en.Wedoany.com Reported - On May 6, 2026, the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued an approval, formally granting Beijing Guodian Gaoke Technology Co., Ltd. permission to conduct commercial trials for satellite Internet of Things (IoT) services for a period of two years. During this period, Guodian Gaoke can legally pilot satellite IoT operations, relying on its independently constructed and operated "Apocalypse Constellation" to provide users with wide-coverage, low-power, high-reliability IoT connectivity services, enabling all-weather, intelligent data collection and remote control in fields such as marine fisheries, energy and water conservancy, and transportation logistics.
The MIIT clearly defined the policy positioning of this commercial trial in its approval: As the commercialization process of China's satellite communication industry continues to accelerate, satellite IoT will become an important supplement to broadband satellite internet. Organizing commercial trials for satellite IoT services is conducive to promoting the formation of scale effects in satellite IoT, and building a development pattern that is standardized and orderly, coordinated, complementary, and mutually beneficial for win-win cooperation; it helps stimulate the vitality of the private economy, supports the development of commercial aerospace, cultivates new quality productive forces, and builds a modern industrial system.
The commercial trial license obtained by Guodian Gaoke this time is a normalized institutional arrangement for advancing private aerospace enterprises to obtain satellite communication service qualifications. In August 2025, the "Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Optimizing Business Access to Promote the Development of the Satellite Communication Industry" was issued, clearly proposing to support the accelerated development of low-orbit satellite internet and to conduct commercial trials for low-orbit satellite communication applications at an appropriate time. In October of the same year, the MIIT released a draft for comments on the "Notice on Organizing Commercial Trials for Satellite IoT Services." The official approval on May 6, 2026, means that Guodian Gaoke has become the first private enterprise in China approved to conduct commercial trials for satellite IoT services, and the Apocalypse Constellation has officially switched from the network verification phase to the phase of large-scale services for industry users.
The Apocalypse Constellation is independently developed and operated by Guodian Gaoke, positioned as a narrowband low-orbit IoT constellation. The first-phase system consists of 38 low-orbit small satellites, which have completed global networking and begun large-scale commercial operations. On January 16, 2026, the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center used the Ceres-1 sea-launched variant Y7 carrier rocket in the sea area near Rizhao, Shandong, to send the 37th to 40th satellites of the Apocalypse Constellation into their predetermined orbits in a "four satellites with one rocket" mission. These are the first batch of enhanced satellites after the completion of the first-phase Apocalypse network, and their entry into orbit will further enhance the service capability of the constellation system. Unlike broadband satellite internet, the Apocalypse Constellation uses VHF/UHF frequency bands for narrowband communication. Although the single transmission data volume is small, the power consumption is extremely low; terminals can operate at the hundred-milliwatt level, and a single battery can work continuously for several years in field environments.
The core customer base of the Apocalypse Constellation is concentrated on the industry side. Currently, its services have covered multiple industry sectors including energy, forestry, agriculture, emergency response, water conservancy, electric power, petroleum, marine, and ecological environment. Typical scenarios include data backhaul from marine buoy sensors, operational status collection for power towers in remote areas, meteorological parameter monitoring in forest zones, and structural safety warnings for roads and bridges. Guodian Gaoke is simultaneously promoting the expansion of terminals from the industrial grade to the consumer grade, including terminal forms such as mobile phones, automobiles, walkie-talkies, and wearable devices.
The ecosystem of the Apocalypse Constellation has formed a collaborative landscape where enterprises and universities advance together. On the enterprise side, in October 2025, Haige Communications signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Guodian Gaoke to carry out joint innovation in areas such as chip modules, terminal equipment, antenna systems, and satellite-borne equipment, targeting large-scale commercialization in directions such as low-altitude economy, industrial IoT, emergency communications, and consumer electronics. On the university side, in January 2026, the Apocalypse Satellite IoT Joint Laboratory, co-established by Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Guodian Gaoke, was inaugurated. The 40th Apocalypse satellite was named "NJUPT IoT" for its launch and will be used for testing and application in integrated space-air-ground communication networks, providing communication services in IoT fields such as industry, transportation, and ocean shipping.
The MIIT emphasized in its approval that the next step will be to coordinate development and security, further optimize market access for satellite communications, strengthen full-chain supervision and security safeguards, promote the high-quality development of China's satellite communication industry, and support the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse, a cyber powerhouse, an aerospace powerhouse, and a digital China. This approval marks the core node for the Apocalypse Constellation's transition from space infrastructure to terrestrial commercial services. The setting of a two-year commercial trial period means that regulatory authorities will continuously evaluate the business model, service quality, and security compliance capabilities in practice, providing a policy basis for the subsequent formulation of a more comprehensive satellite IoT service access and regulatory framework.
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