Vol 6 No. 5Vol 6 No 5Vol. 7 No. 2018

By Marcel Dischinger

SeptemberVol 6 No. 5Vol 6 No 5Vol. 7 No. 10 2019November

Space assets critical to ending insurgency in Nigeria

How satellite broadband can foster aviation safety

AFRICA

Algeria’s rising space program

SPECIAL REPORT

C O N T E N T SVol. 7 No. 10

Editor in-chief Aliyu BelloExecutive Manager Tonia GerraldSA to the editor in-Chief Ngozi OkeyHead, Application Services M. YakubuEditorial/ICT Services John Daniel

Usman BelloAlozie NwankwoJuliet Nnamdi

Client Relations Sunday TacheLookman BelloSafiya Thani

Marketing Offy PatTunde NathanielWasiu Olatunde

Media Relations Favour MaduKhadijat YakubuZacheous Felicia

Finance Folarin Tunde

Space Watch Magazine is a publication ofCommunication Science, Inc. All correspondence should

be addressed to editor, space Watch Magazine.Abuja office: Plot 2009, Awka Street, UTC Building,

GF 11, Area 10, Garki, Abuja,Tel: 234 80336471114, 07084706167,

email:

LEGAL CONSULTANTSIdowu Oriola & Co. Garki, Abuja

DISTRIBUTION CONTACTSAde Adejo

ABIJAN INTERNATIONALSuleija, Abuja

AYO DISTRIBUTION AGENCYEmir Road, Ilorin Olumayowa Ojo

NEWSROUND INTERNATIONALArea 10, Garki, Abuja

Magazine Circulation Nigeria Limited90, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja

Magazine Subscription Nigeria LimitedIkeja, Lagos.

DELALI OTCHIRidge Church, Tudu Branch, Accra, Ghana.

AL AHRAM NEWPAPERS LIMITEDAl Galaa Street -11511 Cairo-Egypt

Ayo Olu

MAGAZINE DISTRIBUTION AGENCY

Jos, Plateau State.

info@spacewatchafrica.com

1

Wipro InfotechCover source

Nigeria

C-Band Alliance proposes to clear 300 MHz of spectrum for nationwide 5G deploymentSpace Tech Expo Europe defines market drivers for satellite communicationsHow satellite broadband can foster aviation safety

Eutelsat launches an integrated IoT connectivity service via satellite

Egypt and the "space race”

ITU’ WRC-19 Conference to play pivotal role in tomorrow's digital environment

Satellite firm connects 700 schools to internet

Tunisia's Telnet to launch first home-made satellite in July 2020

Thuraya highlights remote IoT connectivity at OilComm 2019

SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband tested by US Military

WMO Regional Office for Africa opens in Ethiopia

Intelsat announces Q3 2019 results

Nigeria’s radio quite zone hub revealed!

Setting new milestones in Q1

Eutelsat orders EUTELSAT 10B satellite for inflight and maritime connectivity servicesAlgeria’s rising space program

5

Editorial

At a political level, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 2030) and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) have been universally adopted. African nations have already committed to achieving the goals of the SDG 2030 and the Africa Union Agenda 2063. When the continent first adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, its starting point was lower than other regions.

African countries had huge development needs, but their economies faced a rapidly deteriorating fiscal space with rising levels of debt. Today, there is still a gap between what the agendas demand and what is workable on the ground. The ratification of the agenda and funding frameworks at the country level remain incomplete, as is the monitoring of progress – which remains largely voluntary. Voluntary national reporting schemes are incomprehensive, irregular and don't always provide comparative data.

SDG data is thus scarce, and incomprehensive and inconsistent where it exists. The majority of African countries do not possess updated data for crucial indicators such as poverty, health, nutrition, education, infrastructure; where they do possess it, the latest available is from 2015. Internationally generated data has proven insufficient to make up for this in assessing progress over the first three years. This has consequences: having no data undermines a country's capacity to establish SDG baselines and to track the performance of indicators to reinforce evidence-based decision-making. Based on data for some SDG indicators, there has been notable progress towards only three goals: SDG 5 Gender equality, SDG 13 Climate action and SDG 15 Life on land.

Where data exists, and with 12 years remaining, progress on the other fourteen goals remains off-track and the goals are unlikely to be met if rapid and unified action is not taken. For the people-centered goals, progress continues to be outstripped by high population growth. Africa's continued lack of demographic

transition will structurally constrain the attainment of SDGs (people-centered as well as other goals). Social inclusion remains a key challenge. However, SDG performance across the different regions in Africa is heterogeneous, with North Africa ahead of others.

The lack of progress on SDGs in Africa is a shared failure for all stakeholders. There is a persistent lack of clarity on mutual accountability mechanisms. This is also exhibited on the supply side, where the financing for SDGs is well below the requisite levels. Public revenue shortfalls are sizable, the pace of reform is slow, and one in five African countries does not raise enough in revenues to meet its basic state functions.

Very slow or no action characterizes the development of National Financing Frameworks as stipulated in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Also, external inflows continue to be constrained by inward-looking policies and tight global economic and financial conditions. However, f inanc ia l out f lows – particularly illicit financial flows – remain large, and exceed each of the main financial inflows into Africa (ODA, remittances and FDI).

The attainment of SDGs by African countries will not be business as usual. Africa's failure to attain SDGs will have implications everywhere on the planet. Africa must step up, but shared pragmatic responsibility is also critical. Traditional financial flows are key, as are external support for domestic revenue and statistical reforms. Political support for statistics, backed by the requisite financial instruments and resources, remains the most significant factor for data revolution in Africa.

An annual data tracking system for Addis Ababa Action Agenda is crucial, as is the establishment of Africa-based funds for social inclusion. Continent-based accountability mechanisms are also needed, as well as support for existing mechanisms. An evidence-based understanding of the synergies of

SDGs is important so that national budgeting and mainstreaming can take them into account.

This report provides a holistic digest of the progress, const ra in ts and challenges that Africa continues to face, and it should form the basis for each stakeholder's work plan going forwards. Oppor tun i t ies ex is t : un tapped investment opportunities and the growth of f inancia l and technologica l innovations can be harnessed to support the implementation of SDGs. All stakeholders should strive for full transparency while documenting and coordinating their efforts. Accountability mechanisms at the continent-wide level could leverage the mapping and tracking of the goals.

Speeding up market integration will not only spur pockets of South-South cooperation but also drive progress towards the SDGs. This report provides a three-year reality check on SDG progress and has benefitted from far-r e a c h i n g c o n s u l t a t i o n w i t h stakeholders. Its analysis and the next steps that it proposes should form the basis for our shared journey. If we truly work together, we can still leave no one behind.

Belay Begashaw, Ph.D.Director General

Africa 2030: the road map for sustainable development goals

Eutelsat announces appointment of Marie-Sophie Rouzaud as Chief Human Resources Officer

Eutelsat Communications announces the appointment of Marie-Sophie Rouzaud as Group Chief Human Resources Officer. Her new position will be effective from early 2020. Marie-Sophie Rouzaud will become a member of the Group's Executive Committee as of the same date. Marie-Sophie Rouzaud has an expansive knowledge of Eutelsat, having served as the company's Head of International Human Resources since 2017.

She has more than twenty years of exper ience, w i th a focus on international team management, talent building and corporate change. She has spent her entire professional career work ing for h igh- tech companies: after holding several senior positions at Alcatel-Lucent, she joined Technicolor in 2011. Her responsibilities included driving the integration of employees during Technicolor's acquisition of Cisco's Connected Objects business unit. Marie-Sophie Rouzaud will succeed Antoine Mingalon who, after 3 years at Eutelsat, has made the decision to leave the company to pursue other professional projects as of early 2020.

Communications & Power Industries appoints Andrew Ivers Chief Operating Officer

Communications & Power Industries (CPI) has announced that Andrew C. Ivers will be joining the company as its new chief operating officer, effective November 4, 2019. Mr. Ivers will report directly to Bob Fickett, president and chief executive officer of CPI, and will be responsible for implementing the company's growth strategies and helping lead operational excellence initiatives.

Mr. Ivers is an experienced manager and engineer in the electronic components and subsystems industry, and a seasoned veteran of defense and communications companies. Prior to joining CPI, Mr. Ivers served as an executive for 18 years at L3

Technologies, most recently as corporate senior vice president and the president of its Communications Systems business segment. Under his leadership, this business segment reported significant growth in both revenue and operating income. Mr. Ivers also held previous management roles at Harris Corporation and Raytheon Co. He has an MBA from the University of Rochester's Simon School of Business and a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and mathematics from the University of California, Irvine.

SSPI UK names Goonhilly's Ian Jones as the 2019 Space & Satellite Personality of the Year

SSPI UK, the UK Chapter of the Space and Satellite Professionals International organisation is pleased to announce Ian Jones, CEO of Goonhilly, as the U.K. Space & Satellite Personality of 2019. Ian has been instrumental in the revival of Goonhilly Earth station as a multi-faceted space hub. He joins past winners of the award: Catherine Mealing-Jones, Magali Vaissiere and Greg Wyler. We will celebrate the award during the SSPI Better Satellite World Award Dinner taking place on 2 December in London. Betty Bonnardel, SSPI UK President says: “Especially as we celebrate 50 years of Apollo's Moon mission this year, in which Goonhilly was associated, Ian Jones seemed the natural winner of the SSPI UK Personality of 2019 award.” Ian Jones says: “It's such an honour to receive this award. Being recognised from within our amazing profession is very special. Of course it's not possible to build a company alone. Many people were responsible for building Goonhilly long before I came along. More recently the wonderful team at Goonhilly have transformed the site again and I hope that our best achievements are yet to come. Goonhilly has an extraordinary way of touching and inspiring many people. Just as it did to me a few years ago. I hope that everyone with a connection to Goonhilly can feel that they have contributed in their own way to this award." SSPI's Better Satellite World Awards programme celebrates innovation in the space and satellite sector by honouring three established companies as well as disruptors globally for their role on helping make our world a more prosperous, healthier, better-educated,

more sustainable and inclusive home for all humankind. The Better Satellite World Awards Dinner celebrates the enormous contributions of the satellite industry to the economy, sa fe ty, secur i ty, governance, development and health of the planet – and the outsized role that UK-based companies play in the market.

