Mike O’Connor
Satelles, which developed the Satellite Time and Location (STL) system, recently became part of Iridium, which already owned a large share of the company. I spoke with Michael O’Connor, previously Satelles’ CEO, who is now Executive Vice President of Iridium’s PNT Division.
Besides the ownership change, has anything changed in your organization?
What was the Satelles business is now part of the broader Iridium company. We’ve been partnered very closely with Iridium since the genesis of Satelles more than a decade ago. It really made strategic sense to become a part of Iridium. The industry is clearly at an inflection point. We don’t have to look too far to understand that the mainstream is catching on to the things that you have been writing about for years. Now, people are realizing what’s actually happening. Various users — especially those near conflict areas — are starting to truly experience jamming and spoofing events. The world is starting to recognize that there’s a need for solutions. The U.S. Department of Transportation has just come out with a complementary PNT plan. They put out a request for a quotation recently to engage the industry.
Companies like ours, and others in the industry who have been developing solutions to this problem for many years, will finally start to see traction with customers. We just signed an agreement with L3 Harris to roll out GNSS augmentation or complementary PNT for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to networks. Not just industry, but also the U.S. government is now taking steps to implement the resilience that’s needed to protect critical infrastructure. So, the timing is good.
Does being now fully part of Iridium give you any additional access to the company’s satellite network?
We will be rolling out, over time, some additional capabilities and expanded service areas. We will be announcing ways in which, by integrating the companies, we can expand more quickly into new geographic areas, providing additional signal coverage in areas where Satelles had not previously been able to do so. As Satelles, we were very focused on timing and national critical infrastructure. Iridium’s business lines align with some of the directions in which Satelles was already intending to grow in any case — such as maritime, internet of things (IoT) and possibly even someday aviation. There are areas where we will be able to expand our reach much more quickly than we ever would have been able to do as a standalone company.
STL makes indoor positioning possible because the signal is much stronger due to Iridium’s satellites’ much lower orbit than that of GPS satellites, correct?
Exactly right. It’s really about the signal power. Part of it is being closer to Earth, part of it is that we are on a channel that was dedicated to paging, back when people had pagers on their belts and was designed with a higher power signal than the Iridium satellites’ two-way voice and data channels. Additionally, we’ve designed the signal itself to also have some coding gain. So, all those things ultimately increase the receive sensitivity of a receiver by about 30 dB, which makes the signal 1,000 times stronger.
In the mix of complementary PNT options and systems, what are your system’s strengths?
There is no single silver bullet solution to complementary PNT. We can offer our solution, but different applications have different needs, for sure. What Iridium offers with the Iridium STL service is a system that’s available today to protect critical infrastructure — we’ve been delivering this to customers, we have thousands of users; it’s available globally — we effectively have a global license, a global capability, a global satellite constellation. We also have the distinct advantage of a high-power signal that can reach places where GNSS cannot. So, we focus on applications for which we can offer some unique value. A lot of that is based on the underlying Iridium satellite network. A long time ago, Iridium secured global rights for the L-band spectrum. Besides being in LEO, the network has inter-satellite links that enable it to cover the whole world from a finite, manageable set of ground monitoring sites.
Because of all these aspects of its network, Iridium can offer something unique in the industry. Other solutions have different advantages and disadvantages. There is a breadth of solutions across the industry. All these entities are trying to solve the same important problem. Different users of PNT and different users who have a need for complementary PNT will see the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions out there. So, we like that there’s a thriving ecosystem of solution providers.
Iridium Communications will provide its Satellite Time and Location (STL) service to more than three dozen L3Harris-operated communications network backbone nodes and a similar number of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities throughout the United States. (Image: Iridium)
Regarding markets, end users and user applications, what’s your focus?
Our focus today is very much around timing and national critical infrastructure. We are in that market today, but it is one where we also see the greatest growth. We already have several partners who are selling products into those markets — including Adtran Oscilloquartz, VIAVI and Safran — and products available today. That market is just starting to recognize the need for complementary PNT and accelerate its adoption.
Our primary focus today is making those customers successful with our solutions. Looking at new market opportunities, we are exploring the next products and markets we will pursue, but it is likely to be in an area that overlaps with those in which Iridium already has great partners and customers to which we can provide additional value. Maritime is a good example. Aviation may be a longer sales cycle. It would be speculating as to what that next big market will be because right now we are very focused on that initial market.
As far as timing for critical infrastructure — cell phone towers, electrical distribution, data centers, etc. — are your boxes replacing the previous ones or sitting next to them?
They can do either. The products that our partners offer include GNSS plus STL, so it can replace the GNSS-only solution in those systems. A lot depends on the customer and the application, of course. Our partner would provide a solution that includes GNSS plus STL; it typically would replace a GNSS-only solution and provide resilience by having a complementary PNT capability.
The solutions we’re providing to the FAA are not on-aircraft solutions. They are ground infrastructure solutions that keep the integrity of the ground networks, which are of course Safety of Life critical to the operation of our national airspace. We are providing the timing solution for the FAA within that data center infrastructure.
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