Sateliot and GoSpace team up to provide sensor data for private wells

Satellite communications firm Sateliot has teamed up with GoSpace to provide internet-of-things connectivity for water management.

That could enable safer drinking water for many of the 43 million people, or 15% of the U.S. population, who rely on private wells as their primary source of drinking water. That’s a very interesting application that comes from the combination of satellite-based communications and the internet of things.

Natural disasters such as floods or water contamination can jeopardize the supply of such water. In 2018, the USGS found traces of contaminants in 20% of U.S. private wells.

That’s why Sateliot, the first satellite constellation offering 5G standard connectivity from space, has teamed up with GoSpace — a space, telecom and IoT hardware company — to provide NTN NB-IoT connectivity to its Meratech sensor solution for water management.

GoSpace Meratech is an American Water Council Tech award-winning water management IoT solution, capable of monitoring the presence of contaminants in water by measuring pH acidity levels and temperature as well as water flow and its level when deployed in selected measurement points such as bridges.

Once connected with a low latency-narrowband network, like Sateliot’s 5G satellite constellation, the system pings a notification alert when unusual situations occur, serving as an early warning system in case of upcoming floods or possible water contamination.

Monitoring water wells today is a luxury for the 43 million U.S. rural inhabitants because of proprietary technology from legacy carriers. Sateliot uses the same 3GPP standard protocol, used by MNOs and MVNOs for their terrestrial cellular networks, for their nanosatellites, which benefits the final user with an affordable connectivity cost, between $1 and $5 per month per device.

Jaume Sanpera, Sateliot CEO, said in a statement, “GoSpace has an outstanding record of services in water management and monitoring in Europe, and we are proud to join their mission in the US market to improve vital water access to all Americans. Sateliot’s connectivity will provide the best service to Meratech customers, helping them monitor their wells wherever they are located and notifying them of any possible hazards.”

Sateliot is the only satellite company that connects IoT solutions worldwide under the standardized 5G NB-IoT protocol via a low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of nanosatellites. These satellites act as cell towers from space and extend cellular coverage to remote areas without extra hardware or software requirements.

Previously, the satellite industry offered only proprietary solutions, which are expensive and limited in range. Its network gives anyone with a 5G device easy, affordable access to global cellular coverage.

The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Diego, California. It has already built up a sales pipeline of more than $1 billion from companies like Schneider Electric, Atos, Sodaq, Bosch and Kuehne & Nagel. It also recently signed an agreement with Amazon Web Services to provide better and safer connectivity to Sateliot’s users.