Shane McCarthy joins Irdeto as Chief Operating Officer, Video Entertainment

Irdeto announced that Shane McCarthy has been appointed to the role of Chief Operat ing Off icer for i ts v ideo entertainment business. A developer by background, Mr. McCarthy previously held a number of roles at Pace, including the President of the International Business, where he achieved strong growth on the way to building a near USD $1B business. In his new role at Irdeto, he will be responsible for defining the strategy and overseeing execution within Irdeto's video entertainment business.Mr. McCarthy has spent the past five years as an entrepreneur and consultant in the media and entertainment and technology sectors. He previously spent nine years at Pace and worked for Cisco prior to this. With his extensive industry experience, Mr. McCarthy will play an instrumental role in further developing Irdeto's global leadership position within the media and entertainment industry. “With my technical and media industry background, I have been at the forefront of the evolution of the industry which continues at pace, making secure content de l ivery o f paramount importance across the globe,” said Shane McCarthy, Chief Operating Officer, Video Entertainment, Irdeto. “With an already thriving business providing security to many of the major players across the video entertainment space, this is a very exciting time to join Irdeto and help take the business to the next level.” “As our market and customers evolve, it's important that Irdeto evolves in tandem to continue to ensure optimal security and service to our current and future customers,” said Doug Lowther, Chief Executive Officer, Irdeto. “The creation of the COO role is designed to do this while advancing Irdeto's global business. Shane McCarthy brings a wealth of experience to Irdeto which will be invaluable in further accelerating our progress.”

APPOINTMENTS

C-Band Alliance proposes to clear 300 MHz of spectrum for nationwide 5G deployment

The C-Band Alliance (CBA) announced today that it will commit to clear 300 MHz of C-band spectrum to support fast 5G wireless deployment throughout the continental U.S. In an updated filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the CBA detailed that the 300 MHz of spectrum includes a 20-MHz guard band to protect existing satellite services from 5G interference. Further enhancing its plan to clear spectrum quickly, the first tranche—which clears spectrum within 18 months of an FCC order in 46 top metropolitan zones—is now increased to 120 MHz, inclusive of the 20-MHz guard band. The second tranche of the remaining spectrum will be made available within 36 months from a CBA-led auction, providing cleared spectrum throughout the entire continental U.S. As it completed the work necessary to enhance its proposal, the CBA collaborated closely with U.S. broadcasters and programmers that serve nearly 120 million American homes via the C-band. This work included analyzing the potential use by some customers of technologies such as advanced modulation, single format transport and advanced video compression, including High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Each of these technologies improves the efficiency of satellite video delivery, allowing the same video content to be transmitted over less spectrum. The CBA proposal commits to implement these technology upgrades at no cost to those satellite customers implementing them. The CBA remains committed to ensuring that existing customers continue to enjoy the quality of service they experience now, with no interference from 5G services deployed in the future. The CBA member companies will maintain continuity of all current C-band customer services and maintain the value of the continental U.S. C-band video distribution neighborhoods. In its most recent ex parte filing, the CBA updated its commitments to its customers, including on key elements such as the transition plan, hardware selection, and interference detection processes. The CBA also affirms its commitment to covering all other costs of the transition, such as the required filtering of earth stations throughout the continental U.S. as outlined in previous CBA submissions and the order of eight new satellites from U.S. manufacturers. The CBA's proposal is the only one that balances the public interest in rapid 5G network deployment throughout the continental U.S. with the requirement by the FCC and C-band user community to maintain satellite delivery for current services, providing continued operating efficiency and quality.Speaking on behalf of the C-Band Alliance, Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said, “Throughout this nearly two-year process, we have sought to work collaboratively as peers, to be responsive to the goals of U.S. policy makers seeking spectrum for 5G, and to work closely with our customers to protect their transmissions and understand their current and future network needs.

The satellite communications a n d g r o u n d s e g m e n t industries are at a critical stage of development as market needs change. The main driver for advancement comes f rom increased c u s t o m e r d e m a n d . Customers would like greater flexibility and autonomy in the services they can use, and simultaneously there is an increased demand for over-the-top (OTT) media services such as subscription-based video on demand and a need to transfer the large amount of da ta co l lec ted by the satellites. This creates challenges and opportunities for satellite

o p e r a t o r s a n d m a n u f a c t u r e r s . D r . Siegbert Martins CTO and Head of Development a n d D e s i g n a t Te s a t S p a c e c o m , a p a y l o a d e q u i p m e n t developer for satellites, highlights this: “The main challenge is driven by market demand. It means meeting cost targets so t h a t s a t e l l i t e communication systems become a real opportunity a n d c o m p l e m e n t t e r r e s t r i a l d a t a c o m m u n i c a t i o n networks.” Despite these growing market needs, Dr

Martin reckons there is a larger opportunity for satellite communications. “I'm discovering a lack of awareness about space capability among network suppliers and in the public in many conversations. Satellite technology can close the gaps of data connectivity in rural areas and is part of realising the digital roadmap. Finally, with a view to satellites becoming part of the 5G network, a link between terrestrial operators and satellite network operators is essential and has to be built up.”

T h e T a n z a n i a Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s Corporation (TTCL) has signed an agreement with B u r u n d i B a c k b o n e S y s t e m s ( B B S ) , a consortium of Burundian t e l e c o m s o p e r a t o r s planning a national fibre-optic network, to provide b r o a d b a n d i n t e r n e t connectivity to the east African nation, Xinhua reported. The USD 6 m i l l i on dea l w i l l be implemented over the next decade, said TTCL chief e x e c u t i v e WaziriKindamba, adding that it will also allow TTCL to broaden its business

portfolio in both east Africa and the Southern African Development C o m m u n i t y r e g i o n (SADC).Kindamba said the TTCL will provide first class b roadband i n te rne t services in Burundi through s ta t ions in Kabanga and Manyovu in the border region of Kigoma. He added that as a resu l t o f the agreement, landlocked Burundi will now be connected across the world and that access to new internet services will "ease and improve business" between the neighbouring countries,

b o t h o f w h i c h a r e members of the East African Community along with Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Sou th Sudan.

Tanzania Telecommunications signs deal with Burundi Backbone Systems

IN THE NEWS

Space Tech Expo Europe defines market drivers for satellite communications

In the aviation industry, satellite communication provides voice and data service that allows ATC - Pilot communication, aircraft-to aircraft , air traffic control units and airline operations centre when outside coverage of conventional grounds radar and VHF (LOS) stations, according to Aliemeke Godwin

Safety is the state of being “safe”, the condition of being protected from harm or other non-desirable outcomes. Safety can also refer to the control of identified or potential hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Safety is the condition of a steady state of an organization or place doing what it is supposed to do to obtain maximum level of production.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority as a regulatory body ensures aviation security and safety for regularity of flight and economic growth of the industry. According to Wikipedia “Aviation safety means the state of an aviation system or organization in which risks associated with aviation activities related to or in direct support of the operations of aircraft, are reduced and controlled to an acceptable level”.

Aviation safety has to do with the theory, practice, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training.

Air travel safety issues Aircraft are regarded as the fastest and safest means of transportation and its impact on the life of humans is fundamentally essential. It is a necessity to carefully consider and be mindful of any conditions that may influence or jeopardize the safety of flight. In the past, rate of aircraft accidents and incidents have been on the increase even when traffic growth was low compared to what it is today.

Over the years, causative factors have been traced to aircraft design, engine malfunct ion, human factors and communication failures consequential to restrictive regulations. Communications coverage was also l im i ted to l i ne o f s igh t (LOS) communication and errors have been considered as a major factor in air mishaps. Until the introduction of satellite communication (World-wide coverage-

Beyond line of sight (BLOS). LOS has remained a major setback to aviation safety and security. Communication, LOS or BLOS is a major element that fosters aviation safety because the aircraft needs to be guided step by step on every single movement or changes it initiates through its flight path as prescribed in the flight plan to and fro the destination aerodrome, domestic or international. Without guidance through reliable means of communication, the aircraft is as good as a bird though with wings to fly yet without eyes to see and ears

to hear worse than a bat. The aircraft flies blindly in the airspace where no parking space exists and without any means of communication. What a suicide mission?.

Satellite communication in Aviation Satell i te communication (BLOS) provides voice and data service that allows ATC-Pilot communication, aircraft-to aircraft , air traffic control units and airline operations centre when

How satellite broadband can foster aviation safety

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

outside coverage of conventional grounds radar and VHF (LOS) stations. S a t e l l i t e s e r v i c e s h a v e b e e n complemented by improved aircraft navigation capabilities allowing for not only reduced separations in non-radar space, but also the introduction of more complex operational solutions such as “in-trail climb procedure”, “use preferred routes” and track following of aircraft in-flight , etc.

SATCOM and increasing airline connectivity Satellite communication has successfully been integrated into the overall telecommunications market and has a variety of applications. Satellite technologies are more and more diverse and pervasive but they all rely on the same core element : the availability of radio frequencies that can be deployed without harmful interference. To ensure the availability of interference free communication, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) brings together member States every four year called World Radio Conference to deliberate on new telecommunication technologies and provide spectrum requirements and the radio regulations for telecom products.

The ITU is guided by an international treaty governing the use, application, allotment, allocation and assignment of radio-frequency spectrum. The radios operating as LOS and BLOS and the assoc ia ted sate l l i te orb i ts (both geostationary and non-geostationary), form the telecom products and services that the ITU al locates speci f ic frequencies for various space and earth stations applications. The ITU-Radio Regulations also contains detailed technical provisions and regulatory procedures to ensure efficient use of spectrum resources. The ever increasing passenger demand in air transportation has engendered robust

sophistications in aircraft design, corresponding increased improvements in aircraft design & engine efficiency has further heightened the level of airspace capacity due to congestion in our cloudy skies.

As airspace demand is increasing, there must be a comparable increase in satellite broadband to the cockpit and cabin for the comfort of passengers and reliability of services. Availability of bandwidth through deployment of Satellite communication is the game changer.

Given the fact that satellite connectivity exists in present day, it is limited in band width and other attributes and doesn't facilitate the required degree of functionality than newer satellite broadband can deliver. Connected aircrafts results in greater situational awareness that could result in lower separation between aircraft without compromising safety.

How satellite broadband can foster aviation safety Increased connectivity in airplanes could increase efficiency and reduce environmental effects. The aviation industry is experiencing a step-change, and technology is enabling greater efficiency, safety, planning, visibility and responsiveness in the industry. Satellite technology is essential if the industry is to meet the global demand of the increasing passengers.

The International Air Transport Association(IATA) forecasts a doubling of passengers by 2023 to 7.2 billion and doubling of aircrafts to 40,000. Digital advancements will continue to be an enabler across the value chain of air travel, spanning pre-departure to post-landing. Satellites provides enhanced degree of broadband capacity, reliability

and speed to and from the aircraft.

ESIM (Earth Stations in Motion)

ESIM is a stop-gap technology suggested to be deployed and is expected to cope with increasing demand of satellite broadband capabilities in the ever increasing airspace congestion.

Earth stations in motion communicate with geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) systems operating in the fixed-satellite service (FSS) and operate on platforms in motion in the frequency ranges 17.7 – 20.2 GHz and 27.5 – 30 Ghz. Historically, communication services to mobile platforms were usually provided by satellite systems in the mobile satellite systems (MSS) using relatively low f r e q u e n c y b a n d s e . g . ( t h e 1.5GHz,1.6GHz,2.1GHz and 2.4GHz) bands.

