Iridium<\/b> is taking a new approach to the direct-to-device (D2D) market after its deal with Qualcomm<\/b> ended, announcing \u201cProject Stardust\u201d on Wednesday \u2014 an upcoming 3GPP compliant D2D service for smartphones and IoT devices that operates on Iridium\u2019s existing network. <\/p>\n
The project is in its early stages; Iridium expects testing to begin in 2025, with service beginning in 2026. Iridium announced the project as an opportunity for smartphone companies, OEMs, chipmakers, mobile network operators (MNO) and IoT developers to collaborate.<\/p>\n
Stardust is different from Iridium\u2019s work with Qualcomm because it operates on 3GPP standards. The Qualcomm partnership was an exclusive Qualcomm chip that was compatible with Iridium\u2019s proprietary waveform. While it was initially pitched as the Android answer to Apple\u2019s emergency messaging via satellite, adoption didn\u2019t take off. Analysts said the lack of technology standards was a contributing factor. <\/p>\n
In a call with media on Wednesday, CEO Matt Desch said Iridium saw the Qualcomm chipset as a way for Android manufacturers to quickly deploy satellite-to-cell connectivity to compete with Apple. However, manufacturers did not want to get locked into a single chip supplier. <\/p>\n
This standards-based initiative is non-exclusive, and will offer the same type of service, along with \u201cmore long-term flexibility and assuredness that no matter what happens, [manufacturers] can move around easily,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He said Iridium is working with the standards bodies and chip suppliers to embed Iridium\u2019s frequencies into standard chipsets. It will not be exclusive to Android, and could be adopted by any chip manufacturer \u2014 whether it be for Apple\u2019s iOS, narrowband IoT devices, laptops, etc. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny OEM or smartphone, or watch, or laptop provider who wants to offer a service to connect through our network can deploy this into their devices,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s provisioned to go on our network by whoever turns it on, it will roam onto our network.\u201d <\/p>\n
The initial offering will support 5G messaging and SOS capabilities \u2014 not broadband levels of service like some other D2D players are targeting. The service could potentially be accessed via an app or embedded within the operating system, Desch said, but those details are being worked out. <\/p>\n
Desch described the engineering work for Iridium as allocating channels so Iridium\u2019s satellites can offer 180 kilohertz standardized data channels using its existing spectrum over the existing network. There are ground-based updates as well. He placed the total cost of Iridium\u2019s investment to bring Project Stardust to market within the \u201ctens of millions.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe plan to provide this service from our existing fully deployed constellation. This is a testament to the power and flexibility of the Iridium Next constellation and our ability to put new software in it to do new functions,\u201d Desch said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a trivial effort, but it\u2019s a lot less than having to build and launch new satellites, like others have to do to try to address this opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Desch held the call from the CES trade show, where he said Iridium is meeting with a number of chip manufacturers, OEMs, MNOs, and IoT developers about the project. Iridium is receiving \u201ca lot of support\u201d and enthusiasm, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fair to argue that we may be the most sure thing \u2014 with an already fully deployed network, globally approved coordinated spectrum, and all the business processes and partner development already in place,\u201d he said. \u201cOthers are more likely to be a regional service, relying on other spectrum. I think this will be complementary to those as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Desch has been skeptical about the overall size of the satellite direct-to-device market. Iridium never gave projections about revenue from the Qualcomm deal and never included it in guidance. However, in September, he did name is as a market opportunity that could help Iridium reach $1 billion in annual service revenue by 2030. On Wednesday, Desch called Project Stardust an \u201cincremental opportunity on top of our already growing and thriving business.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iridium is taking a new approach to the direct-to-device (D2D) market after its deal with Qualcomm ended, announcing \u201cProject Stardust\u201d on Wednesday \u2014 an upcoming 3GPP compliant D2D service for smartphones and IoT devices that operates on Iridium\u2019s existing network. The project is in its early stages; Iridium expects testing to begin in 2025, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}