A cell phone tower. Photo: Ryan Greenberg, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of connectivity is obvious. This virus has impacted every country, every community on some level, and the need for connectivity is vital. Satellite has always played a key role in connecting remote and rural end users, but the evolution of satellite backhaul services has created several opportunities for satellites to align with telcos providing services at the edge.

Next week, Via Satellite brings satellite and telco industry speakers together for a unique virtual event — our Digital Cell Backhaul Week. The event aims to bring the movers and shakers of the backhaul, constellation, and satellite services world together to address how backhaul can connect more people and also accelerate our path to 5G services.

The event begins on Monday, July 20th at 11 a.m. EST with a virtual networking event, giving attendees a chance to network before the panel sessions and keynotes scheduled for later in the week.

The event’s first big industry panel takes place on Tuesday, July 21 at 10:00 a.m. This session will explore how telcos can benefit from next generation satellite technologies. We have a wide range of speakers taking part in this discussion, presenting a variety of use cases for different applications. Arsat in Argentina will speak alongside the likes of Hughes, ST Engineering, and Gilat Satellite Networks as we take a deep dive into how satellite can serve as a powerful pipeline to network hubs.

On Wednesday, July 22, we are joined by key speakers from NSR and Southeastasianet Technologies Myanmar (Seanet) in Myanmar to talk about the need for backhaul in Asia. With so many big country markets in the region, the demand is strong.

Our final panel session will take place on on Thursday, July 23, as speakers from SpaceX and Telesat talk about issues in terms of connecting rural North America. Fernando Bellido, deployment director for Altán Redes, will also join to share the telco perspective on how satellites can play a role in connecting more users.

To close out Digital Cell Backhaul Week, we proudly welcome the CEO of Liquid Telecom, Scott Mumford, who will deliver a keynote address. Liquid Telecom recently did a deal with Intelsat and has ambitious plans to connect Africa. In his keynote, Mumford will give a customer perspective on how satellite can fare in this uber-connected and fast 5G landscape.

We hope you can join us for this amazing event.

Register here.