The narrow frequency bandwidths available limit the data rates that can be achieved, which range from a few Kbit/s to around 700Kbit/s in a single channel. The typical data rates currently provided by the terminals operating in networks serving ESIM are around 100 Mbit/s. Data rates may increase to support higher broadband demand or be reduced for application using smaller earth station antennas while still supporting much higher data rates than are available over existing MSS systems.

ESIM as a safety fostering measure When aircrafts or vessels are across the oceans, they are out of reach of terrestrial networks. An ESIM system can resolve this challenge by providing continuous broadband connectivity for passengers and crew members.

E S I M p r o v i d e s b r o a d b a n d communications on the largest cruise ships for multiple purposes ranging from ship operations to crew communications. The number of maritime vessels with a broadband connection by satellite grew by almost 25% btw 2012,2013 and 2014, this rapid growth has created greater demand for spectrum for ESIM. When in format ion and communicat ion infrastructure is down in natural disasters, ESIM can be vital.

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Eutelsat launches an integrated IoT connectivity service via satellite

On the eve of the IOT Solutions World Congress in Barcelona, Eutelsat Communications announces the launch of a pioneering satellite-based IoT connectivity service: Eutelsat IoT FIRST. Having recently unveiled its ELO constellation of nanosatellites in Low Earth Orbit, dedicated to the Internet of Things, Eutelsat has taken further steps towards its ambition to become a leading satellite IoT company through the launch of Eutelsat IoT FIRST: a fully integrated IoT connectivity service operating in Ku-band via Eutelsat's geostationary satellites. Targeted companies include selected satellite service providers, telecom operators and IoT service providers. At a price point proposed on a par with cellular-based IoT connectivity services, Eutelsat IoT FIRST integrates satellite terminals, space and ground segments, packaged within an API-based service delivery framework.

With this product, Eutelsat is further addressing the connectivity challenges of industries spanning across retail, banking and security, through to energy, mining and agriculture, which seek a cost-effective and reliable IoT solution to connect their fixed assets, irrespective of their location.

Eutelsat IoT FIRST also acts as an IoT backhaul service, enabling telecom operators to connect IoT base stations and gateways to their core network. Focusing currently on treating fixed assets, as of next year Eutelsat will then expand its portfolio of IoT services to incorporate the connectivity of m o b i l e a s s e t s . T h e g r o u n d infrastructure designed to serve Eutelsat IoT FIRST consists of a network of IoT-specific hubs hosted at teleports across the globe. These hubs are monitored and controlled 24/7 by Eutelsat's service delivery team from Turin, Italy.

Luis Jimenez-Tunon, Group Executive Vice President Data Business of Eutelsat “The reliability and boundless reach that satellite offers means that it will have an integral role in the IoT sector and in this regard, I am delighted to launch “Eutelsat IoT FIRST”, named in the honour of this service being a pioneer of its kind and Eutelsat's inaugural solution in its ambitious IoT roadmap.”

Everynet BV, the leading Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network operator and technology pioneer, announces availability of the s h a r e d L o R a W A N ™ infrastructure, ready to serve the ultra-low-cost IoT market across Spain.

Following the successful deployment of pilot networks in Madrid and Barcelona, already covering a quarter of the country's population, Everynet is now embarking on the expansion phase to full national coverage with a dense network of carrier grade gateways. Operating in a neutral-host model, Everynet manages all the operations & maintenance of the radio access network (RAN) through their 365x24 network operations centre (NOC), and makes this s h a r e d i n f r a s t r u c t u r e available to all service providers in the region, each purchasing bulk wholesale connectivity leases and o p e r a t i n g t h e i r o w n LoRaWAN network server

(LNS).Redexia is the first service provider to take advantage of this shared IoT network infrastructure. Co-founded by Alex Bryszkowski & Juan Ede r ra , who p rev ious founded Vozelia & Labelium respectively, Redexia has the l o c a l k n o w l e d g e a n d experience to lead their connect iv i ty customers t o w a r d s s u c c e s s f u l implementations, with a particular focus on water & gas metering, smart cities, industry 4.0 and the asset tracking.

“We are delighted to go to market standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Redexia” says Antonio Terlizzi, SVP of Global Sales for Everynet BV. “Combin ing Everynet 's expe r t i se f o r ne two rk operations, with Redexia's deep experience in IoT connectivity services, we are poised to lead the digital transformation of Spain's industries”With the network now live, there is no better time for

businesses to undertake their IoT pilots with Redexia's production quality connectivity service, providing a faster, l o w e r c o s t a n d m o r e representative result than attempting to build private networks. Together Redexia & Everynet are on hand to assist customers through their pilots and to then scale up to full production within Redexia's service. With the Everynet network expansion underway, it is also possible to prioritize deployment in specific regions where a compelling use-case exists.

“This is a very huge opportunity for Everynet and Redexia to work together. LoRaWAN is the ideal technology for a lot of use-cases, but specifically for water, gas and light metering. Says Alex Bryszkowski, Redexia co-founder. “Already managing a pipeline of around 5 million devices for Spain, we are confident that this strong a l l i a n c e b e t w e e n b o t h companies is what the Spanish market needs in terms of IoT connectivity.”

IN THE NEWS

Speedcast International Limited announced that it has signed a multi-year fleet contract extension with a major Norwegian ship owner to de l iver s ign i f icant ly increased VSAT connectivity along with the latest Iridium Certus back-up solution. In addition to the provision of Global VSAT and L-Band connectivity, Speedcast will install its industry-leading SIGMA Gateway network management platform across the entire fleet of over 40 vessels. SIGMA Gateway s e a m l e s s l y m a n a g e s Speedcast's global VSAT, L-Band, 4G/LTE and Wi-Fi services, bringing powerful capabilities to support vessels with advanced technology requirements." T h i s i s a l o n g - t i m e Speedcast customer with a desire to take advantage of Speedcast's high-speed

VSAT service for increased bandwidth and faster speeds," said Athina Vezyri, Executive Vice President of Maritime for Speedcast. “The upgrade will increase operational effectiveness and facilitate the customer's vision of improved welfare for onboard crew, while SIGMA Gateway will support the c o m p a n y ' s n e t w o r k management requirements — today and in the years to

come."”We look forward to the roll out of Speedcast's VSAT connectivity solution onboard our fleet," said the customer's Global Fleet Support Systems M a n a g e r . " I n c r e a s e d bandwidth and enhanced connectivity management s e r v i c e s d e p l o y e d v i a Speedcast's SIGMA Gateway wil l increase our f leet's operational efficiency and ensure improved service management on board each vessel."

Speedcast upgrades major Norwegian fleet's VSAT connectivity

Spain's national IoT network goes live!

Egypt has decided to join the world space club and the decisions to form Egypt's Space Agency and to build EgyptSat – A, are significant steps to achieve this strategic goal. The Egyptian satellite program has both scientific and military implications. Egypt highlighted the civilian aspects of the satellites, but the EgyptSat-2 satellite was designed to provide high-resolution imagery for the Egyptian military and other government agencies in the country. The decision to stick with a Russian manufacturer and China for the Egyptian remote sensing satellite might be more about Egyptian geopolitics than just the need for a reliable satellite imaging system.

The EgyptSat-A project On August 13, 2018, Egypt and China signed mutual letters for the implementation of a satellite named EgyptSat-A, according to an official statement by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation. The Chinese grant hits $US 45 million for the remote sensing Earth observation satellite

built by the Russian RSC Energia. The letters were signed by Sahar Nasr, Egypt's minister of investment and international cooperation, and the Chinese ambassador to Egypt, Song Aiguo. During Egyptian President, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, visit in China in September 2018, the two countries signed the agreement to manufacture the Egyptian satellite, as well as a framework agreement for future projects in the coming three years. The previous Egyptian satellite EgyptSat-2 was launched in April 2014, and it was lost in 2015. The satellite was taking pictures of the planet in the visible and infrared spectrum with panchromatic and multispectral modes.According to Russian press reports, EgyptSat-A will have improved performance capabilities compared to the failed EgyptSat-2. In particular, the replacement satellite will feature an improved electro-optical system and onboard control systems, high-speed radio links, and solar panels with increased efficiency. RSC Energia will produce the vast majority of

components for EgyptSat-A, compared to Egyptsat-2 where 60 percent of the components were manufactured in Egypt. Egypt and Russia intended to launch the new Egyptian satellite by 2019, from a Russian space base in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The Egyptian space program Egypt's first space program was initiated in 1960 and was subsequently shelved numerous times until its first independent budget was adopted in 2000 to fund space research, following the launch of the country's first satellite NileSat1 in 1998. The Russian Sputnik agency reported in April 2015 that Egypt aims to develop its space program and Russia could be a strategic partner to establish a specialized space agency in Egypt. President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi also signed in February 2015 a memorandum of understanding in the space field with his counterpart Vladimir Putin. The Egyptian satellite program is run under

Egypt has decided to join the world's space club, and the decisions to form Egypt's Space Agency and to build EgyptSat-A are significant steps to achieve this strategic goal.

Egypt and the "space race”

AFRICAN REPORT

the National Authority for Remote Sensing & Space Sciences (NARSS). The NARSS defined the Egypt Space Program vision: a. Egypt to join the Space age through gradual manufacturing of small research and remote sensing satellites, acquiring t e c h n o l o g i c a l k n o w l e d g e a n d capabilities, and building required infrastructure to achieve self-capability for Egypt to design & manufactures its own small satellites. b. Utilizing the space technologies & application to develop the scientific research and technologies development in Egypt and to serve the national developments plans. c. Establishing a scientific and research base for advanced industries in Egypt.

Egypt's Space Agency Egypt's House of Representatives approved in December 2017, a law to establish Egypt's Space Agency. The law aims to push Egypt forward in the vital area of space and satellite technology in a way that should serve the country's national security and development objectives. The law is based on a 25-page report prepared by parl iament's committees on education and scientific research, telecommunications and information technology, defense and national security, the budget, and legislative and constitutional affairs. The Egyptian Space Agency (ESA) will be a Cairo-based public organization that will have branches in different parts of Egypt.

The agency will be affiliated with the president of the republic, having financial, a d m i n i s t r a t i v e a n d t e c h n i c a l independence to be able to do its job in a professional way. The agency will be mainly responsible for drawing up a national space technology program within the next few years. It will be primarily focused on launching self-made satell i tes that should serve the development and national security objectives.

Egyptian Space Agency will be set up on Cairo-Suez Road (in Egypt's space and satellite city). Egypt hopes that in seven years Egypt's space and satellite technology city will contribute at least 10 percent to the national income. In January 2018, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified a law establishing the country's first Egyptian space agency, aiming to develop and transfer space science and technology into Egypt.

