China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has granted Zhejiang Geespace Technology a two-year satellite IoT commercial trial, marking the country’s first private-sector approval in this segment.
The permit goes to Geespace, the commercial space subsidiary of Geely, and sits inside a wider push to open China’s satellite communications market to private capital.
What MIIT wrote into the approval
MIIT said satellite IoT is an important complement to broadband satellite services. The ministry also said the trial should help pave the way for further private-sector participation in China’s commercial space development.
That framing matters because the approval is not a full market opening. It is a trial, and it comes with a two-year term.
Geespace’s satellite IoT footprint
Geespace says it independently designs, develops, deploys, and operates Geesatcom, its global LEO satellite Internet of Things constellation. The company says it is dedicated to building and operating a low Earth orbit communications constellation.
The company has launched around 64 satellites and was founded in 2018. It says it has run trials with telecom operators in more than 20 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
China’s earlier permit for Beijing Guodian High-Tech Technology
Geespace is the first private Chinese company to secure approval for a satellite IoT commercial trial. In May, MIIT issued the country’s first satellite IoT trial permit to Beijing Guodian High-Tech Technology, which is backed by China Mobile.
China Mobile is the country’s largest wireless carrier, so the earlier permit shows that MIIT had already started testing the category before clearing Geespace.
Read for satellite IoT licensing teams
The Geespace permit gives operators and vendors a concrete reference point for how China is handling private satellite IoT trials: a named counterparty, a fixed two-year term, and a sector scope that MIIT explicitly links to broader commercial space policy.
For satellite IoT licensing teams, the relevant benchmark is not a launch date or a fleet size target. It is the fact that MIIT is allowing private participation under trial conditions while keeping the market framed as a controlled opening.