Satellite operators to launch 15,000 new craft over next five years to support IoT

A study by Juniper Research has calculated that the number of satellites in orbit that can be used for internet of things (IoT) connectivity will grow by 150% over the next five years.

This follows activities in the recent weeks that have seen global nano-satellite IoT network provider Astrocast expand its partnership with aerospace firm Airbus Defence and Space to enhance cost-effective and reliable satellite IoT services, and low Earth orbit (LEO) 5G narrowband (NB) IoT satellite constellation operator Sateliot accelerate its expansion.

Juniper’s Global satellite IoT services market 2024-2030 research assessed the satellite IoT markets in 60 countries using a dataset containing over 143,000 market statistics within a six-year period. It included a competitor leaderboard and country readiness index to examine current and future market opportunities.

Overall, the research predicted that the number of satellites supporting IoT services will grow from 10,000 in 2024 to over 24,000 by 2029 owing to increased demand for connectivity in nomadic locations from IoT network users. It forecast that 98% of satellites launched over the next five years will be LEOs, due to the declining cost of launches.

To meet the growing demand for satellite IoT connectivity, the study urged the industry to embark on substantial investment in multi-orbit satellite solutions. This model combines the low latency and high throughput from LEO satellites and the extensive geographical coverage of geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites over a single service. This, said Juniper, will enable satellite IoT providers to cater to the wide spectrum of IoT use cases, including data-intensive and low-power, wide-area (LPWA) connections.

Going forward, Juniper said satellite network operators need to form strategic partnerships that fill in coverage gaps between LEO and GEO capabilities. The analyst identified construction and infrastructure, and logistics, as two key growth opportunities. It found that the wide range of connectivity requirements, such as nomadic operational areas and conditional monitoring, necessitates the use of both LEOs and GEOs for complete service provision. Ultimately, Juniper believes partnerships that enable the use of LEOs and GEOs for IoT networks will be essential to attract enterprise users in these sectors.

The issue of partnerships emerged regarding security. The higher risk due to multiple points of entry means satellite operators will have to ensure that they protect and secure all IoT devices, as well as deploying advanced data encryption solutions.

To combat cyber threats, Juniper said satellite IoT operators must ensure they either partner with a cyber security company that will help them deploy and manage a solution, or develop, deploy and maintain their own solution. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will be particularly useful in creating strong encryption algorithms.

Collaboration between satellite operators, governments and international organisations is crucial to creating standards and protocols. However, in the absence of such standards and protocols, Juniper warned that operators must ensure they practice advanced authentication and encryption practices, as well as ensuring they perform regular security audits to ensure they remain secure.