Mobile satellite services provider EchoStar Mobile is deploying a pan-European LoRa-enabled IoT network.

The network, operating in EchoStar Mobile’s licensed S-band spectrum from the EchoStar XXI satellite, is the first to offer bidirectional, real-time LoRa-enabled connectivity across Europe using a single network.

The seamless coverage provides multinational service continuity to meet the needs of mobility customers, or those with widely distributed locations, in sectors including utilities, transportation, railway, logistics and agritech.

“The activation of our pan-European network, the largest, and first multinational, LoRa-enabled IoT network, is a significant milestone for EchoStar Mobile,” said Telemaco Melia, vice president of EchoStar Mobile. “We, along with dozens of partners participating in our early adoption programme for LoRa, are evaluating prototype devices and testing the network with applications such as railway track monitoring, smart farming, utility monitoring and asset tracking in preparation for commercial service launch, which is on track for late 2022.”

Melia introduced the bi-directional LoRa-enabled IoT network during a panel at this week’s LoRaWan World Expo in Paris.

LoRa is a low-power networking protocol for connecting battery-powered devices. Until now, the technology has been largely dependent on the deployment of terrestrial infrastructure, constraining its use. EchoStar Mobile overcomes this by using a LoRa-enabled module that easily integrates into IoT devices to provide connectivity across Europe and allow sensors to send and receive information in real time while on the move.

EchoStar Mobile, a subsidiary of Irish company EchoStar, has commercial operations headquarters in the UK, a data centre in Griesheim, Germany, and a converged satellite and terrestrial network covering the UK, Europe and Scandinavia.