Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD) is ideal for tracking and IoT applications, such as animal tracking collars, connecting remote field workers and adventurers, fleet telematics, geological surveys, weather balloons and data buoys. Using a mesh of 66 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, the SBD service delivers real-time data anywhere in the world, including the polar regions.
Ground Control offers Iridium SBD airtime both as a prepaid tariff, and as an annual contract for companies planning a larger deployment of devices.
Tailored contracts that save you money
Most airtime plans are out of the box – and if your usage falls at the bottom end of a price bracket, you’re paying more than you need to. At Ground Control, we tailor our pricing plans to your specific needs, so you save money. These rates are available for any SBD device; it doesn’t have to have been purchased from Ground Control, and doesn’t have to be a Ground Control-manufactured SBD device.
The below pricing is representative – please get in touch with your data requirements and we’ll customize a quote for you.
- Contract term is 12 months unless specified
- Each message has a minimum billable size of 10 bytes
- Mailbox checks (Mobile Originated messages, with zero user bytes of data) are charged at £0.02
*If you choose a pooled plan, then all of your devices on this plan share a pool of data. E.g. if you have 10 devices on a 12KB plan, that gives you a total pool of 120 KB to use per month between all of your devices, before you are charged any overage fees.
Prepaid SBD tariffs
Our pay-as-you-go tariffs offer great flexibility for development purposes, and are available for the RockBLOCK 9602 and RockBLOCK 9603 plug-and-play satellite transceivers, the RockSTAR personal tracking device, RockFLEET vehicle tracking device, and the RockAIR aircraft tracking device.
Line rental allows the SBD device to exchange information with the Iridium satellite network. Credits are used each time you transmit.
1. One credit is used per 50 bytes (or part thereof) of message sent or received
2. One credit is also used if you check your mailbox and there are no messages waiting (a mailbox check).
3. Line rental is paid in blocks of one month
4. You only pay for months in which you wish to use the device
5. No annual contract is required
6. Credits only expire if you don’t use your account at all for 12 months
7. Credits are pooled between all of the devices on your account
