Tech: Beam Communications is making a text service for peeps with no coverage

No reception? No worries. Beam Communications (ASX:BCC) is working on a solution called ZOLEO.

ZOLEO will use the Iridium — like a Telstra or Optus — satellite network to provide seamless global coverage for people that “live, work or play outside cellular coverage, or in an emergency situation when cellular service can be impaired”.

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ZOLEO will be a compact device, designed to be easily carried, that allows users to send and receive messages, receive weather data and generate an SOS alert.

It is being developed through a joint venture with North American mobile equipment and services provider Roadpost and is expected to be launched before the end of the 2020 financial year.

BCC shares got a 10 per cent bump on the news, to 23c.

Beam says the device is aimed at the adventure tourism market, rural areas and solo workers. The company reckons it will “significantly” grow Beam’s recurring revenue from the 2021 financial year.

“The ZOLEO device will be competitively priced and satellite data plans will be of a cost similar to, if not lower than, most mobile phone plans in Australia,” said Beam managing director Michael Capocchi. “The new offering will introduce a potentially large and loyal customer base to Beam.”

Morris Shawn, CEO of Roadpost, said ZOLEO was a market-first.

“Our customers have increasingly been asking for an affordable device that will seamlessly work with smartphones. There isn’t anything in the market like ZOLEO and we believe there is a ready global appetite for this innovative and ground breaking product,” he said.

“We are delighted to partner with Beam as its expertise building quality devices will ensure the best possible hardware product that will run on the world’s leading satellite network.”

In other ASX tech news today:

Splitit (ASX:SPT) signs new agreement with American ecommerce provider. Ally Commerce, based in Atlanta, will offer Splitit’s buy-now-pay-later tech to its large enterprise merchants, including leading sleep and respiratory care company, Philips’ Respironics Coloradol, which generated $2.9 billion in sales in 2018.

Uniti Wireless (ASX:UWL) to raise $100m to fund acquisition. Uniti will acquire LBNCo, a private fibre infrastructure company that is “profitable and fast-growing”. Uniti will pay $100m for the business, which it will raise through a fully underwritten entitlement offer.