Satcoms

Qatar Airways has announced a collaboration with Starlink and will roll out a complimentary high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity experience onboard specific aircraft and routes as a result. Once the service is active, passengers will be able to enjoy ultra-fast Wi-Fi speeds of up to 350 Megabits per second enabling various internet-based services. 

Nkechi Egerton-Idehen has been appointed as the new CEO of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Company (NIGCOMSAT). This appointment comes amidst the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu's significant reshuffle within the Country's Ministry of Communications, Innovations, and Digital Economy, NIGCOMSAT's parent ministry. As a result, Nkechi Egerton-Idehen will assume her new role immediately, succeeding Engineer Tukur Mohammed Lawal Funtua, who took over as NIGCOMSAT’s CEO in December 2022.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Skyrora, Viasat, and CGI a contract under the Commercial Space Transportation Services program to demonstrate InRange, a space-based launch vehicle telemetry relay system which will benefit launch vehicle providers across the industry globally. InRange will enable Skyrora to achieve continuous transmission of telemetry data during flight, from launch to payload deployment.

TESAT has signed a contract with Airbus to supply newly designed Quad Microwave Power Modules (Quad-MPM) for OneSat. This agreement follows from the European Space Agency (ESA) and TESAT's development program to improve the functionalities and design of MPMs. This consequently laid the foundation for the final design and qualification process for the Quad-MPM.

Hisdesat, the Spanish governmental satellite services provider of defense, security and intelligence, has provided secure satellite communications for the Dynamic Messenger-23 exercise, an annual NATO exercise that aims to assess the ability of allied naval forces to integrate unmanned systems in maritime operations.

A Euroconsult report focusing on In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) for air travel has highlighted a second consecutive year of strong growth. This is because over 36,000 commercial and business aviation aircraft now feature onboard internet access. The new study marks the 11th edition of an annual report entitled ‘Prospects for In-Flight Entertainment & Connectivity’ and predicts this number to grow steadily over the coming years, to almost double by 2032, as part of an overall market that could see service revenues reach as high as $3.4bn.

Artel LLC, provider of secure network communication services, has been awarded a Commercial Satellite Communications Proliferate Low-Earth orbit (p-LEO) contract from the US Space Force. Artel will partner with Rivada Space Networks to provide the next generation network critical to support US Government communications. 

The satcom landscape prepares for a transformative decade of growth as the market projects satellite capacity demand to surge from 3.6 Tbps (TeraBytes Per Second) in 2022 to 51 Tbps in 2032, representing a 31% CAGR (compound annual growth rate), with all data segments expected to observe exponential growth in the next 10 years.

During the World Satellite Business Week 2023 in Paris, players in the Earth Observation (EO) sector gathered together to look to the future. The “Leading EO Businesses Sharing Strategic Views” panel brought forth Brian O’Toole, CEO of Blacksky, Dr. Minda Suchan, VP of Geointelligence at MDA, Eric Even, Head of Sales at Airbus, Jon Love, VP at Maxar, Massimiliano Vitale, SVP Operations at Planet, and Paolo Minciacchi, CEO of e-GEOS to discuss their positioning within in the EOs sector, and how they are approaching various markets.

Sateliot, the first company to operate a low-Earth orbit nanosatellite constellation with 5G standards, extends its network range with a partnership with Comfone, a provider of mobile connectivity and roaming services. This operation enables over 480 MNOs and MVNOs worldwide to connect with a standard roaming agreement to Sateliot’s 5G NB-IoT nanosatellite constellation, paving the way to massive IoT adoption everywhere on the planet. Furthermore, with the agreement between Sateliot and Comfone, MNOs and MVNOs will be able to cover the entire plane.