Luxembourg-based OQ Technology and GovSat are jointly developing satellite-based IoT and M2M products aimed at defence and government sectors.

OQ Technology is satellite 5G IoT company and GovSat is a joint venture between the Luxembourg government and satellite operator SES. They have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on developing and testing military IoT products.

By combining OQ Technology’s 5G products and services with GovSat’s end-to-end satcom offerings, already supporting customers such as Nato, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Belgium Navy, the companies aim to offer scalable applications for air, land and maritime missions across the world.

Users of these future applications will benefit from access to real-time 5G IoT coverage, dedicated geostationary (GEO) capabilities, specialised frequencies and licences, and a wider footprint of multiple beams.

“To successfully provide 5G IoT and machine communication to critical satcom applications in the defence and the government sector, it became evident that we had to partner with a specialised GEO operator,” said Omar Qaise, CEO of OQ Technology. “GovSat, due to its application know-how and experience of delivering secure, non-preemptible, reliable and accessible satellite communication services, is the perfect partner to achieve this.”

OQ Technology will provide user terminals, satellite hub equipment and remote management capabilities. The company will also redesign its satellite IoT user terminal to fit the GovSat frequency band, and it’ll upgrade the antenna of its user terminal.

In return, GovSat will give OQ Technology access to its satellite capacity, operate the satellite hub infrastructure and provide uplink services.

GovSat’s coverage is critical for government customers and Nato operations. Its reach spreads Europe, the Middle East, Africa and south-west Asia with maritime coverage for the Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean and Indian Oceans. Its high-powered fully-steerable spot beams in X- and Mil Ka-Band, and a global X-Band beam, in addition to a secure service hub, assure secure operations and resilient satcom capabilities.

Since a demonstration in 2019, OQ Technology has been working on its patent-pending technology to provide global 5G IoT coverage, initially using a low earth orbit nanosatellites constellation. Following the launch of its Tiger-2 satellite onboard the SpaceX Transporter-2 mission in July, the company is now offering commercial 5G IoT services for IoT applications for environmental monitoring and agriculture, logistics, maritime, smart metering, mining, and oil and gas.