Eutelsat’s satellite IoT products should provide a useful complement to terrestrial LPWA networks

IoT is a small but valuable contributor to satellite operators’ overall revenue. For example, Iridium generated almost USD100 million in IoT revenue during 2019 – just over 13% of total revenue. In October 2019, the global satellite operator Eutelsat announced the commercial availability of its initial IoT connectivity offering, IoT FIRST. A month earlier, it also confirmed that it was working on ELO, a constellation of up to 25 nanosatellites that will be compatible with existing terrestrial LPWA standards. Eutelsat will earn revenue from the sale of terminals and connectivity for all three services. As with operators of other types of LPWA connectivity, the challenge for Eutelsat will be to generate enough demand to compensate for the relatively low revenue per connection.