In the current landscape of Advanced Air Mobility, the bottleneck for commercial scaling isn't the airframe, but the Command and Control (C2) link reliability. At our annual, C-level, invitation-only event, Aerial Cities 2025 in Dublin, Alastair MacLeod, CEO of Ground Control (now a CLS Group company), sat down with Thilo Uebbert, Manager of Project and Programme Management at our sister company, Murzilli Consulting to discuss the shifting unit economics of satellite IoT and its role as the primary "fail-safe" for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.

The shift from cellular-first to multi-link resilience 

For years, the drone industry relied on terrestrial LTE/5G as the primary bearer. However, as we enter 2026, the regulatory push toward FAA Part 108 has made "surety of communication" a non-negotiable safety requirement.

According to Alastair, satellite connectivity is no longer just an "emergency return-to-home" backup. It has evolved into a sophisticated mid-band solution for:

  • Telematics & condition monitoring: Continuous "heartbeat" packets for battery and system health.
  • Active C2 links: Real-time instruction paths that bypass congested or non-existent cellular grids.
  • Kinematic data: High-precision positioning for long-range industrial inspection.

The 70% cost reduction 

One of the most significant takeaways for fleet operators is the collapsing cost of satellite data. Alastair notes that the cost per kilobyte has plummeted by 70% to 80% compared to 10 years ago.

Metric 2016 Baseline 2026 Projection 
Data cost (SATCOM) 100% (High Premium) 20% – 30% of 2016 levels 
Typical power draw >2000mA <700mA (Optimized IoT) 
Hardware form factor External "Brick" Integrated PCBA / OEM Module 

This economic shift allows for "Satellite-as-Primary" use cases, especially in marginal environments where cellular roaming costs or signal dropouts threaten mission ROI.

Optimizing for payload, from RockBLOCK to Amazon Leo 

The interview highlights a critical divide in the 2026 market: Bandwidth vs. SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power).

  • Low-SWaP IoT (The mid-market): Ground Control’s specialty lies in modular circuit boards (e.g., the RockBLOCK and RockREMOTE series). These are designed for drones where anything drawing more than 700 milliamps is a dealbreaker. These systems provide the "always-on" link required for BVLOS compliance without compromising flight time.
  • High-bandwidth broadband: While networks like Starlink and the newly rebranded Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) offer 1Gbps+ speeds, Alastair warns they are often "over-engineered" for standard C2. Unless you are streaming live 4K video, the weight and power penalties of these terminals may outweigh the benefits for small-to-mid-sized UAVs.

"The more you get towards optimizing the engineering and the design and fitting a system that’s built for purpose, the closer you’re getting to what we do. The more you can buy it from RadioShack, the less it’s what we do." — said Alastair MacLeod, CEO of Ground Control

Future-proofing for 6G and non-terrestrial networks (NTN) 

A major trend discussed was the convergence of cellular and satellite technology. While Alastair suggests that "direct-to-device" satellite-cellular roaming is currently overhyped, predicting a 5-year window before it becomes truly seamless for high-speed aviation, the integration has begun at the firmware level.

The recent acquisition of Ground Control by CLS (a subsidiary of the French Space Agency, CNES) signals a move toward a "Unified Ecosystem." For OEMs, this means plug-and-play hardware that can switch between Geostationary (GEO) satellites and LEO constellations based on latency requirements and cost-profiles.

Strategic takeaways for UAV manufacturers 

  • Redundancy is a revenue driver: Insurance premiums and BVLOS waivers are significantly easier to secure with a secondary SATCOM link.
  • Avoid "RadioShack" solutions: For commercial scaling, avoid off-the-shelf consumer terminals that lack firmware customization for aerial environments.
  • Focus on the data plane: Use high-bandwidth links (Starlink/Leo) for payload data, but keep your C2 on a dedicated, low-power IoT satellite link for maximum reliability.

Are you a decision-maker?  

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