ORBCOMM is an American company that offers industrial IoT solutions designed to track, monitor, and control fixed and mobile assets in markets including transportation, heavy equipment, maritime, oil and gas, utilities and government.

The company provides hardware devices, modems, web applications, and data services delivered over multiple satellites and cellular networks.

In 1992, the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) supported the spectrum allocation for non-voice, non-geostationary mobile-satellite service.

During the conceptual stages of the LEO satellite communications system, Orbital Sciences purchased a small company in Boulder, Colorado, specializing in small-satellite design.

These satellites were used to validate the design of the network further and were showcased in Orbital's plans to sign up an equity partner for the completion of the ORBCOMM System.

Two satellites (F Plane) were launched in April 1995, and the ORBCOMM global mobile data communications network was tested in the summer.

Teleglobe Mobile invested an additional $75 million in the project that year and joined Orbital as a full joint-venture partner in ORBCOMM.

In February 1996, ORBCOMM initiated the world's first commercial service for global mobile data communications provided by LEO satellites.

On April 23, 2001, this group of investors acquired substantially all of the non-cash assets of ORBCOMM Global L.P. and its subsidiaries, which included the in-orbit satellites and supporting U.S. ground infrastructure equipment that the company owns today.

At the same time, ORBCOMM LLC also acquired the FCC licenses required to own and operate the communications system from a subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corporation, which was not in bankruptcy, in a related transaction.

[12] AIS technology is used mainly for collision avoidance and maritime domain awareness, search and rescue, and environmental monitoring.

ORBCOMM leased the capabilities of two additional satellites, VesselSat-1 and VesselSat-2, launched in October 2011 and January 2012, respectively, for its AIS service from Luxspace.

On July 14, 2014, ORBCOMM launched six next-generation OG2 satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

[13] In September 2021, the company announced the completion of its acquisition by GI Partners in an all-cash transaction that values ORBCOMM at approximately $1.1 billion, including net debt.

[20] ORBCOMM is the only current satellite licensee operating in the 137-150  MHz VHF band, which was allocated globally for "Little LEO" systems.

[21][22] These new satellites were built by German OHB System AG (platform) and by Orbital Sciences Corporation (payload) and included a secondary AIS.

On November 9, 2009, ORBCOMM filed a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission stating that since its launch, communications capability for three of the quick-launch satellites and the CDS has been lost.

[28] On Oct. 7, 2012, the first SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of a prototype OG2 ORBCOMM communications satellite from Cape Canaveral failed to achieve the proper orbit, and the company filed a $10 million claim with its insurers.

[31] On July 14, 2014, ORBCOMM launched six next-generation OG2 satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

In September 2014, ORBCOMM announced that, after in-orbit testing, the six satellites had been properly spaced within their orbital planes and were processing over 20% of the network's M2M traffic.

In addition, the OG2 satellites are equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) payload to receive and report transmissions from AIS-equipped vessels for ship tracking and other maritime navigational and safety efforts.

[37] ORBCOMM has control centers in the United States, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea, as well as U.S. ground stations in New York, Georgia, Arizona, Washington and international ground stations in Curaçao, Italy, Australia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.

To avoid interference, terminals are not permitted to be active more than 1% of the time, and thus they may only execute a 450 ms data burst twice every fifteen minutes.

When ORBCOMM's next-generation satellites launched on July 14, 2014, each one was equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) payload to receive and report transmissions from AIS-equipped vessels for ship tracking and other maritime applications.