Iridium Communications has acquired Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) provider Satelles. It is Iridium’s first acquisition in its 36-year history.
The satellite company this month announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Satelles, Inc., a provider of satellite-based time and location services akin to GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems.
Iridium already had an ownership stake of around 20 percent from three previous investments in the company. For the remaining approximately 80 percent, Iridium will pay about $115 million, which will be financed through a tack-on to its existing term loan.
Satelles’ service, named Satellite Time and Location (STL), increases the efficiency and reliability of timing systems for digital infrastructure like 5G base stations, data centers, and other critical infrastructure. It can act as a backup for existing GNSS services via Iridium’s L-band satellite network.
Iridium said the STL service utilizes the stronger broadcast paging channels of Iridium’s satellite constellation to deliver precise timing information, providing time and location signals that are 1,000 times more powerful than GNSS constellations.
The service is resilient to regional GNSS outages, works inside buildings, and is being used today to secure digital infrastructure for financial markets, governments, and major corporations. Iridium said it will now work to reduce the size and cost barriers to adoption to widen deployment and improve GNSS-reliant products and infrastructure.
"This market is growing; it's a perfect application of our network, and this solution solves a problem for critical industries better than anything else," said Iridium CEO, Matt Desch.
"Acquiring Satelles makes perfect sense for Iridium and is consistent with what our strategy has always been, which is to take advantage of our unique network to do what others can't or do it better than anyone else can. STL is the superior solution available today, and we have been following and investing in Satelles's technology roadmap to allow us to create even more opportunities. We're excited to formally bring the Satelles team "in-house," to the Iridium family."
STL will become a new business line of Iridium, led by Satelles CEO, Dr. Michael O'Connor who will report to Iridium CEO, Matt Desch. "Bringing STL into the Iridium family is going to be a supercharger for this capability that will benefit our customers and our society. I look forward to a bright future together," said O'Connor.
Iridium is assuming all rights to the Satelles patent portfolio and anticipates the Iridium STL line of business will generate over $100 million in service revenue per year by 2030.
In other recent satellite news:
- SpaceX is seeking permission from the FCC to put more of its gen2 satellites at a lower orbit in order to provide lower-latency services.
- Starlink has launched in Mongolia, but discussions to launch in Vietnam have been put on hold.
- Cruiseliner firm MSC Cruises has equipped two-thirds of its fleet with Starlink onboard terminals; the rest of the fleet will be fitted out by May.
- Shipping company Seaven has deployed OneWeb connectivity onto its Seaven-Pride vessel.
- Lynk is to provide direct-to-cell services to Turkey in partnership with Turkcell. Lynk recently conducted a successful trial demonstration in Argentina with Telefonica.
- Verizon isn’t currently interested in its own direct-to-cell satellite service as it doesn’t see the demand and doesn’t want to give up its terrestrial spectrum for the service.
- Thaicom has ordered a GEO satellite from Astranis to launch in 2025. Astranis recently announced its Arcturus satellite will be temporarily moved from Alaska to Asia for use by Israeli satellite operator Spacecom.
- Arabsat is partnering with Telesat to use the latter’s Lightspeed LEO network. Avanti is also partnering with Telesat to use its Lightspeed fleet.
- Inmarsat has signed a deal with oil firm Aramco for satellite connectivity in the Arabian Gulf.
- SES is working with Colombian firm Inred to connect 300 remote sites with WiFi via the SES-17 and SES-14 satellites.
- Avanti has secured authorization to place a satellite gateway for its Hylas 4 machine in Senegal.
- An ASTSpaceMobile gateway has been installed on a Nairobi rooftop by Safaricom PLC and Vodafone.
- Intelsat is providing backup satellite connectivity to several customers affected by the recent Red Sea cable outage. It has also signed a deal with Telkom’s Openserve to provide connectivity to 900 sites in South Africa. The company is also working with Africa Mobile Network in Madagascar to serve around 500 sites.
- Lockheed Martin is looking to acquire satellite maker Terran Orbital.
- Boeing has been awarded a $439 million contract for a US military communications satellite known as WGS-12, which is set to be delivered in 2029.
- Broadcast service firm Levira has acquired satellite communication provider AA-SAT.
- Aldoria has announced a project agreement with SES on a conjunction alert service.
