1. Introduction: Why is a “Commercial Trial Notification” Highly Relevant to Automobiles?

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the “Notice on Organizing Satellite IoT Business Commercial Trials” (MIIT Document No. 307 [2025]), launching commercial trials for satellite IoT services nationwide (see “Read the Original”). The notice provides an authoritative definition of “satellite IoT services”: a low-speed data service that provides wide-area IoT connectivity for various devices, including data collection terminals, wearable devices, handheld terminals, as well as vehicles such as cars, ships, and airplanes, through satellite communication technology. The target audience for the commercial trials includes enterprises and institutions utilizing satellite IoT for applications, focusing on data collection and transmission users in industries such as manufacturing, transportation, energy, agriculture, and emergency services.

From the document’s attributes, it is a typical information and communication management notice; however, it has a natural business intersection with automobiles, especially commercial vehicles, engineering vehicles, port fleets, cross-border logistics fleets, and even autonomous driving operational vehicles. For the automotive industry, which heavily relies on 4G/5G vehicle networks, what exactly does a satellite IoT service defined as a “low-speed data service” aim to address? What are the essential differences from existing vehicle networks? What progress has been made abroad in the “vehicle + satellite IoT” domain? This notice effectively lays a new “foundation” for the next phase of vehicle network evolution.

2. What is Satellite IoT Service: A New “Low-Speed Wide Area” Foundation

Official Definition and Technical Features

According to the notice, satellite IoT services have several key elements:

• Carrying technology: Access provided through satellite communication systems;
• Target audience: Includes various fixed and mobile terminals, explicitly including “vehicles such as cars, ships, and airplanes”;
• Connection form: Provides “wide area, broad coverage” IoT connectivity;
• Performance positioning: Classified as “low-speed data services”, focusing more on small data packets, low-frequency reporting, long online durations, and low power consumption.

“Low-speed” does not imply “low value”. For vehicles, high-bandwidth services (in-car entertainment, high-definition video return, complex OTA) can rely on terrestrial 4G/5G networks; however, a significant amount of critical yet “lightweight” data (location, heartbeat, operational status, alarms, etc.) can be handled by the broader coverage of satellite IoT, reducing overall connection costs and complexity.

Alignment with 3GPP NTN Standards

At the technical standards level, 3GPP has officially introduced Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) related specifications in Release 17, clearly including NR over NTN and IoT over NTN scenarios, enabling the 5G system to achieve global coverage and IoT access through satellites and high-altitude platforms.

This means that satellite IoT is not an isolated system “detached from mobile communications” but can deeply integrate with existing cellular networks under unified standards, reserving compatibility space for future “ground + satellite” integrated vehicle networks.

Boundaries and Goals of the Commercial Trials

According to publicly available interpretations of the notice, this commercial trial has several key characteristics:

• Trial period: The trial lasts for two years;
• Applicant entities: Must construct satellite IoT systems and business support systems (BSS), operational support systems (OSS), and management support systems (MSS), with corresponding funding, talent, and facility conditions, as telecommunications operators;
• Target audience: Enterprises and institutions utilizing satellite IoT for applications, focusing on industries such as manufacturing, transportation, energy, agriculture, and emergency services;
• Trial goals: Enrich the supply in the satellite communication market, stimulate market vitality, enhance industry service capabilities, establish a safety supervision system, and form replicable and promotable commercial and regulatory experiences to support the safe and healthy development of emerging industries such as commercial space and low-altitude economy.

From a regulatory perspective, this is a business trial that is “opened within a controlled scope”: before formally establishing a long-term licensing system, it will first validate the feasibility of technical routes, application scenarios, business models, and safety governance arrangements through two years of practical operation.

