5 minute read
Satellites
Spectrum and policy considerations for the satellite sector
For obvious reasons satellite systems have regularly been promoted as a way of resolving issues with rural technology and coverage. However, issues of spectrum availability, interference and regulation will need to be managed, as Dr Abhaya Sumanasena, managing consultant, Real Wireless, explains.
ACROSS THE WORLD, 4G wireless access is available in an impressive 95% of urban areas. This, however, drops to 71% in rural areas. This gets even worse when looking at developing and lower developed nations. According to a recent ITU report, in lower developed countries, 17% of the rural population has no mobile coverage at all, and 19% of the rural population is only covered by a 2G network.
The provision of a full service is not simply a question of where people live, but the areas through which they travel or work. We’ve seen estimates suggesting that only 25% of the earth’s landmass is served by mobile networks today. That figure drops to only 10% of the planet, if you include the oceans.
What are nations doing to standardise, to regulate or to facilitate the plugging of these ‘gaps’? Well, quite rightly, when it comes to nations they are, firstly, prioritising getting coverage to their disenfranchised rural communities.
Secondly, there is connectivity supporting the needs of public infrastructure: networks serving remote essential national or international emergency services or industries of national importance (energy utilities being a key one), and connectivity for transport across remote areas.
And thirdly, there are (increasingly private) networks serving businesses or venues in the hardest to reach areas: (air)ports, mines, manufacturing facilities.
An EU-wide initiative called Rural SMEs supports innovation in local businesses in rural areas – and ensuring the comms infrastructure is available is a key part of this. Increasingly, we are likely to see more specialist providers like Northern Spain’s WIFINOR that are focused on filling this gap and providing services to rural communities and businesses using a mix of technologies.
In Japan, Softbank has been proactive in its strategy for serving rural and remote communities (roughly 80% of Japan is mountainous!) and last year agreed with operator KDDI to form a joint venture specifically aimed at accelerating the roll-out of 5G to rural communities.
Sometimes though, these initiatives need the weight of regulators behind them to ensure they deliver – since they may not be commercially prioritised by MNOs.
The Peruvian government specifies the needs of rural coverage as part of its spectrum licensing requirements – tackling the fact that 80% of its localities were rural and lacked any internet coverage (in 2016). Even back in 2013, the Peruvian authorities stipulated, in their contract with Telefonica: “Free access to Social Internet (Satellite) in 661 highest impoverished districts and 396 TAMBOS (Rural development and distribution centres).”
For obvious reasons satellite systems have regularly been mooted as the way of resolving issues with rural technology. However, it’s only very recently that this potential has seemed likely to become reality, through the combination of technology development, a growing (but by no means universal) industry alignment, and an increasing (but by no means universal) recognition of the importance of regulatory alignment from policymakers.
Nevertheless, in spite of the caveats, the satellite sector is evolving apace, with an increasing number of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellations providing highcapacity data services across large parts of the global land mass and the oceans. NGSO covers low earth orbit (LEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) constellations with LEO services perhaps getting most media coverage (and investment) today.
The general consensus is that, in developed European markets, satellite broadband is likely to be niche. However, it’s worth noting that satellite systems offer capabilities that other types of deployment would struggle to match, including: • Connectivity to remote areas (land, sea or air) for individuals, transport platforms, business or for mobile backhaul. • Continent-wide or global IoT services. • Resilient links for some security-conscious industries (military, banking, lotteries). • One-to-many content distribution (such as
TV broadcast, media or software distribution). • High-capacity links in the absence of highcapacity fixed connectivity. • Peripatetic links, such as electronic news gathering (ENG) and some sports coverage (e.g., golf). There are, of course, large parts of the world
Above Africa’s skies new satellite systems are coming…
There is increasing demand from clients to connect their remote sites in all areas.
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