Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), in partnership with Skylotech India (Skylo), on Thursday announced a breakthrough in satellite-based narrow band-Internet of things (NB-IoT) starting with fishermen, farmers, construction, mining and logistics enterprises.
“Industries, including agriculture, Railways and fisheries, have been operating offline, and have not had the opportunity to take full advantage of the latest advancements in AI & IoT– until today. This is the world’s first satellite-based NB-IoT network,” Parthsarathi Trivedi, Chief Executive and Co-founder, Skylo, said.
BSNL said in a statement, this new ‘Made in India’ solution, which is indigenously developed by Skylo, will connect with BSNL’s satellite ground infrastructure. The coverage will be so vast that it will not leave any dark patch within the boundary of India, from Kashmir & Ladakh to Kanyakumari, and from Gujarat to the North East, including the Indian seas, .
With this solution, India will now have access to a ubiquitous fabric of connectivity for millions of yet unconnected machines, sensors and industrial IoT devices, it said.
“The solution is in line with BSNL’s vision to leverage technology to provide affordable and innovative telecom services and products across customers segments,” PK Purwar, Chairman and Managing Director, BSNL, said adding that Skylo would also help provide critical data for the logistics sector to enable effective distribution of Covid-19 vaccine in 2021 and will be a big contributor in service to the nation.
This technology has already been tested successfully in Indian Railways, fishing vessels, and enabling connected vehicles.
A small, smart, rugged box, the Skylo ‘User Terminal’ interfaces with sensors and transmits data to the Skylo Network and into people’s hands. The accompanying data platform provides an immersive, visual, experience for industry-specific applications on mobile or desktop. It gives users the ability to take immediate and appropriate action, no matter where they are.
This connectivity layer will complement smartphone-centric mobile and WiFi networks, and bring online new applications for the first time.