Equipment hire company Kennards Hire is to use Fleet Space Technologies’ satellite-based IoT system to track assets at depots and major customer sites.
The Fleet Space system does not offer direct communication with tracked devices. These use LoRaWAN to a Fleet Space LoRaWAN satellite gateway, dubbed “The Portal”. So Kennard will install these at specialist branches and customers sites in Australia and New Zealand, starting with its branch at Artarmon in Sydney.
Fleet Space said the location and operational data collected would enable Kennards Hire to undertake preventive equipment maintenance reducing the impact of down time on its customers in construction, oil and gas, and mining industries.
Kennards Hire will be one of the first customers connected to Fleet’s constellation of nanosatellites, named Centauri, planned for launch by the end of 2019. It launched the first two in December 2018.
Fleet Space’s plan is to have five satellites in each of 20 low earth orbits at a height of 580kms by 2020 or 2021 and about 12 ground stations to route traffic to and from the satellites.
Less cost, more connections
Kennards Hire’s general manager of strategic projects, Craig Kesby, said the cost of the Fleet Space service would allow the company to connect more assets and provide more applications to customers and increase the company’s value in the market.”
“In the past year, devices and connectivity solutions have become more cost-efficient enabling business cases that the industry couldn’t justify a few years ago,” he said.
“Now, there are options for localised, low cost connectivity solutions and off cellular coverage out of traditional networks.”
In early February Fleet Space announced Project Galaxy, offering satellite capacity for IoT connectivity for an annual cost of $US2 per device with 500kB of data each month.
Fleet Space hoped to get commitments for one million device connections before the scheduled 28 February close date of the offer. It reached that target in less than 24 hours, and added another two million to a waiting list.
A force for disruption
According to Fleet Space, as nanosatellite and miniaturised rocket technology becomes affordable at the fraction of the cost of traditional satellite systems, industries across Australia that struggle with connectivity challenges will become ripe for disruption.
Fleet Space CEO and co-founder Flavia Tata Nardini, of Technologies. “Kennards Hire is in a unique position to pivot their commercial models and offerings to make life easier for their customers.”
