EchoStar Mobile Takes
Pioneering Steps in Satellite-enabled IoT
Connectivity
The EchoStar Mobile team
is pleased to announce the successful activation of
our pan-European LoRa®-enabled network. The network,
operating in EchoStar Mobile’s licensed S-band
spectrum from the EchoStar XXI satellite, went live
after successful installation and commissioning of
gateway equipment at the Hughes Europe teleport in
Griesheim, Germany.
Hughes Network Systems
and EchoStar Mobile are both subsidiaries of
EchoStar Corporation, working together to provide
satellite communications solutions around the world
via innovative and industry-pioneering technologies
and platforms.
EchoStar Mobile is
operating the world’s largest, and first
multinational, LoRa®-enabled IoT network, offering
real-time and bi-directional connectivity across
Europe. LoRa® (meaning “Long Range”) is a low-power
networking protocol ideal for connecting
battery-powered devices. Until now, the technology
has been largely dependent on the deployment of
terrestrial infrastructure, constraining its use.
This innovative direct-to-satellite connectivity
solution provides a number of benefits for customers
seeking to transfer critical data between widely
distributed, remote or moving assets, including in
the utility, transportation, railway, logistics and
agritech sectors.
It delivers resilient
connectivity to any location across the UK, Europe
and Scandinavia, plus provides a built-in,
bi-directional capability that enables organizations
to send and receive data and commands between their
devices. You can learn more about LoRa® in this
recently published whitepaper.
What’s next for our
pan-European LoRa®-enabled IoT network?
Along with 17 partners
participating in our early adoption program for
LoRa®, we are evaluating prototype devices and
testing the network with applications such as
railway track monitoring, smart farming, utility
monitoring and asset tracking in preparation for
commercial service launch, on track for late 2022.
The launch of this
network is the result of a truly collaborative and
global effort, with critical technical analysis
coming from the Hughes U.S. team and installation of
the gateway infrastructure and system testing from
the Hughes Europe team. Our partner, ProEsys
Technologies, successfully delivered the solution
amid a global supply chain crisis.
We are proud to be
pioneering this innovative technology that will
unlock the power of IoT via LoRa® ecosystems. Stay
tuned as we work toward the next milestone of
certifying and then producing the OEM radio module
for use by commercial partners and integrators,
followed by commercial launch later this year.
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