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Satellite connectivity has become one of the most talked-about topics in IoT. New constellations, new standards, and a steady stream of bold claims have created the impression that satellite is about to solve connectivity everywhere, for everything. Various vendors are generating hype around their solutions in order to try and grab market share.
From our perspective, the reality is more nuanced. The “devil is in the details” as we like to say.
At Digital Matter, we’ve been actively assessing, testing, and validating satellite IoT technologies in real conditions. We see genuine long-term potential, but we also see very real technical and commercial constraints. As with any connectivity decision, the question isn’t whether satellite works, it’s when it makes sense, and for which use cases.
Cellular Still Does the Heavy Lifting
For most IoT applications today, cellular connectivity remains the best option. LTE-M and NB-IoT and 4G LTE Cat 1bis deliver reliable coverage, low power consumption, mature ecosystems, and cost-effective data plans at scale. For the majority of asset tracking and sensor monitoring deployments, cellular already meets operational needs, provided of course there is coverage.
Assets operating in remote regions, offshore environments, rural agriculture, mining sites, environmental monitoring locations, or long cross-border routes regularly move beyond reliable terrestrial coverage. In these cases, the absence of connectivity can introduce operational risk, safety concerns, or extended blind spots.
This is where satellite connectivity becomes relevant.
Interestingly, this is not something new. A variety of satellite providers have operated for many years, including companies like Iridium, Viasat and Globalstar, who operate their own satellite constellations that require proprietary and expensive radios.
What’s new is that the “non terrestrial network” has now been embraced by 3GPP, the cellular standards body. 3GPP release 17 defines standards that unlock the ability for a standard cellular modem to communicate with satellites. The adoption of standard “off the shelf” modems significantly reduce the cost of the hardware required to offer a satellite solution.
When Satellite IoT Actually Makes Sense
The strongest satellite IoT use cases share a common theme: connectivity matters more than update frequency.
Satellite is well suited to remote assets that only need periodic check-ins, condition monitoring in isolated locations, and scenarios where fallback connectivity is required to maintain visibility when cellular drops out. In many cases, one or two messages per day is sufficient to deliver meaningful value.
What satellite is not well suited to today is high-frequency reporting or continuous tracking at scale. Using satellite for hourly or near-real-time updates quickly becomes cost-prohibitive and energy intensive, especially for battery-powered devices.
Satellite works best when applied selectively, not as a blanket replacement for cellular.
This hybrid model is already reflected in solutions such as our G150 Global, which uses 4G LTE Cat 1bis with 2G fallback for primary cellular connectivity and can connect to an Iridium Edge® Module to maintain tracking outside cellular coverage. It is a practical example of where satellite works best today: extending connectivity where terrestrial networks stop, rather than replacing cellular altogether.
Power Is the First Hard Constraint
One of the most important realities we see in testing is energy consumption. Sending data to space is fundamentally different to sending data to a terrestrial base station.
In our current testing, a single uplink to a geostationary satellite consumes roughly fifteen times the energy of an equivalent terrestrial cellular transmission. That difference has major implications for battery-powered devices. Even low message volumes can significantly reduce device lifespan if satellite is used too frequently.
For externally powered devices, such as infrastructure-connected sensors, the power impact is far less restrictive. For battery-powered trackers and monitors, it becomes a critical design consideration. Satellite must be used sparingly, typically as fallback or exception-based connectivity, to preserve battery life.
Coverage Is Not the Same as “Global”
A common misconception is that satellite automatically means global coverage. In practice, coverage depends on spectrum licensing, regulatory approvals, and which satellite beams are active in a given region.
Geostationary satellites have defined regional footprints. Low Earth orbit constellations provide broader geographic reach but are only overhead for short windows unless the constellation is fully built out. Early-stage constellations may only offer a handful of communication opportunities per day in certain regions.
This means coverage, latency, and delivery models vary significantly by location and provider. It’s essential to understand where a satellite service actually works before assuming it can support a global deployment.
Latency, Antennas, and Real-World Physics
Satellite IoT brings additional engineering realities that don’t exist in terrestrial networks. Link budgets are substantial, antennas must be well tuned, and line-of-sight is essential, particularly for geostationary satellites. In many cases, an external antenna is required to achieve reliable performance.
Latency also behaves differently. With low Earth orbit satellites, messages may be stored on the satellite and forwarded when it passes over a ground station. Depending on geography, this can introduce delays ranging from seconds to tens of minutes to even hours. Whether that matters depends entirely on the use case.
Device firmware must also manage satellite visibility windows to avoid wasting energy attempting transmissions when satellites are not overhead. Maintaining and updating this orbital data on device adds complexity that needs to be designed carefully.
Data Costs and Commercial Reality
From a commercial perspective, data pricing remains one of the biggest constraints. While satellite data costs are improving, they are still significantly higher than cellular, particularly for higher message volumes.
Hardware certification, RF tuning, regulatory approvals, and data pricing all add overhead. These costs are manageable when satellite solves a real problem, but they become hard to justify when satellite is used unnecessarily.
For most applications, the commercial case only works when satellite is used sparingly, either as fallback connectivity or for low-frequency reporting in areas without cellular coverage.
Why Standards Matter
Our approach to satellite IoT is firmly standards-based. We prioritise alignment with 3GPP Non-Terrestrial Network standards rather than proprietary solutions.
Standards-based connectivity allows us to remain flexible across multiple satellite networks, avoid long-term lock-in, and benefit from competition as the market evolves. It also allows us to leverage existing cellular modem technology rather than relying on bespoke hardware tied to a single constellation.
As standards mature, we expect better interoperability, improved pricing, and more predictable performance across regions.
What the Roadmap Really Looks Like
There is genuine momentum in satellite IoT, but progress is incremental. New standards releases, additional satellites, and increased competition are all moving the market forward, but not overnight.
Based on what we’re seeing today, meaningful improvements in coverage, pricing, and usability are more likely across the 2027 timeframe rather than immediately. Many offerings are still early, and IoT-specific capabilities often lag broader connectivity priorities.
This doesn’t mean satellite isn’t coming; it means it needs to be deployed thoughtfully.
Our Approach Going Forward
Rather than rushing satellite products to market, we’re taking a deliberate, engineering-led approach. We’re testing real hardware, validating modem behaviour, measuring energy consumption, and modelling commercial impacts before making commitments.
We’re evaluating satellite as part of a broader connectivity strategy, not as a replacement for cellular, but as an extension of it where coverage gaps create real value. Satellite IoT will play an important role in the future of asset tracking and sensor monitoring. The challenge is knowing when to use it, when not to, and how to design solutions that balance coverage, power consumption, and cost.
We’ll continue assessing, testing, and refining our approach. When the technical and commercial fundamentals align, we’ll be ready to move.
