The total land area of Australia is close to 7.69 million square kilometres. Only 50,000 square kilometres are urban — some 7.64 million square kilometres is rural. Unsurprisingly, something like 90% of Australia has no cellular coverage. Without cellular coverage, it’s difficult and expensive to provide IoT (Internet of Things) services to the Outback. Assets monitoring and environmental measurements can be difficult, if not very expensive. Even if cellular coverage is available, there is no assurance it would remain available in bad weather or when disaster strikes.

Here are some Australian examples where connectivity into remote areas would be of value:

• In the far north of Australia there are beef farms where younger beasts run free. They spend a year or two in scrubland, feeding off what is available. Farmers control their movement by filling troughs and dams — the herd follows the water. However, losses are high. Figures suggest that up to 7% of the herd disappears. In addition to loss by accident, it appears that rustling is still alive and well in the far north. These losses would better managed if there were tags that could be attached to the beasts, sending information on location and body temperature;
• Many farms have areas where there is no cellular coverage. Farmers are concerned about this, especially if someone is injured when a tractor tips over. A low cost, low profile satellite connected device that quickly sends an alert with GPS coordinates could be a life saver;
• There are many long and dusty roads across Australia. In reality they’re more like tracks than roads. We hear stories of people that embark on long journeys and end up with their cars breaking down, many kilometres from civilisation. They can be marooned for days until the next vehicle comes down the track. Sometimes it can be too late. This type of situation could be avoided if there was access to simple, low cost, connected panic buttons, either in vehicles, and/or at regular intervals along the road;
• The recent devastating bushfires in Australia are still top of mind. What if we had a network of satellite connected smoke detectors that could alert us of a blaze earlier?
• And the same applies to the recent floods. Many communities were caught unawares by rising floodwaters, because the rain gauges upstream were not properly maintained, or had been damaged. Timely and accurate measurements would have helped and even knowledge of the gauges being damaged would be helpful.

There has to be a way to provide connectivity.