The satellites of Egypt The EgyptSat-1 In 2007, the Egyptian government made its first attempt to acquire its own high-resolution surveillance satellite with the launch of the Egyptsat-1 spacecraft built

in Ukraine. The f irst satellite EgyptSat-1 was launched from Baikonur on April 17, 2007. However, the contact with it was lost i n 2 0 1 0 . M u b a r a k ' s government kept the scientific setback secret for three months, before d e t a i l s l e a k e d o u t . Egyp t i an spec ia l i s t s claimed then that this was an experimental project with an expected satellite's service life of no more than three years.

The EgyptSat-1 was capable of photographing sites on earth and its launch came after Egypt awarded a tender to Ukraine to construct the satellite. Under the agreement, 60 Egyptian scientists were trained by Ukraine, with the aim of Egypt developing the capability to operate the satellite independently.

Although Egypt continued working with the Ukrainian KB Yuzhnoe design bureau on a follow-on project, Cairo received a bid from Moscow to supply a state-of-the-art "eye in the sky". In 2009, Egypt awarded a contract to Russia for the development of a high-resolution imaging satellite. In Moscow, the project was officially handled by Rosoboroneksport, a government-owned company specialized in exports of military technology.

However, the actual development of the spacecraft was delegated to RKK Energia based in Korolev near Moscow and renown around the world for its leading role in the nation's manned space flight. RKK Energia's imaging satellite was originally known as E-Star, but it was eventually re-christened Egyptsat-2. The development of the satellite coincided with a major political upheaval in Egypt; however, the nation's military clearly managed to fully fund the project.

EgyptSat-2 A Soyuz-U rocket carrying an Egyptian observation satellite, EgyptSat-2, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on, April 16, 2014. Russia trained Egyptian engineers to control the satellite from a ground station near Cairo. The development and launch campaign for Egyptsat-2 has been conducted largely in secret. Only one visual of the operational spacecraft was released to the public by its manufacturer RKK Energia, after the successful launch.

The Russian-built Egyptsat-2 satellite was designed to provide high-resolution imagery for the Egyptian military and other government agencies in the country. The satellite was reportedly equipped with

electric engines using xenon gas as propellant to enter its operational orbit and to conduct orbit corrections. According to its official specifications, the satellite could discern details as small as one meter on the Earth's surface. In addition to regular photos, the satellite's optics could produce infrared imagery.

The optical imager supported various modes of operation including single-scene imaging, route imaging, mapping, and stereo imagery acquisition. In April 2015, the EgyptSat-2 completely failed in orbit but there was no official confirmation or denial from the official sources. EgyptSat-A is being built as a replacement for EgyptSat-2.

Egypt and France space cooperation Egypt is negotiating a deal with Thales Alenia Space (TAS) to purchase an observation satellite and a military telecommunications satell i te. The contract amounts to approximately one billion euros for the two satellites.

Summary Egypt has decided to join the world's space club, and the decisions to form Egypt's Space Agency and to build EgyptSat-A are significant steps to achieve this strategic goal. The EgyptSat-A satellite aims to support Egypt's "presence in space," to establish the presence of Egyptian scientists and researchers in outer space and to increase new investment opportunities and enhance developmental projects. Egypt currently owns two communication satellites, NileSat 1 and NileSat 2. Egypt highlighted the civilian aspects of the satellite, but the EgyptSat-2 satellite was designed to provide high-resolution imagery for the Egyptian military and other government agencies in the country. The decis ion to st ick wi th a Russian manufacturer and China for the Egyptian remote sensing satellite might be more about Egyptian geopolitics than just the need for a reliable satellite imaging system.

AFRICAN REPORT

Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh will host the 38th World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), to be held for the first time in 20 years outside the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) headquarters in Geneva. The event will address requirements for some of the leading edge technological innovations set to play a pivotal role in tomorrow's digital economy with immense implications for the trillion-dollar telecommunication and ICT industry. It will be preceded by the Radiocommunication Assembly 2019 (RA-19), 21 – 25 October 2019.More than 3,500 participants from 140 countries, and more than 50 ministers and deputy ministers from around the world, will participate in the conference, in addition to more than 50 companies and international organisations working in the field of telecommunications.T h e W o r l d R a d i o c o m m u n i c a t i o n Conference, held every three to four years, is mandated to review and revise the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits. WRC-19 will facilitate the management of scarce orbit/spectrum resources in the interest of end-users, with global implications for both policy-makers and the industry.Radiocommunication Assemblies (RA) are responsible for the structure, programme, and working methods for the development and approval of radiocommunication-related R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s , R e p o r t s a n d Handbooks. They normally convene every three or four years and precede World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRCs).Over 3500 participants from 193 ITU Member States along with 267 members of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) representing international organizations, equipment manufacturers, network operators and industry forums who attend as observers.

Unlocking human potential with technology of the futureT h e W o r l d R a d i o c o m m u n i c a t i o n Conference will facilitate new innovations in mobile technology, identifying additional frequency bands for the future development of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) and further enabling the rollout of IMT-2020 networks, otherwise known as 5G.

Among a host of other items on the agenda, the conference will update and modernize the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) and expand geographical coverage, including in Polar regions, ensure that Earth exploration and meteorological-satellite systems continue to provide environmental monitoring, prediction and mitigation of the negative effects caused by climate change as well as monitor the earth's resources, consider additional frequencies for earth stations in motion (ESIM) communicating from aircraft, maritime vessels and land vehicles with satellites on the geostationary orbit (GSO), enhance the international regulatory framework to improve satellite broadband connectivity from new non-geostationary satellite systems composed of multiple, multi-satellite constellations, as well as allocate frequency bands for H?i?gh-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPs) – aircraft positioned in the stratosphere for very-long-duration flights

used f o r t e l ecommun ica t i ons , e m e r g e n c y / p u b l i c s a f e t y c o m m u n i c a t i o n s , i n t e l l i g e n t transportation systems, maritime surveil lance, and environmental monitoring.?O t h e e r s i n c l u d e s f a c i l i t a t i n g radiocommunication systems between train and trackside systems to meet the demands of a high-speed railway environment and provide effective communication for portable and mobile computer-based equipment over Wireless access systems, including radio local area networks (WiFi).????The conference will also unlock great potential for human progress advancing many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will provide the tools for effective climate action, forge pathways for better access to health care, foster sustainable agricultural practices and reduce poverty and hunger, improve energy efficiency, facilitate Intelligent Transport Systems and machine-to-machine communications, make cities smart and communities more sustainable, foster safer travel on land, on air and at sea, and allow countries to participate in the digital economy by providing access to faster and more affordable broadband connectivity, especially in currently underserved communities.

With more than four billion people still offline without access to the extraordinary benefits of the online world, ITU' WRC'19 agenda highlights infrastructural roll out to improve the lives of people everywhere, ahead of this year's conference.

ITU’ WRC-19 to play pivotal role in tomorrow's digital environment

Conference

NEWS ANALYSIS

ND SATCOM, the premier supplier of and integrator for i n n o v a t i v e s a t e l l i t e communication systems and solutions, announced the acquisition of TECNA located in Dakar, Senegal. This important strategic move will further enhance outreach and interaction between the company and its customers, partners and the leading communication companies in the West Africa region. TECNA Suarl has been renamed ND SatCom SENEGAL.Charly Nakache, who brings a wealth of industry experience in satellite communications, has been appointed as general manager of ND SatCom SENEGAL and – together with his highly-motivated team of s a l e s a n d t e c h n i c a l professionals – wi l l be responsible to manage the day to day business in the region and expand the reach of ND S a t C o m .

With new business growing for ND SATCOM in West Africa, the need to establish local presence became vital. “We see very positive potential for our satellite communication solutions here," said Alexander Mueller-Gastell, CEO of ND SATCOM. "This decision to acquire TECNA underscores this potential and the opportunity to expand further afield. The office location is close to

severa l o f our ex is t ing customers and provides an excellent base where we can share our latest technology and insights. With our new Director Charly Nakache, our customers and partners in the region can e x p e c t e x c e l l e n t responsiveness, collaboration and tailored solutions that meet their unique communications needs.”

Brigadier Michael Ogbonna Agu, rtd

IN THE NEWS

Satellite firm connects 700 schools to internet

Satellite broadband firm, YahClick, has said it had connected over 700 schools in Nigeria to the internet in the last two years. YahClick Vice President for Sales in Africa, Michael Brown, stated that the b roadband connec t i v i t y was in collaboration with the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). Brown said the Federal Government sponsored an annual grant that paid for the connectivity, as there were many of the schools that did not have the means to get connected. He said that the connection was made possible through the company's cost-effective satellite connectivity. The vice-president explained that the firm had border-to-border coverage in Nigeria and was seeing that the increase in connectivity translated into real benefits, particularly for remote areas in Nigeria. According to him, YahClick's connectivity has benefited the civil service, healthcare and, in particular, education. “We are making immense contribution. From a government partnership perspective, we are very active with the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) in its goal to improve connectivity and access to information. “Access to information and services in rural and undeserved areas of the country is of course very important for learning. “So, we are working with our partners to find more solutions and how to continue servicing them with the solution that works for the both of us,” Brown said. The vice-president said rural areas had less Internet connection because the traditional terrestrial-based operators – G l o b a l S y s t e m f o r M o b i l e communications (GSM) operators – would not want to go to such areas as there were no commercial benefits.According to him, it is very difficult for GSM operators to have solutions in an area that does not have connectivity because it is too expensive.. “The beauty of satellite is that it has instant connectivity and we can cover everywhere. And that is our strongest selling point. There is no other connectivity mechanism that can connect in those areas.“We are bringing faster broadband speed with our new satellite. We are constantly reducing prices, we are extending our footprint by our distribution partners to be available everywhere.“We will have a large push out in the next six to eight months into modern areas, where traditionally we did not have full coverage or partnerships,” he said. Brown said that YahClick was also involved in a number of projects with the military to ensure national coverage. He added that the company was having talks with the police force for connection and helping to change how they communicated with each other through the ecosystem. “So, we are looking at different police stations, customs and border control and obviously

ND SATCOM acquires TECNA Suarl in Dakar, Senegal

For years, Ethiopian TV viewers have had to navigate t h rough a p le tho ra o f multinational content in a variety of foreign languages in order to locate their favourite channels. That changes today with the launch of Ethiosat – the f irst-ever dedicated Ethiopian TV platform to host Ethiopia's most popular local channels. This has been made possible by agreements between the Association of Eth iop ian Broadcasters ( A E B ) , t h e E t h i o p i a n Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), and the world's leading satellite operator, SES.

