Globalstar empowers its customers to connect, transmit and communicate in smarter ways – easily, quickly, securely, and affordably – offering reliable satellite and terrestrial connectivity services as an international telecom infrastructure provider and technology disruptor.
Interview with Gavan Murphy, Director of Marketing EMEA and APAC, Globalstar.
Easy Engineering: A brief description of the company and its activities.
Gavan Murphy: Globalstar is a mobile satellite services company which was founded in 1991. Our technology connects people every day through reliable satellite communications over our exceptionally clear and secure next-generation satellite network in Low-Earth Orbit. Globalstar satellites provide reliability and operability worldwide, connecting users in areas where traditional networks are unreliable or unavailable. Our satellite product portfolio equips organisations of all kinds with voice and data services, Commercial IoT and SPOT Business tracking and messaging products that enable valuable assets to be tracked and ensure the safety of workers. We serve a multitude of commercial and non-commercial organisations, including governments, humanitarian relief agencies, and others, as well as outdoor enthusiasts. All these users recognise that whenever their activities take them beyond the reach of cellular networks or other terrestrial communications systems, only satellite technology can provide trustworthy and ubiquitous connectivity.
E.E: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
G.M: Globalstar serves a wide range of sectors; these include companies involved in Energy and other utilities, Agriculture, Forestry, Government/Public Safety/Military, Transportation, Construction, Commercial Maritime industries, amongst others, with ubiquitous satellite communications to stay connected with their personnel and assets.
E.E: What’s the news about new products/services?
G.M: Our latest news, in April 2024, Globalstar announced the 10,000th rescue worldwide, including some in which lives were saved, made possible through Globalstar satellite devices.
In 2023 Globalstar introduced the GSatSolar to its suite of IoT products. Low-cost and simple to integrate, GSatSolar is a small and rugged satellite IoT tracker ideal for wildlife monitoring and livestock tracking –
Also in 2023, Globalstar licensed XCOM Labs Technology.
E.E: What are the ranges of products/services?
G.M: Our two-way duplex, one-way Commercial IoT and SPOT products transmit more than 1.8 billion messages annually, tracking and monitoring assets, connecting IoT devices, and saving lives in 200+ countries. These include:
SPOT – Satellite enabled communications, safety, and emergency SOS, whenever, wherever
Globalstar’s compact and cost-effective SPOT family of satellite GPS messengers provide reliable, near-global coverage thanks to Globalstar’s next-generation Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network. Always-on connectivity and real-time tracking capabilities are assured, even in remote or challenging environments where traditional telecom networks may be unavailable.
With SPOT, users can instantly transmit their GPS location via satellite, and check in with colleagues, friends and family using SPOT’s messaging function. With SPOT’s one-touch SOS button, faced with an emergency, users can summon colleagues or first responders via SPOT’s 24/7 Search and Rescue Services. Globalstarrecently marked the milestone of the 10,000th rescue made possible by Globalstar devices, including SPOT.
SPOT Gen4 was designed for outdoor recreation, and has been embraced by adventure enthusiasts whose activities take them beyond reliable mobile network coverage. Its always-on, ubiquitous tracking and user-centric functionality make SPOT Gen4 an increasingly popular companion for outdoorspeople of all kinds, delivering peace of mind to users, their friends and family, all over the world.
SPOT X offers two-way SMS and email messaging as well as GPS tracking and one-touch SOS. SPOT X is the only satellite messenger on the market to give users free incoming messages, easy check-in function and a full, backlit QWERTY keypad for intuitive typing. SPOT X also offers the industry’s longest battery life in both tracking and SOS modes.
SPOT devices have also seen dramatic increases in uptake by a diversity of organisational customers. For a professional user such as a lone or at-risk worker, SPOT devices can be configured to transmit alerts to an organisation’s operations or security centre.
Realm Enablement Suite for satellite asset tracking with data processing at the edge
Realm Enablement Suite is Globalstar’s portfolio of Commercial IoT satellite asset tracking hardware and software solutions featuring a powerful application enablement platform for processing smart data at the edge. With Realm, innovators can bring new solutions to market faster with AI-enabled applications that generate an advanced level of telematics data. By defining smart data at the edge, users send only the data they need over Globalstar’s satellite network to the customer endpoint – significantly reducing transmission costs. More information can be found here.
Integrity 150 is the first solar-powered satellite asset tracking device that utilises data processing at the edge. Revolutionary open source common architecture allows you to quickly configure and develop custom AI-driven applications that transmit smart data from the edge.
ST150M modem enables fast application development and integration. Engineered with open source common architecture, the ST150M offers a simplified design with the latest hardware and software capabilities to support the most demanding development requirements.
Realm lets companies check location and status of equipment or cargo in near real-time, export data into their applications and accurately track data for granular, accurate billing. Onboard power and movement sensors can, for example, gather and report engine runtime accumulation and validate equipment operation to enable more cost-effective maintenance and greater uptime. Gains in productivity, additional revenue, maintenance costs, and uptime can be transformative.
E.E: What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
G.M: The Mobile Satellite Services market is booming! We’re seeing increasing levels of uptake of our suite of IoT and SPOT solutions across multiple industries and geographies, especially in dynamic and emerging markets like Southeast Asia and Africa as well as more established markets, like North America and Europe.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
G.M: The definition of terrestrial and satellite is blurring. We are seeing more and more demand from customers for a dual-mode solution looking to mesh, both mobile and satellite, in the event their GSM network provider hits a black spot or experiences an outage.
E.E: What are the most innovative products/services marketed?
G.M: We have seen considerable success with our SPOT solutions from industries such as forestry, construction, engineering and maritime for lone worker monitoring and safety. We have also seen demand from the agriculture sector for our IoT solutions for monitoring of sheep, reindeer and cattle across locations like Norway, Kazakhstan and Mongolia for example.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2024?
G.M: We expect to continue to see ever more diverse deployments of our satellite IoT technology, with further innovations emerging from our creative and dedicated value added reseller network. Also, we anticipate that more organisations will realise the many benefits of deploying SPOT technology for ubiquitous worker protection and asset optimisation.