The proposed merger between French satellite operator Eutelsat and British satellite OneWeb illustrates the rise of high-speed spatial internet, aimed at serving isolated regions, without fiber optic networks, or mobile coverage, without going through terrestrial infrastructure.
Who are the actors?
In this “expanding” market, estimated at US$16 billion “by 2030” by Eutelsat in its press release, the race is on to capture the biggest share possible.
Satellite internet already exists with historical players such as ViaSat in the United States – which has just bought the British Inmarsat -, while in Europe, SES, Eutelsat, or subsidiary Orange Nordnet use the power of satellite to provide broadband to their customers.
Tech giants are also competing, such as American billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has already deployed more than half of the 4,400 satellites in its Starlink constellation.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, plans to deploy more than 3,200 satellites for his constellation Kuiper.
China also plans to deploy no less than 13,000 “Guowang” satellites, while the European Union wants to have its own constellation of around 250 satellites by 2024 in the name of sovereignty.
What is it for?
Having Internet access on the open sea, in the air, or in the desert is now possible thanks to these new constellations.
The “5G connectivity via satellites in low earth orbit” should allow “coverage in extreme geographic areas, or in remote places”, underlined the groups Thales, Qualcomm and Ericsson in a joint press release released in early July.
“The satellite network can also serve as an emergency solution for terrestrial networks in the event of major outages, or disasters,” they added.
The most striking example: the Ukrainian Digital Minister’s request to Elon Musk to bring an internet connection to areas hit by Russian army attacks since the invasion launched in late February.
SpaceX also donated 50 Starlink satellite terminals to the Tonga Islands to help them reconnect to the world after a volcano erupted in mid-January.
How it works?
Historic satellite Internet services pass through machines in geostationary orbit, at an altitude of more than 35,000 km. Although three to five times faster speeds than ADSL are promised, this distance implies that they cannot match fiber performance, and are hampered by the delay between the command and the execution of the request.
Amazon’s future satellites, such as those installed by Starlink, are, in turn, in low earth orbit (OTB), that is, at an altitude of a few hundred kilometers.
These satellites, which are smaller and “much cheaper” than traditional telecommunications satellites, allow for low-latency communications, that is, with a reduced transmission delay, highlights an expert in the sector.
“It’s really a technical revolution,” he says.
The fact that it is closer to Earth makes it necessary, however, to send many machines to low orbit “and very quickly” in order to be able to offer its service.
Another complaint, according to several experts, is that these machines are much more vulnerable than geostationary ones, with a shorter lifespan, as demonstrated by the loss of several dozen Starlinks after a magnetic storm last February.
As a result, they “will need to be constantly replaced”, with the risk of also “multiplying” space debris.
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