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Industrial IoT: Why betting on hybrid solutions ensures you never lose signal

IoT industriel connectivité terrestre et satellitaire

A sensor losing signal in the middle of a logistics route.

An isolated pipeline with alerts that never arrive.

A maritime fleet cut off from the network in open sea.

In B2B IoT, these disconnections cost time, money… and sometimes lives.

Yet there is a solution to avoid this: combining terrestrial and satellite connectivity. This is known as hybridization. It enables companies in transportation, energy, or infrastructure management to maintain control—anywhere, at any time.

Here’s why this hybrid approach is a game changer—and how Kinéis is making this technology accessible to all industries.

More visibility, more control

In industrial IoT, data only has value if it flows. However, in practice, connected devices move through highly diverse environments: warehouses, backroads, port areas, forests, deserts... No single terrestrial network can guarantee flawless coverage.

This is precisely where hybridization proves its worth.

By combining terrestrial networks (cellular, LPWAN, Wi-Fi) with satellite connectivity, you achieve continuous end-to-end traceability—for example, from inside a warehouse to the most remote areas.

Data (location, transport conditions, equipment status, etc.) flows without interruption, even when assets move from a warehouse into a dead zone.

The result: you keep an eye on everything, respond faster, and anticipate problems before they become critical.

Simply put, no link in the chain is left in the dark.

Global coverage, without interruption

Terrestrial networks (cellular, Wi-Fi, or low-power wide-area like LoRa) have proven highly effective. But they remain limited to specific zones: cities, port areas, major roadways, or well-connected industrial sites.

As soon as you move away from dense terrestrial telecom infrastructure whether at sea, in the mountains, in forests, or in remote agricultural areas coverage becomes fragmented. And with that, data transmission suffers.

The result: blind spots in the value chain, missed alerts, and connected objects that temporarily "disappear" from the radar.

This is where satellite connectivity can step in.

By delivering truly global coverage, satellite networks ensure connectivity even in areas where terrestrial antennas are absent or simply cannot be deployed.

Hybridizing terrestrial and satellite networks enables uninterrupted data transmission—even when an asset moves outside the reach of terrestrial coverage. This makes it possible to:

Track a container in transit between two ports
Monitor a pipeline in the middle of the desert
Locate a piece of agricultural machinery
Detect damage to power grids
Receive alerts from an isolated mining site

All without service disruptions or loss of visibility.

For applications like multimodal logistics tracking, critical asset monitoring, or remote infrastructure management, this global coverage is a game changer.

Transport & logistic

Detection of an unexpected stop, monitoring of sensitive temperatures, and tracking of shipments.

Energy

Automatic alert in the event of a leak or abnormal variation on an isolated pipeline

Rail

Tracking of connected railcars on mixed routes (cellular + satellite)

Environment

Early detection of wildfires in forest areas without coverage

Agriculture

Transmission of weather or water level indicators from sensors located far from infrastructure.

Agile solutions, without starting from scratch

There's no need to rebuild everything to switch to hybrid IoT.

Most industrial IoT devices already rely on terrestrial networks (cellular, LoRa, Wi-Fi). Adding a satellite module simply completes the coverage, without disrupting the existing ecosystem.

No need to change hardware: same cloud, same software architecture, often the same device, simply enhanced with a second communication channel. It's this native compatibility that makes hybridization so powerful for:

Extend an existing IoT network to uncovered territories (white zones, remote sites, poorly connected regions),
Connect assets in motion without interruption,
Test new use cases without deploying new ground infrastructure.

With a hybrid terminal, the switch between terrestrial and satellite is made automatically, depending on signal availability.
The result: a global IoT, without technological breakthroughs or additional integration costs

Fewer losses, greater operational efficiency

In industries where every minute of downtime has a cost, any interruption in data transmission can cause delays, immobilization, or avoidable incidents.

