Satellite IoT market predicted to hit $5.9bn by 2025

The report, “Satellite IoT Forecast 2019-2025”, also expects that the number of satellite IoT devices deployed globally will rise from an estimated 2.5 million to 30.3 million by 2025 – a compound average grow rate (CAGR) of just under 40 per cent. The author, Rethink’s principal analyst Alex Davies, predicts that a major jump in the number of deployed devices will occur in 2021, as the initial wave of startups begin launching their constellations and supporting live customers. After this initial bump and a slowdown in 2022, he expects there to be a period of prolonged growth, that will begin to flatten off around 2027, due to the rise of terrestrial rivals to satellite IoT connectivity, coupled with improvements in fixed and local networks which can act as alternatives.

Davies highlights the fact that the cost of entry into this market has become much smaller due to improvements launch technologies and satellite miniaturisation – a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite can now weigh less than two shoeboxes. He also makes the point that should a start-up fail, it will add to the Earth’s cloud of orbiting space junk, as it is not clear how easy it would be for another operator to take over their satellite constellation in such circumstances.