← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
Rethinking industrial IoT from space.
00:17:29
On Deep Space, Maria Varmazis speaks with ORBCOMM's Dave Roscoe about their industrial satellite network.
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Maria Varmazes
Hi everybody and Happy Mother's Day to my fellow moms out here in the United States. I hope you're having a great Sunday now. For the past few weeks or so I've been mentioning that our show, T Minus is going through a little bit of a transformation. You might recall now, our show used to be daily and now we're weekly. That is part of that transformation. And our focus in the space domain is also sharpening, you might say. And next week on May 17, we are officially unveiling our new vision for T Minus. In the meantime, I'm very grateful to all of you who've been sticking with us these past few weeks while we've been hard at work behind the scenes. Please pardon our dust and I cannot wait to share with you what's next starting next week. But until then, Today is May 10, 2026. I'm Maria Varmazas and this is T Minus. My conversation today is with Dave Roscoe, president of satellite IoT for ORBCOM and Skywave. We started with the rollout of ORBCOMM's latest purpose built industrial satellite IoT network and how decreasing connectivity and device costs have broadened the possibilities of where and how and even why IoT devices can be used with satellite network providers prioritizing direct to device connectivity even in really challenging situations. It may be time to rethink prior assumptions about what what's possible and practical when it comes to industrial and mission critical iot. Here's more on that in my conversation with Dave Roscoe.
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Dave Roscoe
So I'm Dave Roscoe. I'm being with Orbcom for the last 10 years. I'm part of the executive management team within the company and also legacy have been in the satellite IoT industry for the last 28 years and I've been part of a team that's developed and implemented and deployed three satellite networks. Now our latest one we just rolled out in 2024 called OGX and these satellite networks are purpose built specifically for industrial satellite IoT applications. So I've been in this particular industry for quite a while and it's certainly evolved over the last 28 years that I've been in. And what's a probably the most exciting now is that we are literally probably at a point in the business and basically on the technology where the opportunity is the greatest it's ever been in the sense that, you know, when you talk about satellite connectivity, 20 years ago, people would cringe because all they could think about was the dollar signs associated with satellite communications. And with all the innovations that have happened over the last couple of decades, prices have gone down in terms of connectivity, prices have come down quite a bit in terms of the devices. And now it's an affordable technology that can be implemented by a lot of companies who are trying to undertake solutions in this IoT sector.
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Maria Varmazes
Well, fantastic, Dave, it is indeed a really interesting time and thank you so much for joining me. And we'll start with the Orbcom news that you all launched Skywave. If you could tell me a bit about that, please.
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Dave Roscoe
Yeah, so it is pretty exciting for us because when you look at Orbcom as a company legacy, Orbcom was a pioneer in satellite IoT launching one of the first IoT specific satellite networks about 30 years ago. And Orbcom entered into this industry as a pure provider of connectivity, satellite connectivity. And over the years, Orbcom has grown through acquisition of 13 companies in six years. And all these companies are components to IoT type of capabilities and solutions. And so over the years, Orbcom has evolved to be a company, an IoT company, an IoT company that provides complete IoT solutions so far beyond just connectivity. And with that, that's one of the reasons that we've branded the satellite IoT or the IoT business within Orcom as Skywave, because Skywave is the portion of the business that provides not just connectivity of satellite, but connectivity with cellular. We're in MVNOs 7 tier 1 cellular providers. So we provide the cellular and satellite connectivity. We provide complete device portfolio from modules to programmable terminals. We provide automation platforms for remote device management, data management, billing systems and an application environment. So with our products and services, we have an application environment embedded within our programmable terminals. And this allows our end customers to develop embedded solutions, their own software applications and embed them in the satellite terminal. So we provide all that infrastructure as well.
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Maria Varmazes
That sounds like a really interesting differentiator from the sort of the commercial directed device. I mean, obviously it's one of the many differentiators There. But I'm thinking a lot of the news that I often hear about satellite IoT is often in the commercial realm. But you all are specifically focusing on industrial and I think that is a really interesting differentiator and I would love to hear a bit about that strategy for you all. And it sounds like it's a play on an existing strength, but pursuing that even further seems like a really interesting move and I'm wondering if you can tell me a bit more about that.
