Chinese car manufacturer Geely, the owner of Volvo, has said it is developing a satellite network to support its autonomous vehicle strategy. This comes as a blow to MNOs which hope automotive traffic will be a significant boost to the 5G business model, and there is a risk that other sectors will also turn to satellite, reducing Industrial IoT revenue potential for cellular networks. Geely is investing $326m in its plan to set up a manufacturing plant in Taizhou that will build 500 satellites annually by 2025. This is an expansion of its Geespace project, which was established in 2018 to develop low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite capabilities. Geespace will launch commercial network operations this year. In the company’s automotive operations,…