MIIT approves Geespace's commercial trial of satellite IoT services, the first private satellite company to receive one

On 20 August the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced it had approved Zhejiang Geespace Technology to conduct a commercial trial of satellite IoT services for a two-year period. Geespace will use phase one of the Geely Future Mobility Constellation to provide wide-coverage, low-power, high-reliability IoT connectivity for smart transport, marine fisheries, energy and water management. MIIT said the aim is to help satellite IoT reach scale, and that it is an important step in widening private companies' access to satellite communications.

According to Kuai Technology and other media, this is China's second commercial-trial licence for satellite IoT after Beijing Guodian Gaoke's, and the first granted to a private space company. Geespace has 64 satellites in orbit against a phase-one plan of 72, to be completed by end-2026; according to PEdaily, the current constellation can handle about 3.4 billion communication requests a day and serve about 2 million users, rising to 4.5 billion requests a day once all 72 satellites are deployed. The company works with more than 20 overseas telecom operators and has cumulative orders above RMB 100 million.

Our take: a commercial-trial licence moves a private constellation from 'technology validation' to 'licensed operation', and China's satellite IoT market now has two licensed operators side by side. But the actual user numbers and revenue during the two-year trial are what will show whether the business closes the loop commercially.