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New. The Adsum NTN Relay carries satellite NB-NTN on two Fanstel gateways: the BLG20x indoors and the LBG20x outdoors, with its own GNSS fix. The demo is on every relay; datasheets and prices at www.adsumnetworks.com. Satellite NB-NTN also ships as knowledge and a guided run for the nRF9151.
Non-terrestrial NB-IoT is the 3GPP standard that lets a narrowband modem attach to a satellite instead of a cell tower. Same protocol family as NB-IoT, same nRF9151 silicon, no dish and no separate satellite modem. It is for devices where there is no terrestrial coverage at all: pipelines, livestock, buoys, remote assets, anything that spends its life beyond the last cell.

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How it fits

1
Wi-Fi, Ethernet or cellularwhere they existThe everyday ways out. Cheapest first, in the order you set.
2
Satellite NB-NTNlast resortWhen nothing terrestrial is in reach. Small payloads, long intervals, metered by design.

The same failover order the gateways already use, with satellite as the final way out.

Satellite links are slow and costly per byte. The firmware treats them the way it treats a metered SIM: standby until needed, digests rather than streams, and a console that never hides what the link is costing.

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What ships today

  • Knowledge for the nRF9151: attaching to a satellite network, the modem settings that differ from terrestrial NB-IoT, and how to read the trace when it will not attach. Needs a free account.
  • A guided run on the nRF9151 DK, with the same board shell and modem trace as cellular.
NB-NTN modem firmware runs only on an nRF9151 of the LACA A1A revision, not A0A, and not on the nRF9160 or nRF9161. Check the module label before you start. Satellite service also needs a subscription with a provider that runs NB-NTN in your region.
A satellite link carries small messages, rarely. It is the right bearer for what cannot wait and has no other way out, and the wrong one for everything else. Three things shape every design that uses it:
  • Every exchange is billed, and plans are small. Satellite plans are measured in kilobytes a month, not megabytes. A protocol that spends more on handshakes than on data is expensive before it sends a reading, which is why a connectionless exchange with a compact payload is the usual choice.
  • The modem needs to know where it is. NB-NTN corrects for the satellite’s motion from the device’s own position. A board without a GNSS receiver needs its position stated when it is installed.
  • Positioning and satellite share the modem. On the nRF9151, GNSS and NB-NTN do not run at the same time, so a position is taken before an exchange, not during it.

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Send the decision, not the data

A link measured in kilobytes a month cannot carry raw readings, so the work has to happen before the link. That is what Edge AI is for on a satellite relay: the device that hears the sensors also decides what is worth a datagram.
Pre-processFilter and smooth each device’s readings, with its own state, thresholds and hold times.
Pre-analyseDetect a change, an anomaly or a missing device at the edge, and raise one alert instead of a thousand readings.
PrioritiseAlerts go first, each with its age. The rest is summarised and waits for a cheaper uplink.
HoldEvery record waits in flash until your platform acknowledges it, so nothing is lost while the sky is closed.

What crosses the satellite is 128 bytes. One datagram carries a status and two alerts: 46 B of CoAP header, 53 B of payload and 29 B of headroom. A BLG20x sent one over a geostationary NB-NTN service on 13 September 2026, and it was acknowledged; an LBG20x sent an alert the same way on 9 October.

Firmware updates never travel over satellite. They wait for a cellular uplink, so the satellite allowance is never spent on firmware.

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How the relays use it

The BLG20x and the LBG20x treat satellite as part of a deployment class, chosen when the unit is commissioned and fixed for the life of its record store: A reading written while the unit is on a terrestrial bearer has to be sendable unchanged if it later falls back to satellite, so a class that includes satellite refuses MQTT and JSON at the desk, before the unit is installed. Over satellite, only alerts and what cannot wait are sent. The BLG20x first run walks through commissioning a unit and setting its class.

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Before you start

  • Silicon. An nRF9151 of the LACA A1A revision.
  • Modem firmware. The NB-NTN build of the nRF9151 modem firmware, from Nordic.
  • Subscription. An NB-NTN plan from a provider that covers your region, on a SIM that allows it.
  • Position. A GNSS fix, or a position stated at installation on a board without GNSS.
  • Sky. A clear view of the sky for the antenna. Indoors, a satellite link is unlikely to close.

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The relays that carry it

The Adsum NTN Relay: our firmware on two gateways from our partner Fanstel, the BLG20x indoors and the LBG20x outdoors. Bluetooth LE devices in; LTE-M, NB-IoT and satellite NB-NTN out; Edge AI on board; updated over the air. The demo is on every relay, licences are per relay, and the agent already holds the boards’ pinouts. The BLG20x · The LBG20x · Prices and datasheets.

Cellular IoT on nRF91

LTE-M, NB-IoT and GNSS bring-up, the board shell and the modem trace.

Gateway firmware

Signed images, licensed source, and the two relays.