This is where hybrid connectivity becomes a powerful optimization tool combining the responsiveness of terrestrial networks in covered areas with the reach of satellite networks in remote or mobile zones.

It enables:

Route and delivery optimization, thanks to continuous visibility
Reduced downtime, supported by reliable data at every stage
Predictive maintenance to prevent failures instead of reacting to them
Remote monitoring of sensitive equipment without relying on a single network
Prevention of losses, theft, or temperature deviations, even in off-grid areas

Network switching happens automatically without manual intervention: cellular or LPWAN when the signal is available, satellite as soon as it's needed.

The result: uninterrupted data flow and controlled performance no matter the location or context.

Crucial resilience for critical sectors

In critical environments, a simple service interruption can:

Disrupt a logistics chain
Delay a technical intervention
Compromise the safety of an isolated site

While terrestrial networks are fast and reliable under normal conditions, they remain vulnerable to overloads, local outages, accidental damage, or extreme weather events.

This is where satellite serves as a continuity solution. By ensuring an automatic backup, hybrid connectivity maintains data transmission—even in degraded conditions.

It plays a key role in:

Multi-zone logistics, where goods move between covered warehouses (terrestrial) and poorly served areas (satellite)
Monitoring isolated infrastructure like pipelines, pylons, or technical stations often located off-network
Offshore or maritime operations, where only satellite guarantees a permanent link

Hybridization doesn’t replace terrestrial networks it extends them. It allows full control in any circumstance, enabling rapid response to anomalies and ensuring essential service continuity in sensitive sectors.

Benefits of IoT hybridization in key figures

30%

It's the reduction in industrial downtime thanks to IoT sensor integration and predictive maintenance

(UniConverge Tech).

20%

Improvement in transport fleet reliability by combining real-time tracking, data analytics, and automatic switching between available networks, terrestrial or satellite (UniConverge Tech).

59 M$

Average annual cost of unplanned downtime in heavy industry (Ground Control).

A Technological foundation already within reach with Kinéis

For hybrid IoT to fulfill its promise, it must be easy to integrate. That’s exactly what Kinéis enables, with a clear partnership model and compatibility with existing market components.

Thanks to its partnership with STMicroelectronics, Kinéis satellite connectivity is directly integrable via the STM32WL chipset—already widely used in terrestrial IoT.

There’s no need to overhaul your entire architecture: the shift to hybrid is smooth, quick, and controlled.

Through the Kinéis Partner Program, companies and connected device manufacturers can:

Access complete technical documentation
Benefit from dedicated integration support
Design satellite-compatible products without prohibitive R&D costs

This approach makes satellite connectivity:

Technically accessible
Faster to deploy
Compatible with existing LoRa-based use cases

Hybridization no longer requires space expertise it becomes a natural extension of industrial IoT.

A Solution that adapts to every industry

The advantage of hybrid IoT is that it isn’t limited to one sector or a single use case.

Whether it’s tracking a container or railcar in transit, detecting a wildfire in a forest, or monitoring the condition of an isolated power pole the core need is the same: staying connected. Everywhere.

That’s why hybridization is found:

In international supply chains, where goods traverse multiple networks
At sea, where only satellite ensures coverage
In rural or mountainous areas, where sensors must operate without local infrastructure
In major cities, to complement indoor connectivity or manage dispersed infrastructure

From mobile assets to fixed sites, from moving objects to critical systems, hybridization adapts to every environment and every use.

Industrial IoT can no longer rely on just one network

In industry, a connected object that stops communicating is a risk—to production, to safety, to responsiveness.

Hybrid connectivity provides a no-compromise answer: it ensures a constant link, from a buried sensor to a container at sea, from an isolated pylon to a rail terminal.

And today, this continuity is finally easy to deploy, thanks to compatible components, direct device-side integration, and accessible satellite connectivity offered by Kinéis.

Reliability, coverage, resilience: the foundation of IoT that meets industrial demands.

Everywhere. All the time. Without ever losing the signal.