Ethiosat is hosted on SES's NSS-12 satellite at 57 degrees East and delivers over 30 channels for Eth iop ian audiences only, with 12 of those channels already in High Definition (HD) quality.A m m a n F i s s e h a z i o n , Chairman of the AEB, said, “Up until now, the majority of Ethiopia's content has been broadcast from an orbital location that also supplies content to Middle Eastern and North African countries, which explains the often confusing

mix of content. By migrating the most popular Ethiopian TV channels to a new location on SES's satellite, we've created an Ethiopian-only TV offering, that also delivers a variety of channels in HD, a first in Ethiopia.” Fissehazion added that this is also a great time for the millions of homes in Ethiopia that currently do not receive TV services to bring TV sets i n to t he i r home . “Fo r Ethiopians looking to buy a new TV set and receive content from the dedicated TV n e i g h b o u r h o o d , w e recommend purchasing an HD TV whenever possible, as this will allow for a higher picture quality.”

In addition, the launch of Ethiosat will offer Ethiopians a larger offering of both local and relevant international con ten t in the fu tu re . Fissehazion said, “We believe consolidating all Ethiopian TV channels and broadcasting them from one orbital position wil l fuel growth in the Ethiopian media sector, as local networks will now be able to easily expand their

audience reach. This will foster healthy and growing advertising markets, which will result in a greater variety of content, and more localised content.” To access Ethiosat direct-to-home (DTH), Ethiopian TV viewers must have their respective local satel l i te antenna installer change the position of their antenna. This will allow them to receive the content from SES's NSS-12 satellite. “SES is supporting every aspect of this launch and p rov id ing on- the-g round services to ensure the success of Ethiosat, which includes training local installers to correctly repoint the satellite dishes of each TV household to ensure a seamless migration. E t h i o s a t i s b r i n g i n g a completely new television experience to Ethiopians.

We intend for the reliability and quality of the new platform to attract many new viewers, fuelling a bright future for the Ethiopian media sector,” said Ferdinand Kayser, CEO of SES Video.

Ethiopia welcomes first dedicated TV platform, Ethiosat

Tunisia's first satellite, Challenge ONE, will be launched in July 2020 from the Russ ian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in south-central Kazakhstan aboard the Russian Soyuz-2.1A, reports Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) news agency citing Telnet CEO Mohamed Frikha as saying. Challenge ONE is a scientific research a n d t e c h n o l o g y demonstrator satel l i te offering new concepts in information technologies a n d t h e i r p r a c t i c a l applications.

The small satell i te is developed in-house by

Tunisia's publicly traded engineering and technology consulting company, Telnet Group.

“The satellite cost one million Tunisian dinars (about 349,825 U.S. dollars), while its global counterpart cost about 5 million Tunisian dinars (1.7 million U.S. dollars),” Frikka said.“We were able to control c o s t s t h a n k s t o t h e technological resources of the Telnet group, which opened up new horizons for the space technology sector i n T u n i s i a t h r o u g h c o o p e r a t i o n w i t h international partners,” he

added. On 1 April 2019, Telnet signed a contract with the Russian operator of commercial launches of Soyuz-2 rockets, GK Launch Services, for putting in space Tunisia's first satellite in 2020. Challenge ONE in-orbit operation will serve as a precursor mission for a constellation of 30 satellites.

Telnet Group has already signed a tripartite deal with two Russian companies, SPUTNIX and GK Launch Services, for the launch of the 30-satellite constellation by 2023 for the development o f a n e t w o r k o f I o T applications.

IN THE NEWS

7

EUTELSAT 5 West B mission successfully launched

International Launch Services (ILS) has successfully inserted the EUTELSAT 5 West B and the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) s a t e l l i t e s i n t o t h e i r p l a n n e d Supersynchronous Transfer Orbits (SSTO) for Eutelsat of Paris, France, and SpaceLogistics LLC of Dulles, Virginia.The launch was the 97th ILS Proton mission and over 420 Proton launches overall. It is the eighth Eutelsat satellite launched on an ILS Proton and the first SpaceLogistics LLC satellite launched on an ILS Proton. It was also the second ILS dual launch, and the first dual launch with two commercial satellites.The satellites are both manufactured by Northrop Grumman and based on the GeoStar-2 (EUTELSAT 5 West B) and GeoStar-3 (MEV-1) platforms. The two spacecraft, making up the Integrated Payload Stack, weighed 5,190 kg at liftoff, and were separated 15 hours, 36 minutes (EUTELSAT 5 West B) and 15 hours, 54 minutes (MEV-1) after liftoff. Operators at the Northrop Grumman operations center in Dulles, Virginia acquired the spacecraft's first telemetry from orbit shortly after separation.EUTELSAT 5 West B is a Ku-band satellite that will be located at 5° West, a key video neighborhood addressing predominantly French, Italian and Algerian broadcast markets. The new satellite will provide business continuity and improved quality for these markets via a Ku band payload of 35 equivalent 36 MHz transponders connected to three service areas. Switchable transponders will also increase commercial flexibility.Since its maiden flight in 1965, the workhorse Proton vehicle has demonstrated its versatility, maturity and performance to inject spacecraft into a wide variety of orbits for a diverse customer base. The Proton Breeze M vehicle is developed and built by Khrunichev Research and Production Space Center (Khrunichev) of Moscow, Russia's premier space industry manufacturer and majority shareholder in ILS.Yohann Leroy, Deputy CEO and Chief Technical Officer at Eutelsat, said: “Eutelsat is delighted to be back at Baikonur for another successful launch. Our congratulations to ILS and Khrunichev for this top-class dual “stacked” launch! I would like also to thank our partners Northrop Grumman and Airbus Defence and Space for their collaboration in creating this technological gem, that will soon serve the French, Italian and Algerian markets with the highest quality video broadcasting. I would also like to welcome aboard EUTELSAT 5 West B the European GNSS Agency (GSA)'s EGNOS payload, set to greatly improve the accuracy of geolocation systems such as GPS or Galileo.”“The launch and eventual docking of MEV-1, the industry's first life extension vehicle, demonstrates Northrop Grumman's and SpaceLogistics' ability to innovate and deliver game changing technology. We are proud to have partnered with the ILS and Eutelsat teams who worked long and hard to ensure mission success,”

Tunisia's Telnet to launch first home-made satellite in July 2020

In its new survey titled, “Satel l i te-Based Earth O b s e r v a t i o n M a r k e t P r o s p e c t s t o 2 0 2 8 ” , Euroconsult, the world's leading authority on space a n d s a t e l l i t e - b a s e d a p p l i c a t i o n m a r k e t s , forecasts that the market for data and services derived from Earth observation (EO) satellites is expected to grow by 9.4 percent each year for the next ten years for a total upside market value of $12.1 billion by 2028. “We expect that growth in demand for Earth imagery will be driven by a mix of d e f e n s e a n d n e w commercial organizations,” said Alexis Conte, report e d i t o r a n d S e n i o r Consultant at Euroconsult. “This will be supported by t h e a r r i v a l o f n e w constellation operators with l o w e r - c o s t s o l u t i o n s , attracting new customers to the one-meter resolution market. At the same time, some revenue from this segment is expected to move to the 50-centimeter and be low reso lu t ion market, dominated by traditional satellites.” In its new survey titled, “Satellite-Based Earth Observation Market Prospects to 2028”, Euroconsult, the world's

leading authority on space a n d s a t e l l i t e - b a s e d app l i ca t i on ma rke t s , forecasts that the market for data and services d e r i v e d f r o m E a r t h observation (EO) satellites is expected to grow by 9.4 percent each year for the next ten years for a total upside market value of $12.1 billion by 2028. “We expect that growth in demand for Earth imagery will be driven by a mix of d e f e n s e a n d n e w commercial organizations,” said Alexis Conte, report e d i t o r a n d S e n i o r Consultant at Euroconsult. “This will be supported by t h e a r r i v a l o f n e w constellation operators with lower -cos t so lu t ions , attracting new customers to the one-meter resolution market. At the same time, some revenue from this segment is expected to move to the 50-centimeter and below resolut ion market, dominated by t radi t ional satel l i tes.” Market pull for these analytics is also coming f r o m t h e b u s i n e s s intelligence and insurance sectors, as well as from i n f r a s t r u c t u r e s i t e monitoring and precision agriculture. For these types of services, subscriptions and recurring sales to

multiple users are expected to keep pricing affordable. New services will also b e n e f i t f r o m c l o u d c o m p u t i n g a n d A I technologies, which will enable even higher data consumption and faster analysis.In the report, Euroconsult quantifies the number of EO satellites launched and revenue generated from 2009-2018 and compares t h o s e n u m b e r s t o projections for 2019-2028. The report also examines the impact of this growth on downstream businesses such as commercial data and value-added services and discusses nine sectors including nascent markets and emerging business models in eight regions. Euroconsult is a highly t r u s t e d i n d e p e n d e n t research f i rm and i ts comprehensive market s u r v e y o n t h e E a r t h Observation industryis an essential tool for business planning and investment decisions. It examines strategic issues, trends and impl icat ions based on quant i f iab le data and includes data on the past ten years for historical trends as well as projections and growth rates for the coming ten years.

Market for EO Data and services forecast to grow by 9% annually over next decade

8

Datasat, a leading provider of gateway internet services via satellite, has partnered with SES Networks to bring cutting-edge, end-to-end connectivity to a ferry fleet in the Mediterranean Sea servicing passengers and c a r g o i n m u l t i p l e destinations in Greece, Italy, Spain and Morocco, SES announced recently.Datasat will leverage SES N e t w o r k s ' S i g n a t u r e Maritime Solutions and ground infrastructure to d e l i v e r a p r e m i u m experience for passengers and crew travelling onboard t h e m o d e r n a n d technologically-advanced vessels, which provide high-qua l i t y t ranspor ta t i on services for passengers and private vehicles in the Mediterranean Sea.

While on board, passengers now will find not only luxurious accommodation, fine dining, and a wide range of activities, but also market-l e a d i n g c o n n e c t i v i t y services. “The era of the connected ship is upon us, and it's a change that will r e v o l u t i o n i s e v e s s e l c o m m u n i c a t i o n s a n d operations,” said David Franeau, Managing Director at Datasat.

“SES Networks' innovative, h i g h - t h r o u g h p u t connect iv i ty and ful ly m a n a g e d e n d - t o - e n d services is our gateway to more intelligent ships, smarter fleet management, and unparalleled guest s a t i s f a c t i o n . We a r e constantly looking for ways to optimize the service p r o v i d e d t o f e r r y

passengers and we're delighted with the quality of service enabled by SES Networks, which provides a premium user experience.”

“Like us, Datasatrecognises the enormous benefits that high-quality connectivity provides for passengers, seafarers and ships,” said Morten Hagland Hansen, Vice President, Commercial Maritime and Energy Sales at SES Networks.

“Delivering the highest level of service today requires seamless and rel iable connect iv i ty, and SES Networks is setting a new standard for the cruise and ferry sector that's unmatched i n t e r m s o f s c a l e , p e r f o r m a n c e a n d technological diversity.”

