France and China launch satellite constellations for IoT

Two countries are forging ahead with their satellite connectivity initiatives for the Internet of Things (IoT). In France, the operator Kinéis is launching Europe’s first dedicated IoT constellation made up of 25 nano-satellites. In China, four new satellites were launched at the end of May. According to the South China Morning Post, by the end of the year the Chinese Tianqi constellation will have 38 small satellites for smart device connectivity, with expansion planned to include military applications.

In the French scenario, the launch of Kinéis’ first five satellites into orbit is scheduled to take place on 18 June 2024 from New Zealand. This launch phase comes four years after the company raised €100 million in funding. This will be the 50th launch of the Electron, owned by the American company of New Zealand origin Rocket Lab, which has been operating regular flights with this vehicle since 2017.

The launches needed to deploy the Kinéis constellation are scheduled to take place between June 2024 and early 2025. According to the company, this is a first for the French space sector. With the future constellation of 25 nano-satellites, Kinéis intends to connect objects anywhere in the world, including black spots, and transmit data almost in real time.

Kinéis operates in the global market, with subsidiaries in the United States, Brazil and Singapore, in areas that pose major challenges, such as natural risk prevention, agricultural activities, infrastructure and power grid monitoring, transport and logistics, commercial maritime operations and science.

Chinese case

The Chinese Tianqi constellation is being built and operated by Guodian Gaoke, a private Chinese commercial space company and IoT solutions provider based in Beijing. The four Tianqi 25-28 satellites were launched by the Galactic Energy  rocket company from a mobile platform off the coast of Shandong province in eastern China, towards an orbit 850 kilometres from the Earth’s surface.

Compared to the two dozen Tianqi satellites already in orbit, the latest batch has more stability and higher communication speeds with global coverage of 10 minutes, according to Guodian Gaoke.

According to the Global Times, the Tianqi constellation is currently being used in agriculture, emergency response, tourism, water resources, electricity, oil, marine, ecological environment and smart cities, among other sectors. It is also advancing in the consumer electronics segment, such as mobile phones, cars, wearable devices and emergency kits.

Going beyond launching satellites, Guodian Gaoke has been granted a licence by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to conduct space radio business through its satellite constellation, in a move that should support China’s commercial aerospace development. The ministry also told the newspaper that it intends to further optimise the use of satellite radio frequency and orbital resources in order to boost China’s satellite-based IoT ecosystem.

Starlink’s competitor

In addition to Guodian Gaoke, other Chinese initiatives are developing satellite constellations for the Internet of Things (IoT). One of them, the project known as Guo Wang, was established in 2021 and can be seen as China’s response to Starlink. Speculation about the motives behind the financing of this project is diverse, including Chinese expansion over the African continent. The constellation is expected to add up to 13,000 satellites. Guo Wang is led by the SatNet company, created by SASAC (China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission).

One of the reasons why the Guo Wang project may now be gaining importance is the success of Starlink. Despite its successful track record, Elon Musk’s company has not yet achieved complete global coverage, and that may be where China’s focus may lie: conquering part of an untapped market, in particular large areas of Africa that do not yet enjoy Starlink’s services.

In addition to the commercial opportunity, the Guo Wang project can work in rural areas of the African continent and thus help to exercise what is known as soft power in international politics, i.e. the ability to co-opt rather than coerce, shaping preferences. Thus, in the future, African countries will tend to opt for the Chinese satellite constellation for Internet access, rather than Western providers.

GPS competitor

A Global Times story also highlighted the rapid transformation of China’s commercial aerospace sector, which is embracing growing business opportunities beyond the Internet of Things. The China Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Location-Based Services (LBS) Association issued a document last May discussing the development of China’s satellite navigation and positioning services industry, which reached a value of US$74.2 billion by 2023, an increase of 7.09 per cent on the previous year.

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), a domestic satellite navigation system developed in China and a direct competitor to the GPS developed by the US government’s Department of Defence, had an average daily use of more than 600 billion times in 2023, according to the report. Last year, sales of devices equipped with the Chinese system exceeded 400 million units, of which 276 million were smartphones, in line with the rapid digital transformation of various sectors of activity.

In December, China launched two new satellites for use by BDS-3 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province in southwest China.