The End of RFID? Hubble and InPlay Launch Sub-$1 Global Tracking 

In the world of supply chain logistics, companies have long been forced into a brutal trade-off: use dirt-cheap passive RFID tags that only work when you’re standing right next to them, or invest in expensive cellular trackers that drain battery life and cover only a fraction of the globe.

This “visibility gap” costs businesses an average of $13 million annually.

Hubble Network and InPlay Inc. announced a partnership that aims to render that choice obsolete.

Hubble Network has built the world’s first global Bluetooth® connectivity network, utilizing a proprietary satellite constellation to allow standard Bluetooth devices to communicate across the globe without the need for cellular modems.

By pairing this with InPlay’s IN100 NanoBeacon—a sub-$1 chip designed for ultra-low power consumption—the companies are creating a system where asset tracking is as cheap as an RFID tag but as connected as a GPS tracker.

The mechanics are elegant: while passive RFID requires a company to build and maintain scanners at every warehouse, factory, and truck dock, the Hubble network acts as an “API layer for the physical world.”

Once an InPlay chip is embedded into a label, it connects automatically to Hubble’s network of over 95 million gateways.

There is no infrastructure to build, no scanner to maintain, and—critically—no reliance on the limited 15% of the Earth’s landmass covered by cellular LTE.

• The Cost Factor: By bringing the hardware cost down to under a dollar, item-level tracking is suddenly viable for goods that previously weren’t worth the investment—think returnable transport items, individual consumer parcels, or even cold-chain pharmaceutical packaging.
• The “Plug-and-Play” Advantage: InPlay’s NanoBeacon technology removes the need for complex software programming, allowing manufacturers to embed the chips and start transmitting telemetry data immediately upon deployment.

• The Reach: With 95 million+ gateways already in place, this isn’t a pilot program; it’s a global network ready for immediate enterprise integration.

This partnership essentially turns every “dumb” package into an intelligent node. We are moving toward a future where “lost” items in a supply chain are a thing of the past, not because we bought better scanners, but because the labels themselves are now part of a global, satellite-linked ecosystem.

As Hubble continues its expansion—following recent integrations with industry players like Samsara—it’s clear that the supply chain is undergoing a fundamental shift.

We are moving away from the era of manual visibility and into the age of the “connected object.”

For the manufacturers who have struggled with inventory blind spots for decades, this isn’t just an upgrade; it’s a total reimagining of what it means to keep track of a business.