MCLEAN, Va. - Iridium Communications Inc. in McLean, Va., has introduced the Iridium 9604, a compact three-in-one Internet of Things (IoT) module that integrates the company’s Iridium Short Burst Data service, LTE-M cellular connectivity, and global navigation satellite system positioning into a single platform.
The company said combining satellite, cellular, and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) capabilities in one device is intended to reduce design complexity, lower bill-of-materials costs, and accelerate time to market for dual-mode IoT deployments.
"By integrating cellular, GNSS, and Iridium satellite into a single, power-efficient module, we’re giving customers the flexibility to design and deploy lower cost, smaller, power-efficient, and location-aware solutions without the burden of integrating multiple components," said Tim Last, executive vice president at Iridium. "With our best-in-class proprietary satellite IoT service and upcoming standards-based NB-IoT service debuting this year, anyone thinking about IoT beyond terrestrial networks is thinking about Iridium first."
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Iridium said its 9604 beta program, launched earlier this year, was oversubscribed and generated feedback citing lower costs, simplified design, and savings of 60 percent or more in board space compared to multi-component approaches. The company described the 9604 as its smallest IoT module to date.
The module integrates Iridium’s Short Burst Data service with LTE-M and GNSS on a single board built on the u-blox SARA-R5 platform. The device measures 16 millimeters by 26 millimeters by 2.4 millimeters and is designed for industrial, infrastructure, and mobility applications that require both terrestrial and satellite connectivity.
"As an early Iridium 9604 developer, utilizing the three-in-one module has already fundamentally changed our product economics," said Alastair MacLeod, CEO of Ground Control. "We eliminated two components from our bill of materials, reduced our board size, and simplified our power architecture."
MacLeod added that dual-mode connectivity enables location-aware network selection within applications, turning what would have been a multi-component design into a single-module solution.
Dean Welten, CEO of Everlink, said integrating the 9604 with the company’s secure cloud platform enables global connectivity and real-time data access for customers operating worldwide.
Iridium said the 9604 represents an expansion of its IoT strategy beyond satellite-only modules to a multi-mode connectivity architecture. In addition to the 9604, the company offers Iridium NTN Direct for standards-based direct-to-device connectivity using third-party chipsets and an Iridium Messaging Transport service for larger payload applications with the Iridium Certus 9704 terminal.
