From Closed to Open Source: Revolutionizing the Satellite Industry with Ian Itz, Director of IoT at Iridium

Over the Air · 29 Feb 2024 · 22m

What this episode covers

Ian Itz, Director of IoT at Iridium, explains the company's strategic pivot from a proprietary, closed-ecosystem satellite model to an open-source, standards-based approach leveraging Arduino and NB-IoT. He details how Iridium's legacy 66-satellite constellation supports global IoT data, noting that their previous 'Swiss army knife' modules were over-engineered for developers, prompting a shift to simpler, open-standard hardware. Itz also discusses the high capital barriers of satellite infrastructure, contrasting Iridium's narrowband focus with Starlink's broadband model, and highlights partners like Geoforce who build robust, long-life asset tracking devices for the oil and gas industry.

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