3. The Reality of Vehicle Networks: Ground Networks Dominate, but Significant “Blind Spots” Remain

The current mainstream form of vehicle networks is a combination of “in-vehicle T-Box + 4G/5G cellular networks + Beidou/GNSS positioning”, along with short-range communications like Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. This supports remote control, OTA upgrades, online navigation and entertainment, cloud diagnostics, fleet management, C-V2X, and other vehicle/cloud applications, becoming standard for passenger cars and some commercial vehicles.

In urban roads, highways, and densely populated areas, the coverage of terrestrial cellular networks is already quite comprehensive; however, for many “atypical scenarios” in the automotive industry chain, existing networks still have structural shortcomings:

• Areas with high coverage costs: Regions such as deserts, Gobi, plateaus, mountains, forests, islands, ocean routes, and border passages have high station construction costs and long return cycles, yet vehicle operation is often a necessity;
• Disasters and extreme events: Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, typhoons, and wildfires can damage terrestrial communication infrastructure, causing fleets to lose contact with command centers at critical moments;
• Industries with high safety supervision requirements: Industries such as hazardous materials transportation, long-distance dangerous goods, and mining engineering vehicles have strong demands for “full visibility and anomaly tracking”, but often enter “weak coverage or even no coverage” areas.

The evolution of terrestrial networks can continuously enhance the experience in “covered areas”, but the technical and economic constraints for covering these “last 5% scenarios” are quite evident. This part of the “weak link” is where satellite IoT has the opportunity to play a role.

4. Typical Uses of Satellite IoT in Automobiles: Completing the “Last Piece of the Puzzle”

Cross-Border Mainline and Long-Distance Fleets: Avoiding “Loss of Contact” in Key Areas

For cross-province and cross-border mainline logistics fleets, routes often traverse sparsely populated areas with few base stations. From inland to seaports, from hub ports to inland distribution centers, and from domestic nodes to border ports, vehicles frequently switch between “networked/weak network/no network” states.

In such scenarios, a “cellular + satellite IoT” dual-channel solution can be employed:

• Normal segments: High-bandwidth communication via 4G/5G supports in-car services, some fleet management data, and OTA updates;
• Weak coverage or no coverage segments: Automatically downgrade to the satellite IoT channel, maintaining periodic reporting of small data packets such as location coordinates, speed, driving direction, basic operational status, and safety alarms;
• On the fleet management cloud platform side, a policy engine can mask underlying network differences, ensuring continuous scheduling and monitoring views.

Some foreign operators and satellite IoT service providers have already launched similar “blind-spot filling” services for vehicles and asset management, such as providing vehicle location and alarm information via satellite return in remote areas through partnerships with operators, ensuring a safety net for cross-border logistics and hazardous materials transportation.

Construction Machinery, Mining, and Oilfield Vehicles: Operating in “Base Station-Free” Areas

Mining, quarries, cement plant peripheries, oilfield operation areas, and forest operation routes are regions with high concentrations of construction machinery and heavy trucks, and they are among the most challenging and economically unfeasible areas for terrestrial communication network coverage.

Here, equipping construction and operational vehicles with satellite IoT terminals can achieve:

• Real-time or near-real-time collection of key parameters such as vehicle location, working hours, operational areas, load, and fuel consumption;
• Integration with scheduling systems for shift planning, piecework settlement, and anomaly behavior identification (speeding, boundary crossing, prolonged idling, etc.);
• Providing foundational data support for safety production supervision with “full visibility”.

From the segmentation of the international satellite IoT market, resource extraction, industrial asset, and vehicle management have always been important application areas for satellite IoT connectivity. Relevant research predicts that the number of satellite IoT connections will grow from approximately 5.8 million in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.1%, reaching about 32.5 million by 2029; among them, transportation and logistics scenarios are widely regarded as core growth sectors.

