satellite connectivity as backup and they're primarily on a cellular network, we want to be there for them. And if they're primarily only in satellite connectivity, we want to have modules and devices that are built for purpose for that. I think, as we move forward, we're always going to be having kind of the split approach of core satellite proprietary technology and then having standards-based approaches for those customers that need those types of solutions.

Erik: Great. Ian, thank you. I'm not an expert in this space. What questions have I not asked you that are important for folks to understand?

Ian: I think you've asked all the pertinent questions. I think one of the things that I kind of tell our partners is to just do the research, do the due diligence as you're selecting a satellite network. These networks, Iridium included, we all offer something slightly different. We're not a broadband play like Starlink. We're not a geo constellation. We've got different attributes as it relates to our connectivity from a LEO perspective. So yeah, I think we've really touched on all aspects and not much left to be talked about. But I do think that, yeah, it's just important for people to really understand all the capabilities of all the different networks. And so I think if you're interested in IoT, if you're interested in satellite, there's plenty of information out there for you to kind of get that education and understand what are the core capabilities of these networks and what are the services and capabilities that they'll be able to offer now and then into the future as things evolve.

Erik: Just one last question. So let's imagine that somebody, a product manager, is developing a product. They want to make it satellite-connectivity enabled. What's the right approach? Do they then buy modules from the different providers and just do a test run over a couple months to determine which attributes best meet their requirements? Is that the right approach? Because I imagine you can kind of look on marketing materials, or you can look on the specifications, but that might not give you as a product manager a perfect understanding of how is the device going to actually perform in the field.

Ian: Yeah, absolutely. So we try to provide as much of that information up front. We've talked about our latest module, which is the 9704. So with that product, we put all of the design, specifications, libraries, schematics. It's all available on GitHub. So you don't have to be an Iridium partner. You don't have to sign any kind of secret document to be able to get access to the stuff. We've made everything kind of available at that level, so kind of more of an open-source approach. So that's kind of just the documentation and getting an understanding of both the network, the underlying protocols, and what it would take to be able to implement the product.

From there, we offer development environments and kits to all of our partners. We've got great kits around pretty much every one of our modules. We've got some new modules coming at the beginning of next year that will have Iridium, will have cellular, LTE. We'll also have GNSS all in one module. And for those modules, we provide kind of all-inclusive dev kits that come with airtime. So you're able to just buy those online. We'll send you a kit. It comes with free airtime. Literally, from the time that you get that box at your doorstep, it's about four or five minutes before you're transmitting with the network, right? You kind of pull everything out. It's got a battery; it's got an antenna. You kind of screw the antenna into the board, plug in your battery, plug it into your laptop, open up a terminal and send some commands. You're sending data over the satellite network almost immediately and getting an understanding for latency, for message throughput, for satellite positioning, and where my device needs to be to get the best coverage. So we offer that kind of on day one, so you can get a really good idea of how the network operates, how your device might operate. But from there, we give you the hooks into the dev kit to be able to add whatever processor you want to run. You can plug your existing application into it. So it's a very open dev kit from that perspective. But really, it's about enabling the developer, right? So providing the least amount of barriers for them to test the network, test the devices, get a good feeling for what they're trying to do.

Then if it's that product manager that you mentioned, they've got a pretty good basis at that point for what the network is capable of, and they're able to go pitch an idea internally in terms of a development. They've got a pretty good idea at that point, what it takes technically. At that point, we would have had conversations around pricing. And so they've got a pretty good idea of what it would take to bring that product to market. Then we walk them through the certification process. So that's another important aspect of it. But we're there to help partners get through that. Then at the end of the day, it's about delivering quality products on a quality network. And so, yeah, it's really about fostering the developer. Whether it's a product manager, an engineer, purchaser, whoever it happens to be, we want to give them the ability to kind of test drive the network on their own terms.

Erik: Fantastic. Well, Ian, thanks a lot for joining me on the show today and sharing this update.

Ian: Absolutely, Erik. Thanks for having me. I certainly appreciate you reaching out and having another conversation with Iridium.