M2M and IoT via satellite has tradit ional ly been dominated by industrial a p p l i c a t i o n s , w i t h Transportation, Cargo, Mar i t ime and Energy s e c t o r s a l l p r i m a r y subscribers to satcom M2M and IoT services.

At the same time, we're seeing an explosion of growth in the consumer handheld space in terms of subscribers and revenues, and also new products coming to market tapping into satellite networks.

With Cisco estimating 500 billion Internet connected devices by 2030, how far can satellite tap into the consumer space as well as new applications never previously been connected? In our M2M and IoT via Satellite, 10th Edition report,

NSR forecas ted over 920,000 active consumer IoT devices in 2028, up from ~430,000 at the end of 2018, which corresponds to annual retail revenues of nearly $200 million in 2028 alone. This category primarily

consists of consumer handheld devices, most notably Globalstar SPOT and Garmin. These product l ines have now been available for years, with limited levels of competition t o d a t e . S e e i n g t h e popularity of these devices, in recent years a number of new devices have become available, such as the Satpaq, the Somewear, the Bivystick, and Thuraya's own satellite smartphone.

While subscriber growth is s t rong for now, NSR believes that growth will slow over the coming decade, due to a smaller t h a n a n t i c i p a t e d addressable market, and compet i t ion from new smallsat devices designed for panic button type usage.

Longer term, retail revenues will flatten out as well, as ARPUs are expected to decline as more intermittent usage is expected and to counter high levels of churn. Equipment pricing is also expected to decline due to increased competition – something that will prove to be a huge challenge to new

entrants. The strategic issue with the above types of devices is that usage is unlike that of industrial applications, which have a stable usage pattern. Consumer IoT device usage is inherently irregular and occasional. This leads to high levels of churn in this application, which is typical across the segment as consumers and eco-tourism users subscribe for short periods when travelling and then or almost immediately, cancel service afterwards. Globalstar found this in 2018, with the company having net in-service subscriber growth of ~5,600 in 2018 compared to 2017. Gross subscriber addit ions were ~69,000 across the same period, indicating that a significant number of existing customers had discontinued service.

While Globalstar derives a significant proportion of their revenue base from SPOT, Iridium is less affected due to a sufficiently broad subscriber base, and in the consumer IoT space new partnerships with Somewear and Bivystick further broaden this base.

Thuraya highlights remote IoT connectivity at OilComm 2019

Thuraya Telecommunications Company, the mobile satellite services subsidiary of the Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) is participating in OilComm 2019, the Houston-based event for oil and gas professionals to explore trending innovat ions in the communications and digital industries. At the two-day symposium, Thuraya will display its top satellite solutions for land and offshore energy applications, besides seeking new partners to expand its growing IoT/M2M ecosystem.

Shawkat Ahmed, Chief Commercial Officer elaborates: “Thuraya extends the possibilities of smart connectivity – covering machine learning, automation, tracking and monitoring - to ever more remote and harsher environments - on land and at sea.” Faced with challenges on numerous fronts, global energy players are looking to streamline their operations to stay competitive, maximize revenue and reduce environmental impact. Shawkat continues, “Oil and gas operators urgently need sustainable solutions to regulate uptime, productivity and total cost of ownership. With an advanced M2M portfolio featuring per byte billing, dual mode Sat-GSM option, Satellite IP data and circuit switched connectivity; we cater to all fixed and mobile use cases.Supplying always-on IP connectivity, Thuraya enables smart connectivity for remote operations on a wide range of protocols such as narrowband IP, circuit switched data and voice over IP (VoIP). At OilComm 2019, the company will introduce an upgrade of its highly successful T2M-DUAL solution that was originally designed for fleet management and logistics. Facilitating simultaneous data collection from both fixed and mobile assets, the IoT/M2M terminal now supports a wide range of applications such as rail tracking, SCADA and pipeline monitoring, smart grid and metering, security, surveillance, weather station monitoring, hydro and environmental management. In addition, Thuraya is bringing a new fleet of solutions that deliver the reassurance of constant connectivity on offshore platforms, including oilrigs and petroleum tankers. The VSAT+ is an all-weather, high-bandwidth service that caters to complex operations such as office-at-sea, crew welfare, vessel databases, cargo conditions reporting, chart and software updates. Benefiting from a strong alliance provided by Thuraya, ITC Global, iDirect and Hughes, it provides Ku-band VSAT with critical L-band back up so that services are available at all times.Designed specifically for harsh maritime environments, ThurayaSeaStar meets the evolving needs of small-scale operators. The SeaStar solution offers voice, SMS, data and tracking, on an easy and intuitive interface, based on the Android operating system. It is ideal for smaller and medium vessels, although its appeal also extends to other operators looking for support systems.

Datasat provides enhanced connectivity to ferry fleet in Mediterranean Sea via SES

NSR: Consumer IoT still a vast untapped Satcom opportunity

IN THE NEWS

A technology that has enabled ever-faster delivery of voice and data over the Internet and other telecommunications platforms could play a front-and-center role in NASA's quest to develop a super-small instrument for gathering unprecedented details about extraterrestrial planets, moons, comets, and asteroids.

Although its critical component is the size of a computer chip, the instrument promises to exceed the performance of a similar-type, but significantly larger instrument installed at a ground-based observatory in Hawaii. Since its installation at the summit of Mt. Haleakala in 2014, the Japanese-developed Mid- In f rared Heterodyne Instrument, or MILAHI, has ga thered ex t raord inar i l y d e t a i l e d , c o n t i n u o u s m e a s u r e m e n t s o f t h e atmospheric dynamics, thermal s t r u c t u r e , a n d s u r f a c e compositions of Mars and Venus.As good as MILAHI is, it's too big and heavy to fly on a traditional satellite, let alone a less-expens ive CubeSat whose small size and lower cost would allow scientists to fly multiple, similarly equipped p la t fo rms for mul t ipo in t observations, said Principal Invest igator Tony Yu, a techno log is t a t NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who recently won technology-development funds from NASA's Planetary Concepts for the Advancement of Solar S y s t e m O b s e r v a t i o n s (PICASSO) program to mature a s m a l l e r M I L A H I - t y p e instrument."We want to do similar science, but we need to reduce the instrument's size," Yu said, adding that his team's goal is to create a small, lightweight d e v i c e t h a t c o n s u m e s significantly less power and operates without moving parts, making it ideal for flying on CubeSat platforms.Like MILAHI, the Photonic Integrated Circuit Tuned for R e c o n n a i s s a n c e a n d Exploration, or PICTURE, would be tuned to the mid-infrared wavelengths—the spectral or frequency range ideal for remotely sensing

water, carbon dioxide, methane, and many other c o m p o u n d s i n extraterrestrial atmospheres and surfaces. And also like MILAHI, PICTURE would split mid-infrared light into its c o m p o n e n t c o l o r s — a s c i e n c e c a l l e d spectroscopy—to reveal a wealth of information about an object's composition and other physical properties.But shrinking the instrument to fit inside a CubeSat, which is often no larger than a loaf of bread, will require that Yu and his team, including the Naval Research Laboratory and the Univers i ty of California-Santa Barbara, adopt techniques originally c r e a t e d b y t h e t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s industry. "Basically, what we're doing is applying telecom technologies for use in space," Yu said.Under his PICASSO award, Yu and his team are focusing on one of PICTURE's most critical subsystems: the PIC spectrometer, the chip-sized device inspired by the telecom industry's arrayed waveguide gratings, or AWGs.In telecommunications and computer networks, AWGs serve a couple functions. In a process called multiplexing, they combine mult ip le analog or digital signals with varying wavelengths into a single optic fiber. At the receiver end of an optical communications network, a reverse process—known as demultiplexing—occurs. The waveguides then retrieve the individual channels.With this two-step process,

multiple channels can share a resource—in this case, typically a fiber-optic cable—and experience g r e a t l y r e d u c e d interference and crosstalk w h i l e d r a m a t i c a l l y increasing the efficiency a n d s p e e d o f t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s signals.

The team plans to adopt the same general principle. T h e c h i p - s i z e d P I C spectrometer, equipped w i t h t h e t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s -insp i red waveguides, would separate the light into its individual mid-infrared wavelengths—an important step in ultimately determining the molecular composition of planetary atmospheres and surfaces. These individual channels would then be mixed with laser light, also tuned to a specific wavelength, in a p r o c e s s c a l l e d h e t e r o d y n i n g — a commonly used technique to amplify signals.

Under this effort, the team w i l l d e v e l o p a P I C spectrometer that focuses on the spectral band ideal for detect ing carbon monoxide. The goal under the PICASSO is to raise the d e v i c e ' s t e c h n o l o g y readiness level (TRL)—the scale that NASA uses to determine a technology's readiness for use in space—from its current TRL of two to a TRL of four and then to advance the i n s t r u m e n t ' s o t h e r subsystems.

IN THE NEWS

Measat-3b

u

11

UEFA Champions and Europa League matches broadcast live in HD across Indonesia

Football fans in Indonesia are now able to watch their favourite European teams compete in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) and UEFA Europa League (UEF) live on TV screens in high-definition (HD) format due to a new partnership formed by media group Surya Citra Media (SCM), satellite direct-to-home TV provider Nex Parabola and the world leading satellite operator SES. SCM has secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the 2019/20 football seasons of UCL and UEL which will be delivered to Nex Parabola customers via the SES-9 satellite, SES has announced.The two European football channels will be packaged together with exclusive content from SCM Group. These new channels include Citra Cinema, Citra Drama Plus, Citra Muslim and Citra Dangdut, providing a variety of lifestyle, entertainment and religious content for Nex Parabola customersSES-9 is co-located at 108.2 degrees East orbital position with SES-7 and provides prime coverage over all 17,000 islands in Indonesia, as well as locations in South Asia, Northeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East. The 108.2 degrees East neighbourhood is targeted for video services and ensures extensive coverage over all corners of the country for SES-9. This, coupled with SES-9's high-powered wide beam design, makes the satellite ideal f o r l o c a l b r o a d c a s t s e r v i c e s .“Having recently secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the UEFA Champions League and Europa League in Indonesia, we want to bring the best European football ntertainment to as many fans as possible through our subsidiary Nex Parabola and satellite partner SES. With SES-9, we are able to maximise our reach and deliver an unparalleled viewing experience in premium HD format to audiences across the country, whether they are watching us on their home TVs or at the neighbourhood warung,” said Junus Koswara, President Director of Nex Parabola“Our partnership with Nex Parabola is testament to our satellite fleet's capabilities of delivering prime international content to viewers around the globe in the best quality possible, wherever they are. We are pleased to help Nex Parabola expand their audience reach using satellite in the most cost-effective manner, and remain committed to delivering satellite services for broadcasters, content providers and companies across the country,” said Yew Weng Soo, Vice President, Sales & Market Development, Asia Pacific of SES Video.

NASA taps high tech to develop more capable, miniaturized spectrometer

positive cash flow.

