MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – The pieces are falling into place for Silicon Valley startup Skylo’s internet-of-things network.
“2023 has been the year of forming and seeding partnerships,” Parth Trivedi, Skylo CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews at Satellite Innovation 2023 here. “You will find 2024 is the year when the network really starts to scale.”
In recent months, Skylo has established partnerships with chipset manufacturers, satellite fleet operators and telecommunications providers.
“We have partnerships now with every major chipset company,” including MediaTek, Qualcomm, Samsung and Sony Semiconductors, Trivedi said.
The Samsung deal, announced Oct. 5, provides access to Skylo’s network from Exynos 5G chipsets.
“Now, we will have to sign deals with original equipment manufacturers to make sure they enable the service,” Trivedi said. “But it’s fundamentally present in the chipset.”
Through partnerships with Viasat and Inmarsat, Skylo has access to spectrum for global coverage.
To date, Skylo has limited service to the United States and Europe, because “we are being mindful around where we are receiving customer demand,” Trivedi said. Next, Skylo will begin offering service in the Asia-Pacific region.
Since Skylo was founded in 2017, the company has focused on building the software infrastructure for nonterrestrial-network direct-to-device service. In addition, Skylo built a mobile network operator to connect with terrestrial telecommunications partners including Deutsche Telekom, NTT subsidiary Transatel and Telefónica.
“Our thesis was there were many different satellites coming online and the bottleneck was going to be how seamless is this service relative to your cellular experience,” Trivedi said. “All these interconnects are needed to make that user experience seamless, whether it’s from a roaming perspective or whether it’s from a billing perspective.”
