Iridium Communications, jockeying with US rival Orbcomm at the top of the satellite IoT market, has struck a deal with machinery manufacturer Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG) to connect its heavy equipment in global markets, including its excavators, loaders, and crane trucks. XCMG makes heavy equipment for the construction and mining industries, with major operations in Africa, Australia, Latin America, and Central and Southeast Asia.
XCMG will use Iridium’s IoT network and services, based on its own low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, to maintain critical connectivity with its machinery in key locations, a statement said. Specifically, it is taking the US firm’s Iridium Edge satellite IoT terminal as a complement to terrestrial-based cellular connectivity. XCMG can rapidly deploy the “plug-and-play” Iridium terminals on its equipment, starting with its fleet of excavators, in order to gain data insights about their condition and performance.
The addition of satellite IoT will also help the China firm to save on development costs and time to market, according to the duo. Six months ago, Berg Insight placed Iridium Communications at the top of the satellite IoT pile, in terms of subscriber connections – leading from Orbcomm, Inmarsat, and Globalstar – based on strong growth in the year of 21 percent. Twelve months prior, the same firm said Orbcomm had the lead (with 1.2 million satellite IoT subscribers at the end of 2020), from Iridium (with 1.1 million) and Globalstar (with 0.4 million).
Iridium said its commercial IoT subscriber base had grown by 19 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2023, compared to the year-ago period, reaching 1.578 million customers. Its LEO constellation operates at 780 kilometres above the earth, compared with most geostationary orbiting (GEO) satellites at 35,000 kilometres. As context, the number of cellular IoT subscribers increased by 22 percent during 2021 to reach 2.1 billion, according to older data from Berg Insight.
Matt Desch, chief executive at Iridium, said: “As a world class OEM, XCMG continues to demonstrate their forward-thinking approach and innovation in the heavy equipment industry. By leveraging Iridium’s truly global, weather-resilient satellite connectivity on their machinery, XCMG is enabling a better user experience with advanced, cutting-edge solutions to their customers worldwide.”