Finally, 2018-19 has been a breakthrough for M&A, with Hispasat, Asiasat, and Inmarsat going private on t h e b a c k o f s t r o n g performances towards cash generation, backlog, a n d d e b t r e d u c t i o n . “The industry is set to w i t n e s s a h i g h e r diversification in fleet strategy going forward with options from FSS Hybrid (high EBITDA) to VHTS (efficiency) to small GEOs (regional/mission specific) to non-GEOs (ubiquitous)

from various stand-alone and integrated operators,” notes Gagan Agrawal, NSR Senior Analyst and report author. “While operators pursue growth, it is key that each creates its own captive regional markets, with highest fleet efficiency for wholesale revenue and the best-in-class fleet synergies in a managed services role,” Agrawal noted further

NSR's newly released Satellite Industry Financial Analysis, 9th Edition looks at these market dynamics and potential growth drivers for the near to long term future.

IN THE NEWS

NSR's Satellite Industry Financial Analysis, 9th Edition report, released by NSR, reports a 6% industry growth in 2018-2019, on the back of strong IFC contracts a n d b r o a d b a n d subscriptions, with several i n t e g r a t e d o p e r a t o r s posting large double-digit growth.

While EBITDA margins improved and cash flows increased, top-line growth remains a big concern for SES, Intelsat, Eutelsat, and Telesat. A prolonged decline in media revenues is met with modest gains for data networks, with flat to declining revenues the norm. Decline in Return on Capital Employed also denotes a transition phase from FSS to HTS until 2020, after which growth is expected to take off again.For 3 years in a row, Service Providers posted large top-line gains with Speedcast, Hughes, and Gogo leading the way. EBITDA margins have improved, but are still far away from generating

Farhad Khan, Chief Commercial Officer, Yahsat

12

SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband tested by US Military

The US Air Force has been beaming high speed and encrypted internet connections into its military aircraft, thanks to the burgeoning Starlink satellite fleet from Elon Musk's SpaceX. SpaceX also announced that it hopes to begin offering its Starlink broadband service to US customers in mid-2020, providing it can place enough satellites into orbit in time. Another 60 satellite are expected to launch this November from an Air Force station in Florida.But then things ramp up next year. Senior company executives in September revealed that it intends to launch 24 Starlink missions in 2020, as part of SpaceX's strategy to place up to 12,000 satellites in orbit, with approximately 2,000 satellites launched per year. It could eventually place up to 42,000 satellites into orbit in the long term.It comes after SpaceX launched 60 “Starlink” satellites for its low earth orbit-based broadband project in May this year. The Falcon 9 rocket carried 60 flat-packed satellites, after it lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station after the launch had been delayed by heavy winds.The Falcon 9's main-stage reusable booster rocket then returned to Earth and landed successfully on a barge floating in the Atlantic ocean. The 24 Starlink missions in 2020 therefore could theoretically see the addition of 1,440 “Starlink” satellites next year, providing coverage for the southern area of the United States. Just days after the May launch it was revealed that SpaceX had raised more than $1 billion (£790m) in a six month period to help fund its broadband satellite ambitions. And the investment is paying off, after SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell confirmed that the US Air Force is already testing its service.“We are delivering high bandwidth into the cockpit of Air Force planes,” Shotwell was quoted by Reuters as saying on Tuesday. “Right now we're just testing the capability and figuring out how to make it work.” The US Air Force program is reportedly called 'Global Lightning', and it began testing with SpaceX in early 2018 as part of a $28 million Pentagon contract awarded to SpaceX in late 2018.The Air Force used Starlink's first two test satellites to beam to terminals fixed to a C-12 military transport plane in flight. According to SpaceX Senior VP Tim Hughes, this test saw the C-12 plane receiving internet speeds of 610 megabits per-second. That type of speed can download a movie in under a minute.Meanwhile Shotwell was quoted as saying that the US Air Force program is ongoing and expects to test Starlink with “a number” of additional military aircraft types. The contract also includes testing communications between satellites in orbit, Reuters reported. The US military makes heavy use of satellites, and the head of the new US Space Command, General John Raymond, Reuters said had previously visited SpaceX's Starlink factory in Redmond, Washingtons. General Raymond has also apparently visited OneWeb's new satellite production line in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Satellite industry show 6% growth, despite challenges, says NSR

Vox has announced new capped and uncapped satellite internet plans that will be made available through its partnership with Avanti Communications. Subscribers to the capped satellite data plans have the option to add an uncapped voice channel to their package.\“Being able to offer our customers options such as high throughput uncapped data and uncapped voice plans, at this price point, is a g a m e c h a n g e r f o r te lecommunicat ions in South Africa,” said Jacques Visser, head of wireless at Vox. “Gone are the days when satellite internet was seen as a slow, expensive service.”Avanti Communications

uses four Ka-band HYLAS sate l l i tes to prov ides satellite connectivity to 118 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.Africa is the fastest growing data market in the world and with the majority of its capacity dedicated to Africa, Avanti is also playing an important role and has d e v e l o p e d s t r o n g partnerships with the largest telcos in our core markets.

“Ka-band satellite has been growing around the world; it's quick and easy to install for end users, and provides them with much higher throughputs as compared to other satellite technologies,” said Visser.

“Our partnership with Avanti helps us expand our existing

Ka-band satellite services portfolio, bring new data and voice offerings to the South African market, and give our customers more choice.” Headquartered in UK and providing services across Europe and Africa, Avanti is the first mover in high t h r o u g h p u t K a - b a n d s a t e l l i t e d a t a communications in Africa. The Group has invested $1.2bn in a network that incorporates Ka-Band satellites, ground stations, datacentres and a fibre ring. Avanti has three Ka-Band satellites in orbit and a further two fully funded Ka-band satellites. Avanti covers an end market of over 1.7bn people.

Vox expands its satellite data and voice services

Oct. 11, 2019, marks the 25th anniversary of the end of a s p a c e m i s s i o n t h a t transformed the way we use radar to observe large-scale environmental processes on our home p lanet . The Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) mission made available to people worldwide the scientific data used to this day to inform decisions to slow and mitigate climate change.

The SIR-C instrument, built by NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laborator in Pasadena, California, and the X-SAR instrument, built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), constituted the most advanced imaging radar system ever used in air or space. During hundreds of orbits on two flights aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, in April and October 1994, the radar system made multiple passes over 19 "supersites" — areas of scientific interest in such locations as the

has been imaging Earth with radar — in darkness, under cloud cover or vegetation, even underground — using the movements of a host airplane or spacecraft to "synthesize" an "aperture" much larger than the antenna itself. The larger the aperture, the greater the image resolution. Indeed, SIR-C's predecessors, SIR-A and S IR-B , were syn the t i c aperture radar missions.

However, unlike SIR-C/X-SAR, neither predecessor made radar observations simultaneously in three frequencies — C-, L- and X-band — using three adjacent antennas combined into a massive, 12-by-4-meter, 11.5-ton structure. That advance, analogous to the leap from black-and-white to color film, allowed the mission to collect data in different scales, providing a crisp snapshot of each targeted feature , unmuddied by possible changes over time.

Sahara, Brazil, the Alps and the Gulf Stream. It also imaged events occurring during the flights, such as as a volcano erupting in Russia."The many innovations of SIR-C/X-SAR have been used in virtually every air- and spaceborne radar mission since, starting with NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which mapped 80% of the Earth in 2000," said Tony Freeman, now manager of JPL's Innovation Foundry, w h o l e d e n d - t o - e n d calibration of SIR-C. "DLR's TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X missions have since filled remaining gaps.”

Radar imaging of Earth has never been the same since S I R - C / X - S A R ' s demonstration of what's known as simultaneous m u l t i f r e q u e n c y , f u l l y po la r i zed , repea t -pass interferometric SAR. To unpack that sizable trunk of terminology, let's start with "synthetic aperture radar": Since the late 1970s, NASA

IN THE NEWS

18

Intelsat S.A. announced financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019. Intelsat reported total revenue of $506.7 million and net loss attributable to Intelsat S.A. of $148.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2019. Intelsat reported

1EBITDA , or earnings before net interest, gain on early extinguishment of debt, taxes a n d d e p r e c i a t i o n a n d amortization, of $336.1 million

1and Adjusted EBITDA of $356.1 million, or 70 percent of revenue, for the three months ended September 30, 2019. Free cash flow used in

1operations was $10.1 million. Intelsat's Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Spengler, said, “2019 is progressing to our expectations, expanding ou r managed se rv i ces strategy to the benefit of our network services, media and government businesses.

Our focus on the wireless sector continues to yield b e n e f i t s , w i t h n e w

infrastructure service starts in the third quarter in Africa, Oceania and Latin America. Further, with Intelsat 39 entering service this month, we expanded the essential broadband infrastructure we provide to Myanmar under a long-term agreement, as well as increased and enhanced our mobil i ty infrastructure throughout the Indian Ocean and Asia regions. Spengler concluded, “The progression of our C-Band

Alliance proposal under the U . S . F e d e r a l C o m m u n i c a t i o n s C o m m i s s i o n C - b a n d proceeding is positive and productive. Our focus on an expanded spectrum clearing approach clears maximum spectrum for 5G—300 MHz inclusive of a 20 MHz guard band—while maintaining the re l iab i l i ty o f the U.S. t e l e v i s i o n a n d r a d i o ecosystem.

WMO Regional Office for Africa opens in Ethiopia

The World Meteorological Organization has opened its Regional Office for Africa in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, a move marked by an official ceremony on 16 October with Secretary-General Petteri Taalas and the country's Minister for Water, Irrigation and Energy, Seleshi Bekele.The formal handover ceremony was the culmination of a process that began with the 2018 signing of a Host Country Agreement that paved the way for the relocation of the Regional Office for Africa from WMO's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to Addis Ababa.Mr Taalas, who reiterated his sincere gratitude to the government of Ethiopia for hosting the Regional Office for Africa and providing its facilities, underscored the importance of the move.“The Office is expected to play key roles in enhancing the capacities of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, including Ethiopia, to provide timely, reliable and accurate weather-, climate- and hydrology-related services, products and information to stakeholders in climate-sensitive sectors and for efficient service delivery,” he said.Mr Taalas noted that, in 2015, WMO started the process of moving closer to the ground in order to better engage with its six regions and respond to their needs.Minister Bekele said that he appreciated the contribution of WMO in coordinating t h e e f f o r t m a d e b y N a t i o n a l Meteorological and Hydrological Services to provide warnings of severe weather, climate variability and change, and thereby enabling decision-makers, communities and individuals to better prepare for weather and climate events.He also informed WMO that the present location of the Regional Office for Africa is temporary. It will eventually be housed in the new headquarters of Ethiopia's National Meteorological Agency, which is set to open by 2022.WMO signed the Host Country Agreement on 11 July 2018 with the government of Ethiopia to open its Regional Office for Africa in Addis Ababa. The decision to open the office was strategic in that Addis Ababa is the political capital of the African Union and also hosts the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.The relocation of the Regional Office for Africa to Ethiopia will further strengthen channels of support from WMO for early warning systems that mainstream weather and climate into national, regional and continental development plans and related programmes in across the continent.

