Opinion

High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) are promising connectivity infrastructure options to address the digital divide in rural and remote locations. These systems, which operate in the stratosphere and can offer terrestrial-grade latency, line of sight propagation capabilities, and more coverage than ground-based systems. The commercial trial of HAPS in Kenya by Loon (an Alphabet/Google spin-out)...

The space segment has been undergoing a major transformation for a number of years now. Earth observation is moving towards a constellation approach, populating new orbit inclinations and altitudes and diversifying sensors. Connectivity-focused space systems are now invading the Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) orbit with broadband constellations and payloads in all orbits are offering more capacity...

At the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Cornwall, delegates pledged to take action to tackle the growing hazard of space debris as our planet’s orbit becomes increasingly crowded. But how can this pledge be enforced? And, who will enforce it?” ESG — environmental, social, and corporate governance — is the buzzword across diverse channels of investor...

The satellite industry is changing. The big advantage of satellite over the years has been its point-to-multipoint capabilities. With the advent of data and video-on-demand, we are seeing more and more competition to the traditional delivery of satellite. At the same time, consumers don’t care how the data gets to them — their primary concern...

Real-time communication with satellites, especially those that are part of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations is a growing challenge. Providing frequent updates remains critical in delivering near-real-time intelligence within the Earth Observation (EO) market. The same applies to the seamless connectivity objectives of the communication constellation operators. The ability to transmit data across the network seamlessly...

The space business needs to recruit more people who know less. Strange, right?  The global pandemic dramatized how important skills are to personal economic progress. As states and countries locked down, those with the high-skilled jobs that could be done from home came out ahead. Those whose jobs required them to be face to face...

Satellite capacity pricing is increasingly becoming heterogeneous and granular. Demand-supply dynamics, managed services and a looming multi-orbit, multi-band satcom environment are a few of the reasons driving need to assess pricing differently and across space and time dimensions. In its Satellite Capacity Pricing Index report (SCPI7) NSR deep-dives into major aspects modulating bandwidth pricing per application, frequency...

A pandemic-fueled 18 months has given rise to an undeniable acceleration in the way people go about their daily lives. Globally, a largely locked down population increasingly looked to the web to watch on-demand content, shop, and socialize. The statistics back this up. Consumers worldwide spent nearly $4.29 trillion online in 2020, up more than...

A decade ago, commercial IT underwent a widespread shift under the theme of convergence — of hardware and software, networks, cloud, and more. Today those efforts underpin modern government IT operations, but the concept of convergence is re-emerging as digital transformation demands closer alignment of technologies, applications, and collaboration to achieve advanced functionality. This is...

Roughly half of the world’s population is still offline. Some people can’t financially afford smartphones or telecom services, while others live in areas that make even subpar service unattainable. Thanks to mobile technology and broadband networks, it is possible for many of us to have the entire world of information at our fingertips. High-altitude platform...