Lacuna Space at the European Water Leakage Summit 2025
Earlier this month, Lacuna Space had the privilege of participating in the European Water Leakage Summit 2025 in Amsterdam run by IQ International. The Summit is one of Europe’s leading forums for addressing the urgent issue of water loss in urban and rural networks. Lacuna Space’s business development manager, Eric Hewitson was a speaker, sharing insights into both terrestrial IoT and satellite IoT. These technologies are playing a critical role in transforming the way utilities detect and respond to water leakage challenges, helping reduce waste, limiting non-revenue water and meeting sustainability targets.
The Case for IoT in Water Management
Eric provided an overview of IoT protocols and technologies, walking through the current landscape of terrestrial IoT — including NB-IoT, LTE-M, and most significantly, LoRaWAN. Each protocol brings its strengths and trade-offs, but LoRaWAN continues to stand out for its long range, low power, and open standard approach, making it ideal for smart water metering, leak detection, and remote infrastructure monitoring.
At the heart of LoRaWAN’s ecosystem is the LoRa Alliance, whose commitment to interoperability and scalability has helped drive widespread adoption across the utility sector. emphasising the importance of choosing standards-based technologies that foster collaboration, sustainability, and future-proof deployments.
Going Beyond the Grid: Satellite IoT
From terrestrial coverage, the session shifted into the challenges of global connectivity — particularly in remote or underserved areas where traditional networks fall short. This is where satellite IoT steps in.
The presentation covered the architecture and capabilities of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite IoT systems, touching on key satellite operators in the space, as well as the importance of interoperable gateways, antenna design, and energy-efficient communications from low-power ground sensors.
Lacuna Space: Enabling Truly Global IoT
The highlight of the session was showcasing Lacuna Space’s technology, which uses LoRaWAN directly from space to connect sensors anywhere on Earth — from mountain reservoirs to remote agricultural sites and rural pipelines.
Lacuna’s constellation of small LEO satellites is designed to work seamlessly with LoRaWAN-enabled devices, requiring little or no modifications to existing hardware. This opens powerful new use cases for water utilities looking to extend monitoring into hard-to-reach zones without new infrastructure investments. Satellite IoT does not require the same level of hardware such as gateways or network maintenance for customers who would rather be focussed on their main business activities.
A New Chapter: Launch on SpaceX Transporter-14
Adding to the excitement, Eric closed the presentation with the news of Lacuna Space’s most recent launch — two new Lacuna satellites were successfully deployed on SpaceX’s Transporter-14 Falcon 9 mission on Monday 23rd June 2025. This expansion increases capacity for Lacuna Space for critical applications like leakage detection and water asset management.
There is clear momentum behind the integration of space-enabled IoT in water sustainability strategies, and Lacuna Space are proud to be at the forefront of that movement.
Looking Ahead
As water scarcity and infrastructure strain continue to mount across the globe, it’s increasingly clear that innovative, resilient technologies are not optional — they’re essential. Lacuna Space remains committed to working with utilities, municipalities, and solution providers to deliver affordable, scalable, and globally accessible IoT connectivity.
To learn more about Lacuna Space’s LoneWhisper satellite network or partner with us on a pilot project, contact us here.
Efficient global water optimisation: Monitor. Manage. Save.