Vodafone. Photo: Rama Knight Photographer, via Vodafone Flickr

Vodafone IoT plans to integrate Iridium’s direct-to-device (D2D) offering into its offering, the companies announced Tuesday. 

Through this partnership, Vodafone IoT will gain access to Iridium NTN Direct, which is planned for commercial launch in 2026. Iridium NTN Direct is a 3GPP standards-based service for narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) that operates over Iridium’s satellite network. 

The partners will go through integration and testing and plan to launch a full commercial service for customers across the globe. The companies said the service will support use cases like data messaging, tracking, and real-time monitoring for IoT, automotive, and industrial devices, particularly for industries in remote areas like wind farms, oil pipelines, shipping tracking and emergency services.

“We are extremely excited to announce this new partnership with Iridium, which opens the door to a new generation of IoT connectivity. By using direct-to-device satellite connectivity, new and existing customers will benefit from truly global coverage – meaning they can reliably connect their devices in corners of the world where they can’t today,” commented Vodafone IoT CEO Erik Brenneis. 

Deutsche Telekom has also signed on to integrate Iridium NTN Direct into its IoT offering, as well as decentralized telecom network Karrier One.