Skylo to launch mobile to satellite service with MVNOs in Brazil next year
At the Latin American Satellite Congress, in Rio de Janeiro yesterday, Skylo announced it would launch its Satellite direct-to-device (#D2D) in Brazil next year.
The company has developed a technology that allows direct connection between smartphones with chipsets compatible with 3GPP release 17 and geostationary satellites that are already in orbit using the L or S bands.
In Brazil, Skylo has a partnership with Viasat to use its satellites, and the authorization from Anatel to use the L band.
In addition, Hugh Stevenson, Skylo's Business Development Director, revealed that Skylo has already reached partnerships with three mobile virtual network operators (#MVNO) to launch the service with an initial focus on the Internet of Things (#IoT) solutions market.
Unlike Starlink or Kuiper, Skylo's service is not broadband, but narrowband. The idea is to serve for emergency communication, such as sending or receiving text messages, or sending location information; or for data traffic from IoT applications.
The three main use cases are:
1) SOS service for the end consumer;
2) vehicle monitoring and telemetry;
3) IoT in heavy machinery located in remote areas.
Latency ranges from 5 to 15 seconds.
Since it uses the L and S satellite bands, Skylo does not depend on agreements with mobile operators. According to its director, the technology is agnostic to the type of satellite, and may also operate with those in low and medium orbits in the future.
Its biggest challenge, however, is the lack of devices compatible with release 17. For now, the technology is restricted to top-of-the-line smartphones. In the US, Google's new Pixel models have the service.
"Skylo's innovation is to take advantage of geostationary satellites," said Stevenson. The company already has partnerships for coverage and operations in more than 40 countries. Brazil will be the first in Latin America, said the executive.
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