eSat Global, which is planning to operate a low bit rate geosat based IoT network using existing geostationary satellites has revealed details of pricing.
eSat Global’s recently appointed CEO, Rick Somerton told IoTAustralia the service would likely cost between $US5 and $US10 per annum per device for 10 messages per day of 12 bytes each.
The modem for the service is presently a prototype “about the size of laptop,” Somerton said, but the company hopes to have a much smaller commercial device available in Q2 of 2021. He said this would cost about $US25 and, in volume, possibly $US10. eSat Global is also working on a system-on-a-chip version that could sell for $US5.
It will use Inmarsat and Thuraya satellites, and Somerton said the company had developed patented technology that enables its devices to communicate with these using an output power of only 60mW.
In April 2020 eSat Global was granted US patent 2020/0119808 for a “low data volume satellite communication system.” It was the latest of three with that title award to the company, citing CTO Michael Parr as the inventor. No 20190173573 was awarded in June 2019 and No 10193616 in January 2019.
Australian market potential
Somerton, an Australian, said the company saw good market potential in Australia, especially in agriculture and mining.
“We are spending a lot of time talking about cattle tags. We are talking to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA). They have a program to get a tag on every cow by 2025,” he said. “There is already a mandated requirement for every cow to have an RFID tag.”
eSat Global in March 2020 named livestock monitoring tag developer Smart Paddock as its first Australian customer.
MLA is working with Australian company Ceres Tag, which uses Globalstar. According to Somerton, connectivity and tags are both expensive. Also, he said: “I also don’t believe Globalstar has the capacity for all 25 million cattle in Australia. There are 75 million sheep they would also like to see tagged as well. Only a geosat can deliver the capacity for that.”
MLA, in 2018 announced it was working with US company HerdDogg in what it said would be the largest real-time cattle health pilot ever conducted, on 10,000 animals on several grazing properties and feedlots across NSW.