Passenger Cars and Off-Road Scenarios: A “Lifeline Channel” in Extreme Environments

For ordinary passenger car users, satellite IoT is unlikely to replace 4G/5G navigation and entertainment functions in the short term, but its value is very direct in extreme or niche scenarios:

• Extreme off-road, self-driving traverses, and remote area travel: When both mobile phones and in-car systems cannot access terrestrial networks, reporting location information and emergency assistance messages via satellite IoT can significantly enhance rescue success rates;
• Major accident emergencies: When a vehicle suffers a serious accident in a remote area, traditional eCall or NG eCall may fail due to unreachable terrestrial networks, and the satellite channel can provide a “fallback low-speed channel” that, even if it can only transmit minimal text and location information, is sufficient to provide clues for emergency response.

Intelligent Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Fleets: Building a “Redundant Communication Channel”

Autonomous and highly intelligent connected vehicle fleets have higher communication requirements for remote monitoring, operation, and safety assurance. In reality, many system designs assume “terrestrial networks are reliably available long-term”; when entering weak coverage areas, they can only ensure vehicle safety through downgrade strategies, but the “visibility” for operators and regulators significantly decreases.

Satellite IoT can play the role of a “low-speed redundant link” here:

• Regularly reporting key status heartbeat information (online/offline, degradation status, safety mode status, etc.) to the operation platform;
• In extreme abnormal scenarios, issuing commands such as speed limits, pulling over, and requesting manual takeover via satellite link, achieving “the last line of protection”;
• For certain high-risk routes (such as border passages, remote areas around cross-sea bridges), it can be explicitly required in technical specifications or bidding conditions to “have satellite redundant communication capability”, complementing the integrated vehicle-road-cloud pilot projects.

Such applications have already entered the demonstration phase abroad; for example, the road test led by 5GAA in Paris demonstrated the provision of emergency message services to vehicles via non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and the continuity of remote safety services in collaboration with terrestrial 4G/5G networks.

5. The Essential Difference from Existing Vehicle Networks: Not a “Replacement Relationship”, but a “Supplementary Relationship”

Technical Level: Functional Division of High Bandwidth and Low-Speed Small Packets

• Terrestrial Vehicle Networks (4G/5G)are aimed at video, OTA, large sensor data, cloud inference results, in-car applications, etc., representing high bandwidth, low latency broadband services;
• Satellite IoTis aimed at low-speed, small packets, periodic reporting data, with relatively higher latency but can provide wide coverage across regions, countries, and seas, with better terminal power consumption and cost control.

At the standards level, the enhancements to NB-IoT over NTN in Release 17 allow low-power wide-area IoT technology to extend into satellite networks, providing a globally reachable supplementary channel for “lightweight vehicle data”.

Business Model: To C Experience vs. To B/To G Industry Demand

In current vehicle network services, a significant amount of traffic consumption is directed towards navigation, music videos, in-car applications, and voice assistants aimed at vehicle owners;

The satellite IoT commercial trials explicitly target enterprises and institutions, focusing on users in industries such as manufacturing, transportation, energy, agriculture, and emergency services, representing a typical To B/To G business positioning.

This determines the differences in their business models: vehicle manufacturers are more likely to package satellite IoT capabilities within fleet management solutions, industry solutions, and aftermarket monitoring systems, rather than selling them directly as “owner packages” aimed at individual consumers.

Role Division: Terrestrial Networks as “Main Body”, Satellite IoT as “Fallback + Strategic Increment”

From a system architecture perspective, a more reasonable picture is a three-layer division of labor:

• “Main Layer”is undertaken by terrestrial cellular networks such as 4G/5G, covering the vast majority of daily scenarios and providing high-quality vehicle network services;
• “Fallback Layer”is undertaken by satellite IoT, ensuring “minimum online presence” and “critical data accessibility” in areas where terrestrial networks are difficult to cover or too costly;
• “Orchestration Layer”is undertaken by cloud platforms and edge nodes, automatically selecting the most suitable network channel for terminals based on business type, geographical location, and network status, while uniformly managing security and data governance.

In such a division, vehicle networks will not experience a zero-sum relationship of “who replaces whom”; instead, through “multi-link integration”, the overall system’s coverage capability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness will reach a new balance point.

