Startup Hiber celebrates lift-off of first global connected-tech network in California.
Vandenberg, CA. and Amsterdam, NL., 4th December, 2018 | 'NewSpace' startup Hiber celebrated the lift-off of its “HiberBand” nano-satellite yesterday at 10.32am PST at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Dutch-government backed Hiber is the first truly global satellite solution, opening the door for the 90% of the world currently unable to use connected tech. The launch will be available to replay here: https://hiber.tv/
Less than 10% of the globe is covered by a connected-technology ready network. Existing networks (like WIFI) only work in urban areas and wealthier countries, while traditional satellites that provide wider coverage are expensive and power hungry. For these reasons, many connected-tech applications and services are currently unaffordable. For example, it is currently unviable to monitor soil moisture to improve production efficiency and crop quality in the third world countries that rely on farming the most. Hiber has launched into the orbit to change that.
Once fully operational, the nano-satellite will fly over earth’s poles 16 times a day and the entirety of the equator twice a day, providing the planet with the ability to stream data to and from connected devices. Using a process that is up to 20 times cheaper than existing global solutions, it works by transferring data from modems and antennas owned by customers directly to the nano-satellites. Data is then sent back to earth via the two existing satellite stations in Spitsbergen in Norway and Delft in the Netherlands.
Hiber is collaborating with Amazon Web Services and was named the AWS Commercial Launch Startup of 2018 on the 25th November. Hiber has also partnered with IBM Watson and Actility for easy integration into existing cloud services, allowing customer to easily build unique applications with global data-streaming capabilities.