Closing the Industrial IoT Coverage Gap
Satellite and Terrestrial Networks are Converging, According to New Viasat Report
Industrial organizations are on the verge of a major connectivity shift, with 91% of surveyed IoT decision-makers planning to adopt direct-to-device satellite technology within 18 months, according to new research from Viasat and Vanson Bourne.
“Organizations are rightly excited by the potential for standards-based D2D and are planning to deploy new technology quickly, and at scale.”
Andy Kessler, Viasat
The report, The Great Connectivity Convergence: NTN in Industrial IoT, draws on a global survey of 600 decision-makers across agriculture, energy, land transport and logistics, mining, and utilities. It finds that Narrowband Non-Terrestrial Networks (NB-NTN) — a standard defined in 3GPP Release 17 — are emerging as a critical layer of industrial connectivity, enabling IoT devices to maintain satellite links when terrestrial networks are unavailable, congested, or degraded.
Overall, 78% of respondents reported accelerated IoT deployment progress over the past 12 months. That figure rises to 86% among organizations already using hybrid satellite-terrestrial connectivity, suggesting that prior satellite experience is a meaningful accelerant. Of those surveyed, 69% plan to adopt direct-to-device technology within 12 months, with 91% committing to a timeline of 18 months or less.
Viasat frames the shift as a move away from chasing peak network performance toward what the report calls “coverage certainty” — reliable connectivity at scale, regardless of geography or infrastructure. The strongest initial demand comes from sectors where remote operations have historically limited IoT scale, though even well-served markets are beginning to treat NB-NTN as a resilience safeguard rather than a last-resort backup.
“Organizations are rightly excited by the potential for standards-based D2D and are planning to deploy new technology quickly, and at scale,” said Andy Kessler, vice president of Viasat Enterprise. “The excitement makes sense because we know new devices can lower the barrier to entry by reducing the cost, complexity, and physical size of IoT terminals.”
The report also flags implications for mobile network operators, arguing that direct-to-device capability should be positioned as a core industrial IoT offering — one that expands coverage into new revenue streams and deepens enterprise relationships without requiring heavy network reinvestment.