6. Overseas Practices: Vehicle + Satellite IoT Has Transitioned from “Paper Solutions” to Road Testing

The global satellite IoT market has grown rapidly in recent years. Berg Insight’s latest report indicates that the number of satellite IoT subscriptions is expected to grow from approximately 5.8 million in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.1%, reaching about 32.5 million by 2029; corresponding connection revenue is projected to increase from 334 million euros in 2024 to approximately 1.58 billion euros by 2029.

In practical business, transportation, logistics, and fleet management scenarios have begun to receive significant attention.

LG’s IoT-NTN Vehicle Demonstration: Switching Between “Ground + Satellite” in Urban Conditions

In May 2025, at the 5GAA conference held in Paris, LG Electronics showcased a next-generation vehicle connectivity solution based on IoT-NTN: a demonstration of driving on urban roads with vehicles equipped with IoT-NTN vehicle telematics control units (TCUs), achieving seamless voice communication switching between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, and introducing AI voice compression technology to achieve “conversation-level” voice quality over narrowband channels.

This is a relatively complete “vehicle + NTN” demonstration: it validates the technical link (cellular + satellite), terminal form (IoT-NTN TCU), network switching logic, and the feasibility of emergency voice services, which are highly safety-related, over satellite narrowband links.

Companies like Skylo: Providing “Fail-Safe” Connectivity for Vehicles with NB-NTN

In operational terms, companies like Skylo are collaborating with operators and vehicle communication platforms to provide “global coverage” satellite supplementary services for vehicles and IoT terminals based on the NB-NTN standard. For example, Skylo collaborates with in-vehicle platform company Cubic Telecom to provide OEMs with vehicle connectivity that can seamlessly switch between cellular and satellite for remote monitoring, emergency messaging, and roadside assistance scenarios, emphasizing “fail-safe” characteristics.

Industry Consensus: NTN as a “Supplementary Layer” to Terrestrial Vehicle Networks

The technical report released by 5GAA in 2024 systematically outlines the technical routes and application scenario concepts for incorporating NTN as a supplementary layer to terrestrial networks within the vehicle network system, clearly emphasizing the enhancement of vehicle coverage and service continuity in remote areas through NTN.

From these practices, “vehicle + satellite IoT/NTN” has transitioned from concepts and technical white papers to small-scale road tests and pilot projects.

7. Trend Judgments: How Satellite IoT Integrates into the Long-Term Narrative of “Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration”

Terminal Forms: Transitioning from External Terminals to “NTN-Ready” Vehicle Scale Groups

With the freezing of the 3GPP Release 17 standard and the completion of the first batch of NB-NTN terminal test cases, some NTN-supporting chips and modules have begun to enter the market validation phase.

For vehicle manufacturers, the terminal evolution path in the coming years can be summarized as follows:

• Transition Phase: Adopt external or add-on satellite IoT terminals on high-value fleets and special vehicles to quickly create visual effects;
• Evolution Phase: In the planning of the next generation of T-Box/TCU, integrate cellular modules that support NTN, enabling vehicles to have “ground + non-ground” integrated access capabilities upon leaving the factory;
• Mature Phase: As module costs and fees decrease, more vehicle models (especially commercial vehicles) will incorporate “satellite fallback capabilities” as a basic capability, rather than being limited to high-end configurations or special vehicles.

Scenario Evolution: From Industry Fleets to Traffic Infrastructure and Low-Altitude Economy Spillover

Combining domestic and international technical routes and policy orientations, the application of satellite IoT in automotive-related fields is likely to present the following evolution logic:

• First Phase: Focus on fleet and asset management, primarily covering mainline logistics, hazardous materials transportation, engineering construction, and long-distance roll-on/roll-off fleets in To B scenarios;
• Second Phase: In conjunction with vehicle-road-cloud integration pilot projects, in remote highway sections, border ports, and areas around cross-sea bridges and tunnels, integrate satellite IoT into roadside infrastructure and cloud control platforms to provide fallback support for collaborative early warning, remote monitoring, and emergency command;
• Third Phase: Integrate with the low-altitude economy, connecting ground vehicles, drone logistics, eVTOL aircraft, and other transportation tools, enabling them to be dispatched and monitored based on a unified satellite IoT foundation.

