Satellite Airtime Pricing Models

This document compares the satellite airtime pricing models with the use of the NRT/NRL from the below satellite providers:

• Globalstar
• Inmarsat BGAN M2M
• Iridium
• Microsatellite

This document is intended as a guide only, it is illustrative only, in US$, and should not be used to calculate exact costs, as there may be specially priced services for some customers. The data models illustrate the typical airtime costs for two types of application, namely

• an alert /small data application, e.g. a water level sensor for monitoring tank level, which only transmits the level once or twice per day and therefore requiring a very small amount of data, is well served by message services such as the Iridium or Microsatellite
• a river measurement station or an industrial measurement application with several different instruments measuring routinely, perhaps every 15 minutes needing a larger amount of data is well served by services such as Inmarsat M2M and Globalstar

There are two service types to consider.
One being a full two-way service requiring a full IP connection, which delivers full functionality and the ability to closely couple with the data logger / RTU Neon field unit and provides services such as reprogramming and reconfiguration in the field from a web browser. The other being a message based, essentially one-way connection, which delivers the sensor data only. For this document, we call these a full-service data and a message based data service.

The data models also assume power is removed from the Inmarsat BGAN M2M for the purpose of modelling, requiring these systems to re-establish a session, with the corresponding session re-establishment overhead each time they communicate. If these systems have power systems dimensioned such that power can remain on, then the session re-establishment overheads will be eliminated.

In broad terms, short-burst data services cost in the order of 50 to 100 cents per kilobyte and Inmarsat BGAN services cost in the order of 1 to 3 cents per kilobyte.

Indicative Monthly Data Volume Scenarios for Full Service Data

Scenarios for full-service data

For the purposes of generating indicative payload sizes and data volumes, the following scenarios are used. These values account for logger RTD and but no other comms overheads.

1. Very Low Data Volume – Once a Day
3 data channels once per day = 222 bytes per day or 7KB per month

2. Low Data Volume – Once an Hour
3 data channels every hour = 222 bytes per hour or 164KB per month

3. High Data Volume – Once every 5 Minutes
6 data channels every 5 minutes = 2736 bytes per hour or 2MB per month

4. Medium Resolution Serial Camera pictures
Once an Hour = 25k per hour or 20MB per month

5. High-Resolution IP Camera pictures
Once an Hour = 110k per hour or 88MB per month

Scenarios for message service data

For the purposes of generating indicative payload sizes and data volumes, the following scenarios are used.
6. Very Low Data Volume – Once a Day
3 data channels once per day = 12 bytes per day or 372 bytes per month

7. Low Data Volume – Once an Hour
3 data channels every hour = 12 bytes per hour or 8928 bytes per month

8. High Data Volume – Once every 5 Minutes
6 data channels every 5 minutes = 72 bytes per hour or 107,136 bytes per month