Swiss nanosatellite company Astrocast has joined the IoT M2M Council (IMC), the largest trade association serving the IoT sector, to educate industry about the effectiveness of low earth-orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity.

Astrocast offers bidirectional device connectivity outside of terrestrial networks, and long-lasting battery life for devices at prices that are competitive with traditional cellular. The IMC will provide Astrocast with direct communications with 25,000 product makers and enterprise users that deploy IoT products and services, covering every vertical market and geographic region where IoT technology is deployed.

“Only 15% of the planet is covered by terrestrial networks,” said Laurent Vieira de Mello, Astrocast’s COO, who will represent the company on the IMC’s board. “Our global nanosatellite IoT network reaches areas that terrestrial networks can’t, and represents the future of IoT connectivity in crucial markets like maritime, oil and gas, agriculture, and environmental protection. Our solutions cost less than a third of the price of traditional satellite connectivity. The IMC offers us the ideal platform to educate users and potential channel partners about how cost-effective and beneficial bidirectional sat-IoT connectivity is.”

Astrocast’s partners include Airbus, Telefonica and the European Space Agency. The company has a fully operational LEO satellite constellation and plans to keep expanding its network until 2024. Using the L-band spectrum, Astrocast targets usage mainly in maritime, oil, gas, agriculture, land transport and environmental applications, where ubiquitous coverage is required. For its part, the IMC boasts wide membership in these areas, with roughly 30% directly involved in managing supply chains.

“We welcome Astrocast to the IMC board of governors and look forward to hearing more about this exciting new connectivity technology,” said Romil Bahl, CEO of KORE and IMC chairman, “LEO satellites are quickly becoming a very important extension of terrestrial networks, providing much-needed coverage to many rural or remote communities who have struggled with coverage in the past.”

The IMC is the largest trade group dedicated to the global IoT and M2M sector, with more than 25,000 IoT enterprise users, product makers, designers and apps developers that buy IoT products and services as members.

Board companies include Aeris, Airgain, Astrocast, AV System, BeamLive, BICS, Blues Wireless, Digi International, FloLive, Fibocom, Ground Control, Gurtam, IBasis, Ignion, Incognito, IoT Launch, Keyfactor, KORE, Losant, Microsoft Azure, MultiTech, Novotech, Pelion Technology, Pod Group, Quectel, RevX Systems, Somos, Taoglas, Tata Communications, Telit, Utimaco and Vodafone.