Radio over Internet for Electric Cooperatives
With Skymira, your radios work wherever your crews work.
Interested in using Starlink or Amazon LEO to extend radio coverage across your service area?
Skymira provides the link between your existing radios and satellite or cellular networks to boost safety and extend coverage into rural, remote, and disaster-impacted areas. This allows crews to communicate directly with each other and with dispatch in real time to reduce safety risks, reduce time spent searching for signal, and improve day-to-day operational effectiveness.
Whether you’re facing communications challenges from gaps in coverage, aging infrastructure, remote service areas, or outages and disasters, Skymira provides robust solutions that match your operational requirements.
IMPROVE SAFETY
Reliable coverage boosts safety for line crews by ensuring they have PTT communication wherever they go. Real-time condition updates, reliable emergency alerts, and the ability to call for backup reduce risks and simplify safety procedures.
We recently talked with a co-op that had a bucket truck slide off the road in a remote area with no coverage during an ice storm with temperatures below minus thirty degrees. The crew’s survival depended on someone passing by over three hours later.
With SkyPTT, they would have been able to trigger an emergency alert and call for help immediately – even in their remote location.
Extending coverage across the entire service area improves worker safety even when crews are working in rugged or remote areas.
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
This consistent connection also allows technicians to complete and submit updates and work orders in the field. This saves time and frustration, streamlines workflows, and keeps dispatchers up-to-date on crew progress and conditions.
One co-op decided to put Skymira’s solution to the test by installing it in one of the trucks. After just one day, the improvement was dramatic. Their first comment: “We were able to talk from anywhere.” On the first job they tested it on, the crew saved two hours they would normally have spent driving back and forth to get into a coverage area for updates and instructions.
For another energy utility with wind turbines in northern Canada, on-site communications saved hours during repair jobs. In the past, technicians – who aren’t allowed to be up in the turbines without a spotter on the ground for safety reasons – had to climb down hundreds of feet every time the spotter had to drive into a coverage area to request parts or send updates. Now, equipped with Skymira gateways, the spotter can order equipment and send updates on-site, saving hours of downtime and significantly speeding up repairs.
DISASTER-PROOF COMMUNICATIONS
What happens to your communications during disasters and outages?
For those responding to Hurricane Helene, for instance, the flooding and devastation weren’t the only challenges. Restoration efforts were hampered by what one electric co-op leader described as “essentially a communications blackout.” Cell phones had no signal, and radios were sketchy at best. For one electric co-op, it took nearly three days to confirm conditions in a district just one hour away.
This lack of comms slowed restoration, left line crews vulnerable without backup or real-time updates, and kept dispatchers in the dark without GPS visibility or crew status. Helene, like other hurricanes, ice storms, and outages, proved the importance of having a backup that works when regular systems fail.
That’s where Skymira comes in. By linking your everyday radios to satellite networks like Starlink or Amazon LEO, Skymira keeps communications online even when radio and cell towers go down.
Between storms, Skymira fills coverage gaps in rural and remote areas. When disaster strikes, crews will be able to respond safely and efficiently with communications they can rely on.
Now is the time to harden communications before the next storm hits.
GPS TRACKING AND MAPPING
With reliable connectivity, headquarters can see where each vehicle and crew member is in real time. Emergency alerts and distress signals reliably come through and can be mapped immediately to coordinate response. This increased visibility also aids efficiency – enabling the nearest crew to be sent in cases of last-minute requests and emergencies.
Skymira’s GPS tracking can be used with the SkyGPS portal or integrated into existing mapping systems.
FIELD TESTED AND PROVEN
All this sounds good on paper, but how does it translate to the real world?
An electric cooperative in Virginia hired a professional consulting firm to recommend the most future-proof and cost-effective communication technology for their service area. After months of research, the firm recommended Skymira’s satellite PTT solution – provided it could deliver coverage at 2,300 specific locations. The co-op equipped a truck with Skymira’s solution and sent interns out to test all 2,300 sites.
The official result: 100% coverage.
This kind of real-world validation provides confidence to buyers that the solution works in real operating conditions.
HOW IT WORKS
Skymira links radios to Starlink and other satellite and cellular networks using reinvented radio over internet protocol (RoIP) technology. With RoIP, push-to-talk calls are transmitted over internet networks such as satellite instead of traditional radio frequency networks.
Terrestrial networks rely on physical towers that are vulnerable to storms and disasters, easily blocked by natural and man-made obstructions, and too expensive to deploy in low-use areas. Satellite networks provide resilience, widespread coverage even in remote areas, and global connectivity.
The manufacturer-agnostic design of Skymira’s solutions means you can keep existing radios (any radio, any frequency) while dramatically increasing their capabilities and coverage.
By connecting radios over satellite, you can integrate them with other devices such as smartphones, tablets, and dispatch consoles for unified communications across operations. In addition, Skymira’s network-agnostic approach provides the ability to use whichever network or networks – radio, cellular, satellite, or private – are the best fit for your team now and into the future. Radio networks can be augmented or replaced entirely depending on your needs.
In a nutshell, SkyPTT connects radios over IP networks to eliminate coverage gaps, connect widely distributed teams, and provide reliable GPS tracking even in the most remote or disaster-prone areas.
REAL-LIFE CASE STUDY: MISSOULA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
Missoula Electric Cooperative (MEC) was facing increasing noise blur and dead zones after years of reliable VHF radio service. They needed a solution that offered better connectivity and coverage across their rugged territory. After exploring UHF and other alternatives, MEC discovered that they could harness the power of Starlink for their existing radios with Skymira.
A recent storm response highlighted the difference between the old and new systems as MEC helped a neighboring co-op. The technicians from the other coop, still using VHF, couldn’t call the office. But the MEC techs were able to call in for them using their new Starlink network.
Skymira’s radio gateways give MEC real-time communications and GPS tracking wherever they go. Read the full case study to discover how MEC transformed its communications coverage.
BEYOND RADIOS: DATA, SCADA, AND MORE
One of the benefits of Skymira’s solution is that it easily solves multiple problems with the same equipment. This keeps systems simple while reducing training, maintenance, and expenses.
It’s easy to add services like roaming WiFi to connect phones, tablets, and laptops for data uploads and retrieval in the field. SCADA monitoring and control can also be integrated to increase reliability and security.
With flexible solutions and everywhere coverage, Skymira helps you get the information you need when you need it.
One of the benefits of Skymira’s solution is that it easily solves multiple problems with the same equipment. This keeps systems simple while reducing training, maintenance, and expenses.
It’s easy to add services like roaming WiFi to connect phones, tablets, and laptops for data uploads and retrieval in the field. SCADA monitoring and control can also be integrated to increase reliability and security.
With flexible solutions and everywhere coverage, Skymira helps you get the information you need when you need it.
HOW TO GET STARTED: PROOF OF CONCEPT
Interested in using Starlink to extend radio coverage across your whole service area?
The first step is a conversation with Skymira to understand your operational environment, existing infrastructure, and coverage needs.
The next step is a proof of concept that includes:
1. On-site visit from one of our certified engineers with hands-on training, a driving coverage test, and a professional communications analysis
2. Unit to be used as a base at your offices
3. Unit to be used in a vehicle along with a Starlink Mini terminal
4. All necessary services (Starlink, SkyPTT) for 15 days