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Dave Roscoe
Yeah, and that's really the. When you look at industrial IoT applications, we are looking at applications that are mission critical. You have to, you, you need that information to get, get communicated right. And so and in a timely manner. And this is this, this is a strength of or comment Skywave is that our satellite networks and the last one that we rolled out, ogx, is purpose built for ensuring that we have a reliable, robust satellite delivery system to support mission critical applications. So you know, you're looking at applications if you're monitoring, you know, oil pipeline and you're monitoring pressure within that pipeline and if that triggers an alarm, you need to make sure that that message gets transmitted so that, you know, the people in, in the operations center can take appropriate action in terms of how to manage that situation on that oil pipeline, which is very different. So when I say mission critical, it's very different from say a consumer application. Well, you know, you're looking at a text or something like that and you know whether it gets through, whether it doesn't get through, maybe not that, not that critical. But for a lot of these industrial applications having that reliability and the robustness operating in, you know, temperature conditions and environmental conditions that are, you know, probably the toughest out there, whether on rail cars or heavy equipment and temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius or in the deserts at plus 85, you have to have robust devices that are going to work in these extreme conditions as well.
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Maria Varmazes
We'll be right back.
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Maria Varmazes
And I'm wondering, as I know we're talking about the current state of things, I'm curious also about the future because to me, even just the capabilities that we're capable of now are quite amazing, just to put it mildly. And I'm wondering where do you see things going, especially in industrial D to
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D, you know, in the next five years or so?
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Dave Roscoe
Well, there's, and that's kind of interesting because what we've seen and literally over the last, I think over the last year, you see this attention to more, I'll call it integration between cellular and satellite applications.
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Maria Varmazes
Right?
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Yep.
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Dave Roscoe
And when you look at the interesting thing is that that has always been our game plan, if you look at, you know, Orbcom as we, you know, prior to launching the Skywave, is that we have always focused on both cellular and satellite connectivity. And we have our devices, we have devices that provide both those services. So we've been always, our strategy always has been to a level of integration between satellite and terrestrial. And you know, now we're seeing it kind of on stage right now with direct to device has really come to play last year, this year. And that's the type of services that we provide right now today is equivalent to direct to device capabilities. And we've evolved and also our company is a company of innovation. Right. We constantly evolve a our satellite networks, but also our devices. And we just launched, and actually today we launched our SD4000, which is a dual mode software defined module so it can switch between cellular and satellite in a single module to provide that ubiquitous coverage on your application. And again, when you're looking at mission critical, you need to have that ubiquitous coverage. So if you're relying on, you know, for cost effective implementations, you know, you might be operating on cellular first and then have a fallback to satellite, but you have to have that fallback. If you don't, then you're not going to have a reliable product.
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Maria Varmazes
All right, well Dave, I know we're coming up on time and I want to be respectful of the time that you've given me. So I'm going to give you the last word. I always like to give my guests last word. So if there's anything I missed that you wanted to make sure the audience hears about, or anything at all, I
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want to give you the floor.
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Dave Roscoe
All right, well, thank you. I think what I'd like to add, you know, to wrap up, is with the evolution of our technology and our business and with the launching of Skywave. So Skywave is the business within orcom, which is 100% focused on enabling our solution providers, which is our customers, to develop IoT applications. And we provide all the components to enable that application development. From devices to platforms to connectivity, we provide all that with that comprehensive development environment and a complete technical team available to support our customers to assist in their development. But the whole idea and the whole drive around this is that we have that 100% focus and that with all of our technology and products, is that we can enable solutions to be developed in a matter of weeks as opposed to in the past. It's been months or years to actually develop these applications, and we've tooled ourselves to enable a very quick development cycle so to get to market much quicker for our customers, our solution providers.
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Maria Varmazes
Excellent.
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Well, Dave, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for taking the
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time to speak with me and thank
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you for sharing your expertise.
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I greatly appreciate it.
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Dave Roscoe
All right, well, thank you very much, Marie. I really appreciate it. Foreign.
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Maria Varmazes
That's T minus Deep Space brought to you by N2K CyberWire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like our show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app or you can send an email to space2k.com we're proud that N2K CyberWire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector. From the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies, N2K helps space and cybersecurity professionals grow, learn and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, technology and ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how@n2k.com N2K's lead producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester, with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eibin. Peter Kilpe is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. See you next week. Sa.
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