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Kathleen Martin
Guest
Lately, it’s hard to go a week without a new satellite announcement aimed at the IoT. There are already plenty of companies using satellite connectivity to connect to LoRaWAN gateways on the ground, or to satellites themselves to send data directly from a device to the web. And with OQ Technology there’s a company trying to use satellites as a means to expand existing cellular NB-IoT networks to corners of the Earth where cell towers are scarce.
As Omar Qaise, founder and CEO of OQ Technology, explained to me, the differentiating factor for OQ’s satellites is that to a device, they look like a traditional cell tower capable of using the NB-IoT or LTE-M standard. This is a pretty novel claim, because even with the low Earth orbit satellites that OQ is deploying, signals from satellites must travel further than signals from terrestrial cell towers, and because satellites are always moving, their signals get distorted by the movement, much in the same way sound waves get distorted as a siren moves away from you.
Qaise said the only reason it can offer cellular signals from space is that the company’s engineers figured out ways to mathematically account for the Doppler effect as the satellites move and the signal distorts. For firms that use the OQ service, the cellular waveforms also provide a source of savings because they don’t need specialized modems to transfer the satellite signals; a traditional NB-IoT or LTE-M modem will work on the device side. Using traditional modems cuts down on battery power and on costs for the device.
Currently, OQ has two satellites in low Earth orbit as well as partnerships with other satellite providers that have satellites higher up in space. It provides a satellite-to-Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) service using its own satellites — NB-IoT is good for sending small bits of data a few times a day — but thanks to its partnerships with other satellite providers and a gateway product it sells, it can also provide a satellite-to-cellular service for NB-IoT and LTE-M. LTE-M supports a couple of megabytes of data for use cases where images or larger files might need to be transferred.
Qaise said OQ currently uses others’ satellites to provide its connectivity service, but he’s adamant that the ability to launch satellites will be a large differentiator for the business and help OQ control its own destiny. In the meantime, in the last few months, we have seen several companies that have been offering satellite IoT services decide to get out of launching satellites and use existing constellations instead. Though as far as Qaise is concerned, “[C]onstellations-as-a-service aren’t a mature business yet.”
Continue reading: https://staceyoniot.com/oq-is-trying-to-combine-cellular-and-satellite-for-the-iot/
As Omar Qaise, founder and CEO of OQ Technology, explained to me, the differentiating factor for OQ’s satellites is that to a device, they look like a traditional cell tower capable of using the NB-IoT or LTE-M standard. This is a pretty novel claim, because even with the low Earth orbit satellites that OQ is deploying, signals from satellites must travel further than signals from terrestrial cell towers, and because satellites are always moving, their signals get distorted by the movement, much in the same way sound waves get distorted as a siren moves away from you.
Qaise said the only reason it can offer cellular signals from space is that the company’s engineers figured out ways to mathematically account for the Doppler effect as the satellites move and the signal distorts. For firms that use the OQ service, the cellular waveforms also provide a source of savings because they don’t need specialized modems to transfer the satellite signals; a traditional NB-IoT or LTE-M modem will work on the device side. Using traditional modems cuts down on battery power and on costs for the device.
Currently, OQ has two satellites in low Earth orbit as well as partnerships with other satellite providers that have satellites higher up in space. It provides a satellite-to-Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) service using its own satellites — NB-IoT is good for sending small bits of data a few times a day — but thanks to its partnerships with other satellite providers and a gateway product it sells, it can also provide a satellite-to-cellular service for NB-IoT and LTE-M. LTE-M supports a couple of megabytes of data for use cases where images or larger files might need to be transferred.
Qaise said OQ currently uses others’ satellites to provide its connectivity service, but he’s adamant that the ability to launch satellites will be a large differentiator for the business and help OQ control its own destiny. In the meantime, in the last few months, we have seen several companies that have been offering satellite IoT services decide to get out of launching satellites and use existing constellations instead. Though as far as Qaise is concerned, “[C]onstellations-as-a-service aren’t a mature business yet.”
Continue reading: https://staceyoniot.com/oq-is-trying-to-combine-cellular-and-satellite-for-the-iot/
