Blues has backed the benefits of the extended Soracom and Skylo integration.

At this week’s Soracom Discovery (discovery.soracom.jp) event in Tokyo, Japanese IoT connectivity provider Soracom announced that its integration with non-terrestrial network (NTN) service operator Skylo had progressed from private beta status to a global initial service rollout to select users.

Speaking from the Discovery stage, Blues (blues.com) CEO Ray Ozzie spoke directly to the benefits of the progression.

“Blues simplifies wireless communication so that our customers can transform physical products into intelligent services,” said Ozzie. “Key to our approach is supporting all major radio access technologies. The ability to connect via satellite where cellular is not an option while allowing customers to maintain control and minimise data overhead promises to help Blues build a safer, more intelligent connected world.”

Soracom CTO Kenta Yasukawa was joined on stage by Skylo CEO Parth Trivedi to confirm that qualified customers around the world can now activate Skylo connectivity on their Soracom SIMs and eSIMs and enable their devices to switch seamlessly between cellular and NTN.

In 2023, Soracom and Skylo announced a partnership to give customers building IoT products and M2M devices access to Skylo’s direct-to-device 3GPP NTN connectivity, along with the capability of Soracom’s fully-virtualised cellular platform. Following a successful private beta period, that service is now available commercially in limited preview, and can be activated directly by qualified customers in consultation with Soracom.

Skylo’s satellite NTN lets chipsets, modems, modules and devices designed for terrestrial networks connect via existing satellites using 3GPP Release 17. Those with devices in North America, Europe and Oceania that include 3GPP R17-capable LPWAN modules can now use Soracom’s subscription containers feature to add the Skylo-based PlanNT1 satellite connectivity plan over the air to Soracom Plan01s and Plan-US IoT SIM cards.

NTN typically comes with a higher latency and base data cost than cellular. However, Soracom’s platform services let users reduce the amount of data transmitted and handshake over the satellite link while maintaining integration with their cloud service of choice. This approach increases coverage, including satellite failover, while integrating billing and connectivity management using the Soracom connectivity management portal.

“Soracom is committed to an internet of things without limits, where anything can connect to any cloud from anywhere,” said Yasukawa. “Now, customers can add Skylo’s breakthrough 3GPP NTN coverage to their devices while still taking full advantage of Soracom’s CMP and platform to control their connections, cloud integrations and data use.”

Trivedi added:  “We are very happy to expand our partnership with Soracom as we move beyond our private beta. Deep platform integration, seamless switching between NTN and cellular, and the ability to add NTN gives Soracom customers the ability to unlock the full potential of IoT at any time, regardless of their location or infrastructure constraints, enabling real-time data access, monitoring and control in areas not currently served by cellular connectivity.”

Soracom (www.soracom.io) is a technology partner to more than 20,000 start-ups, SMBs and enterprises, connecting more than six million IoT devices globally.

Skylo Technologies (www.skylo.tech) is a non-terrestrial network service provider based in Mountain View, California, offering a service that allows smartphone and IoT cellular devices to connect directly over existing satellites. Skylo’s direct-to-device service is now live across four continents, with more than 50 million square kilometres of coverage, in partnership with multiple satellite operators, mobile network operators (MNOs), tier-one chipset makers, and OEMs. Devices connected over satellite are managed and served by Skylo’s commercial NTN vRAN, featuring a 3GPP standards-based cloud-native base station and core.

Skylo works with existing satellite operators, network operators and device makers to provide subscribers anywhere, anytime connectivity that seamlessly roams between terrestrial and satellite networks.