Farms, pipelines, water sites, and anywhere else the work happens off the grid have run into the same wall with IoT: no cellular signal, no data out. A device past the last tower was a device you could not hear from, so remote sites meant an expensive dedicated link or a blind spot you learned to live with. Skylo’s 3GPP Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN), paired with LooUQ’s modules, changes the coverage math, and does it at pricing that works for everyday telemetry.
Once the data is moving, there is a second old headache to skip. You no longer wire a connection for every device by hand. The path from Skylo into TagoIO is set up ahead of time, so bringing a new device in to visualize and analyze is a matter of pointing it at a path that already exists.
The path from reading to output has four layers: device, connectivity, network, and application. LooUQ, Skylo, and TagoIO together cover all four.
The device layer: reach the field without becoming a radio expert
LooUQ builds the embedded modem that gets your product onto both cellular and satellite with minimum effort. LooUQ’s MTC2-N9151 carries LTE-M, NB-IoT, and NB-NTN in one low-power part, drops onto a board with two external components, and uses only two antennas: one for the terrestrial LTE and satellite bands, one for GNSS reception. LooUQ provides a reference application ready for your “secret sauce”, the unique sensing your application performs. The MTC2-N9151 is built on Nordic’s nRF9151 and inherits Skylo certification at the module level, so you skip a round of satellite testing that usually slows remote hardware. The device layer stops being the thing that holds up the project.
The connectivity layer: keep data moving past the last cell tower
Skylo runs a standards-based 3GPP narrowband NTN (NB-NTN) service. When a certified device loses terrestrial cellular, it can roam onto satellite and keep reporting, then return to cellular when it is back in range. Because it follows 3GPP standards, this works the same way a phone roams onto a different network when you travel abroad. The link is narrowband by design: small messages, battery-friendly, built for telemetry rather than video. For a sensor in a field or along a pipeline, that is the difference between a daily reading and a dead spot.
Getting onboarded takes three things.
A hardware path: a certified device, or your own build.
- Use a Skylo-certified device. Fully certified devices are ready to deploy commercially.
- Use a Skylo pre-certified embedded modem and antenna. Design your product around an M.2 interface, such as LooUQ’s MTC2-N9151, and no Skylo certification is required. If you still want Skylo certification, you can get it through a paperwork-based type approval.
- Build your own device on a Skylo-certified module.
An antenna that covers Skylo’s frequencies. Use an NTN-capable antenna with broad coverage across L-band (Band 255 globally) and S-band (Band 23 in North America, Band 256 in Europe).
A SIM from a Skylo operator partner. Connectivity runs through a partner’s SIM and roaming agreement, often the operator relationship you already have.
The network layer: getting data to the cloud
With a device and a SIM in place, the data still has to reach the cloud. Skylo’s network is built on 3GPP Release 17 NB-NTN, extended with Skylo Standards Plus, and it carries data over UDP, not HTTP, MQTT, or WebSockets. Almost none of the hyperscaler clouds accept UDP ingestion, and this is where TagoIO comes in.
TagoIO has a native UDP service built in through TagoTiP, its lightweight telemetry protocol. Point the device at the TagoIO UDP endpoint for your region, and data flows from a device in the middle of nowhere into the cloud.
The application layer: understand what the data means
Once a reading reaches TagoIO, the full-stack platform, the job shifts from moving bytes to seeing what they mean.
- The payload parser decodes the raw payload into named variables the moment it arrives.
- Dashboards show the live picture, and the Live Inspector lets you watch a device’s traffic while you debug.
- Actions fire an alert or run logic when a value crosses a line, so a problem reaches a person early.
- The device emulator sends sample payloads before hardware ships, so the dashboards are built and tested while the modems are still in the mail.
Why TagoIO, when other platforms chart data too
Plenty of tools can draw a chart. The reasons to put a remote, satellite-fed project on TagoIO show up around the chart, not in it.
Prescriptive analysis and security standards. TagoIO does more than show you the data: Analysis runs your own code against live readings to flag what needs attention and recommend the next move, so the platform points to the action rather than leaving you to read charts and guess. The ground it runs on is built to be relied on: managed, resilient infrastructure that is ISO 27001 certified, so the readings you act on sit on a system audited to a known security standard.
A path set up once for Skylo devices. The UDP endpoint and its authorization are prepared ahead of time, so you do not build or maintain a connection per device. Each new device reports in through the same path under its own serial.
Pricing shaped around transactions. You pay for the data that moves, not for the connection. There is no charge to connect to the network, and plans meter data input and output. Satellite telemetry is small and infrequent, so it stays in the lower tiers, with five devices free while you prove the idea.
Start where the work is
Remote sites no longer have to be the hard case. A LooUQ module and a Skylo connection reach the places cellular never did, and TagoIO turns what comes back into output you can act on, without a connection to wire for every device.
Read the step-by-step guide to connecting the LooUQ MTC2-N9151 to TagoIO with TagoTiP.
Common questions
How do I get IoT data from a farm or site with no cellular coverage? Use a Skylo-certified module that supports 3GPP NB-NTN, such as LooUQ’s MTC2-N9151. The device roams to satellite when cellular drops, and TagoIO ingests the data the same way it handles any device.
What does it take to deploy on Skylo? Three things: a Skylo-certified module like LooUQ’s, an NTN-capable antenna that covers Skylo’s L-band and S-band frequencies, and a SIM from a Skylo operator partner.
Do I have to build a separate integration for every satellite device? No. The Skylo path into TagoIO is prepared ahead of time. New devices report into the same path, and the payload parser decodes each one into named variables.
Why is TagoIO’s pricing a good fit for satellite IoT? You pay for data input and output transactions, and there is no charge to connect to the network. Satellite telemetry is low-volume and infrequent, so it stays in the lower tiers, and the Free plan covers five devices while you build.