Data and Security: Compliance of Automotive Data Coupled with Satellite Network Supervision

The notice sets clear requirements for participating trial enterprises: legally handle frequency and station permits, implement network security, real-name management, data protection, anti-fraud governance responsibilities, regularly report business data, connect to the industrial internet identification resolution system, support IPv6, and achieve full lifecycle management of services.

In automotive scenarios, this means:

• Vehicle data on satellite links must also be included in the compliance framework for automotive data and personal information protection; for cross-border data transmission, it must comply with relevant regulations on data export;
• During the system architecture and security design phase, unified security level classification, encryption authentication, and audit policy design must be applied to both “ground + satellite” links, rather than simply adding a “physical backup link”;
• When local governments plan demonstration projects, they must also consider the supporting institutional arrangements for network security and data security to avoid “getting on the bus before buying a ticket” at the technical level.

8. Related Recommendations

For Vehicle Manufacturers and Tier 1 Suppliers: Reserve NTN Capabilities in Next-Generation T-Box Roadmaps

• In medium- to long-term product planning, incorporate the capability to support NB-IoT over NTN or other satellite IoT protocols into the research and development of vehicle communication architecture, reserving interfaces for antennas, RF, power supply, and hardware/software;
• Prioritize small-scale pilot projects in high-value, high-risk scenario vehicles (hazardous materials transport vehicles, cold chain heavy trucks, mining engineering vehicles, long-distance passenger vehicles, port towing vehicles, etc.) to validate the reliability and economic viability of satellite links with real operational data;
• Establish joint solutions with satellite IoT companies participating in domestic commercial trials early on, focusing on vehicle-regulated terminals, demonstration routes, and cloud platform integration for collaborative R&D.

For Fleet Operators and Vehicle Network Platform Companies: Incorporate Satellite IoT into the “Digital Operation Transformation Package”

• In the fleet TCO and risk cost model, introduce hidden costs such as “safety accidents, cargo loss, and delays caused by communication interruptions”, quantifying satellite fallback capabilities in investment decisions;
• Upgrade existing fleet management platforms to support multi-link access and intelligent routing, masking underlying network differences at the business logic level;
• Select 2-3 routes and 1-2 types of high-risk vehicles to conduct satellite IoT pilot projects, using metrics such as “punctuality rate, reduction in safety incidents, and decreased manual scheduling burden” to validate effectiveness.

For Local Governments and Demonstration Zones: Embed Satellite Modules in the Top-Level Design of “Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration” and “Low-Altitude Economy”

• In the planning and application documents for smart connected vehicle demonstration zones, smart ports, smart mines, and cross-border passages, include “satellite IoT fallback capabilities” in technical requirements, echoing the two-year commercial trials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology;
• Encourage local vehicle manufacturers, operators, transportation companies, and satellite IoT pilot enterprises to co-build demonstration projects themed around safety production, emergency rescue, and cross-border passage guarantees, creating replicable and promotable “vehicle + satellite IoT” model projects;
• During project advancement, simultaneously layout testing and validation platforms and data governance rules to accumulate experience for larger-scale industry promotion in the future.

For the automotive industry, this “Notice on Satellite IoT Business Commercial Trials” is not merely an “internal document of the communication circle” but a pre-released “option list” for the next generation of vehicle networks. Those who can first embed this “satellite IoT puzzle piece” into existing systems in real fleets and routes will have a greater opportunity to gain more voice and ecological dominance in the upcoming infrastructure upgrade of “ground networks + satellite IoT + vehicle-road-cloud integration”.