Photo: NOAA via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Satellite connectivity is moving out of the niche. According to Deloitte’s 2026 technology, media and telecommunications predictions, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite services will generate around US$15 billion this year, with more than 15 million subscribers and US$6 to US$8 billion going into direct-to-device capacity. For any operation that depends on knowing where each asset is, this is a trend worth understanding.
What changes in 2026
The shift is called direct-to-device: ordinary phones and modems link straight to low-Earth-orbit satellites, with no special hardware. Deloitte expects more than 1,000 direct-to-device satellites in orbit by year-end and 15,000 to 18,000 LEO satellites in total, spread across about five major constellations. Ground infrastructure is growing too: there were more than 100 earth stations in 2025, and at least 100 more would be needed to serve several constellations at once. More than 200 million satellite-capable phones were sold in 2024. Today the service carries low-bandwidth messaging; projections point to video by 2028.
Why it matters for a fleet
Around 350 million people, 4% of the world’s population, live without mobile coverage. For a fleet, those are the intercity highway stretches, mine sites, farmland and coastal areas where the cellular signal disappears and tracking stops. A truck crossing several regions may pass through areas served by different carriers and gaps served by none; the satellite layer covers those seams. It does not replace GPS or the management platform: it is a data transport that keeps position and telemetry flowing when there is no terrestrial tower nearby. It is an enabler, not a substitute, and for now its limits are cost per megabyte and a low data rate.
The rules behind it
The progress is not only about satellites. The 3GPP specifications for non-terrestrial networks let a single modem talk to both cell towers and satellites without swapping the SIM. In the United States, the FCC created its Supplemental Coverage from Space framework; Europe and Asia are working to harmonise spectrum between terrestrial and satellite networks to avoid interference. Enterprise LEO subscribers are projected to grow from a small base to 3.4 million by 2030, nearly tenfold, with logistics and asset monitoring among the uses driving that curve.
At EsencialGPS we follow closely how these hybrid networks extend fleet-monitoring coverage. Learn more at www.esencialgps.cl.
Based on data from Deloitte.