Satellite industry celebrates a mission that changed how we use Radar

Intelsat announces Q3 2019 results

The question being asked today is likened to, “What is it good for and why invest in radio astronomy?” A hundred years ago, mankind was unaware of the scale of the Universe, its constituent billions of galaxies and only had a general belief that the cosmos was 'very old'. Today we have a confident measure of its age and its likely evolutionary path. Its now poss ib le to observe the phys ica l manifestations of its constituent objects such as the stars, galaxies, clusters, etc across the entire electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, to detect part ic les, cosmic rays and gravitational wave ripples of ongoing and cataclysmic events. It is no exaggeration to say that our understanding of the cosmos has made huge strides through the last two decades. Radio astronomy is a relatively young aspect of astronomy, having developed rapidly over the last 80 years or so. More than thousands of years ago, people have been looking at the sky, but it's only in the last couple hundred years that enthusiast and astronomers have the tools for

understanding the universe. In the past, locals have always been interested in it, mainly because they gave names to things. Nowadays astronomers can do more than just naming stars and looking at them. They actually know what they are about and the reason this can be achieved is because astronomers have better equipment, that's a telescope.

The role of radio astronomyAccording to ITU, radio astronomers have provided major contributions to our understanding of the Universe as an entity. This began with the 1964 discovery of the almost isotropic cosmic microwave background, for which the 1978 Nobel Prize was awarded, the second to radio astronomers Radar astronomy imaging techniques (for the near field) are used for civil and military purposes for imaging spacecraft in orbit. However, observing, and trying to understand, the structure of our Galaxy and the function of its parts is one of the goals of

modern astrophysics. Basic questions in this context concern where the stars are and how they move, e.g. their positions, distances and motions. It is the task of astrometry to investigate such fundamental data about the stars in the Galaxy.In Nigeria, there is increasing interest in the use of radio frequencies for communication. One of the main players, is the Centre for Basic Space Science located in Enugu, South East Nigeria to investigate the interference environment in the “short-wave” band around 20 MHz. However, designing and building Radio Telescope from the beginning is an international affair. Not only within the continent od Africa, but, due to the local lack of more than rudimentary knowledge about interferometry, by inviting specialists from abroad to become part, or even lead the design group..

So far, the Centre for Basic Space Science (CBSS) was created in 2001. A decade ago, a team of engineers and scientists at the CBSS successfully assembled and installed

Picture source ADB

Courtesy- SpaceX

19

Besides locating radio astronomy stations far from heavily populated areas as possible, particularly in area of radio quiet zone, analysis of test result revealed that while Nsukka has an average zenith tropospheric delay of 2.4m, a radio wave propagating through the troposphere over Nsukka will experience a minimal delay. Nsukka, as the scientists revealed is a prospective location for sitting a radio observatory mission as Nigeria look forward to developing a new observatory mission.

Air Vice Marshall Tommy Udoh

Picture source: ITU

Nigeria’s radio quite zone hub revealed!

SPECIAL REPORT

Courtesy- SpaceX

SPECIAL REPORT

20

a 3-m radio telescope, in order to better understand the operation and control of such a telescope. As the reality of a telescopic mission dawn, Nigerian scientists are evaluating the degree of tropospheric delay of Nsukka using 4 years of meteorological data of temperature, pressure and relative humidity with a view to determining the effect of Nsukka weather conditions to radio wave propagation.In order to determine the tropospheric delay value in Nsukka, the scientists obtained meteorological data of temperature, pressure and relative humidity of Nsukka from the Center for Atmospheric research of the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, beginning from January 2008 to December 2011.

The work is necessary in determining the choice of site for the location of radio telescope and for propagation planning in radioinferometry.Though inadequate information on the propagation challenges that may be peculiar to any specific location due to the variation in the index of refraction in the troposphere over the location, has resulted in error in infererometry and geodesy. Nsukka, as the scientists revealed is a prospective location for sitting a radio observatory and considering that there exist a twin18m dishes located in Enugu city that are prospective facilities for astronomical use. The research work may be useful in propagation planning within the location.

The troposphereThe Earth's weather and climate is heavily influenced by the amount of water vapour and other greenhouse gases in the lower part of the (neutral) atmosphere known as the t roposphere. An increase of t empera tu re l eads to i nc reased evaporation. The troposphere can sustain large volumes of water vapour, which in turn traps radiant energy. This trapped radiation causes temperatures to increase and hence to create more warming. The troposphere is the neutral region of the Earth's atmosphere extending from the Earth's surface up to 50 kilometres. When satellite signals propagate through the troposphere, they experience range delays dependent on the pressure, temperature and moisture content along the signal path. Accordingly, as radio signals traverse the neural atmosphere usual ly cal led troposphere, they are affected by the variation in the refractive index of the a tmosphere . Consequen t l y, they experience a decrease in their speed of propagation and a deviation of their propagation path from a straight line according to Fermai's principle of least time. In effect, their time of propagation slows down and the distance traversed become longer. These result to a phenomenon called tropospheric delay. This takes place in the troposphere due to its non dispersive nature. Inappropriate modeling of this delay in radio propagation results in degradation

of the estimation of the position of a radio source. Tropospheric delay is usually classified into hydrostatic and wet delay to account for the effect of dry gases and water vapour pressure respectively. They are principally referred to as zeni9th hydrostatic and zenith wet delay become the line of sight in the zenith direction.The atmosphere in low latitude regions is of particular interest to researchers because the propagation of satellite signals becomes significantly delayed compared with other regions of the world.

Radio quiet zoneBecause radio astronomy observations from the surface of the Earth are in t r ins ica l l y sens i t i ve to rad io interference from man-made sources, whether intentional or unintentional, r ad io qu ie t zones have been implemented by some administrations, based on ITU release,. An radio quiet zone, according to ITU is defined here as any recognized geographic area within which the usual spectrum management procedures are modified for the specific purpose of reducing or avoiding interference to radio telescopes, in order to optimize the environment in which observations are carried out.Besides locating radio astronomy stations as far from heavily populated areas as possible, placing them in areas that provide some level of natural terrain shielding is helpful. In Europe, some

observatories have found benefits to surrounding their radio telescopes by forests of coniferous trees, which, due to the moisture content of their needles, can provide additional protection from interference coming from the horizon, particularly at frequencies above a few Ghz. However, observatories located on mountain peaks with very long lines of sight are particularly challenging for radio quiet zone coordination. According to ITU, a key model of an radio quiet zone is that no transmitters at all are allowed within the quiet zone, perhaps over a specific frequency range that is related to the operation of a radio telescope. In another model, transmitters are allowed as long as the received signal level at the radio astronomy station does not exceed a specified interference threshold, again over some frequency range. The nature of radio frequency propagation is such that interference power decreases with increasing distance from transmitters. The most basic approach, therefore, is to select a geographic location that is sufficiently far away from population centres and traffic. Mountain top sites are often useful for their remoteness; they also provide a shorter path through the atmosphere, which is particularly advantageous at higher frequencies. Where possible, natural shielding of the site should be used. In contrast to the mountaintop site, the exact geographic location gives preference to valley locations surrounded by hills or mountains, and is particularly chosen for low frequency observations.

SPECIAL FEATURE

I

21

The World Meteorological Organization is calling on governments to protect radio frequencies allocated to Earth observation services which are vital for weather forecasts and long-term climate change monitoring.According to WMO, Decisions with major repercussions for Earth exploration, e n v i r o n m e n t a l m o n i t o r i n g a n d meteorological satellite operation will be made at the world Radiocommnication Confereencee fron 28 October – 22 November, The conference, held every three to four years under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), reviews the Radio Regulations which govern the use of radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits. It will consider the management of scarce orbit/spectrum resources.

There is growing alarm within the meteorological community that the increasing competition for bandwidths, including from the next-generation mobile phone data service, 5G, may be at the detriment of established applications relating to Earth observation satellites, radiosondes, aircraft, radar and other observing systems. “WMO obviously does not wish to hamper the rollout of new telecommunication technologies such as 5G. But we are concerned that they should not encroach on the frequencies used by life-saving applications such as weather prediction,” says Eric Allaix, chair of the WMO Steering Group on Radio Frequency Coordination. ?“There needs to be a balance between short term commercial and technological interests and long-term global well-being and safety. We should not run the risk of reversing many of the gains in our warning services for natural hazards and thus potentially increasing loss of life and property,” said Mr Allaix.

Thanks to timely weather warnings, there has been a big reduction in the loss of life d u r i n g r e c e n t d e c a d e s . T h e s e improvements are directly related to the use of radio frequency based remote sensing feeding directly into numerical weather prediction systems giving more accurate predictions with longer lead

periods. But, there is increasing pressure on the use of radio spectrum from wireless technology and other applications, i n c l u d i n g I n t e r n a t i o n a l M o b i l e Telecommunications (IMT) services that include new technologies such as 5G.

Passive sensing techniques

M a n y m e t e o r o l o g i c a l s a t e l l i t e observations use passive sensing techniques, which make it possible to gain information on the current state of the Earth system by exploiting the absorption characteristics of the atmosphere.

Such passive measurements are made by sensitive instruments that measure the very low-power microwave radiances naturally emitted from the atmosphere and the Earth's surface. These passive techniques are the most vulnerable to interference from new users of radio frequencies generating electromagnetic emissions for their own purposes.

The primary concern is the 23.6-24 GHz “passive” satellite observation frequency band which is adjacent to the 5G 24.25-27.5 GHz band under discussion. Current ITU-R studies in all frequency bands show that only an important reduction of IMT-2020 unwanted emissions can ensure protection of EESS (passive) sensors, in particular for the 23.6-24 GHz “passive” band.

W M O a n d t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l Telecommunications Union (ITU) have worked closely over many years to protect these special radio frequencies through ITUs Radio Regulations but it is up to the Members of these organizations to take note of the scientific studies and ensure that appropriate protection is maintained and is sustainable.

These decisions will be taken during the four-week World Radiocommunication Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The event brings together more than 3500 participants from 193 ITU Member States along with 267 members of the ITU R a d i o c o m m u n i c a t i o n S e c t o r

The World Meteorological Organization is calling on governments to protect radio frequencies allocated to Earth observation services which are vital for weather forecasts and long-term climate change monitoring, according to this report.

representing international organizations, equipment manufacturers, network operators and industry forums who attend as observers.“The key to a successful outcome of WRC-19 lies in building consensus on how to balance the demands of the different services that require radio-frequency spectrum, such as aeronautical, maritime, satellite, broadcasting, Earth observation, mobile broadband, amateur radio and railways,” according to the ITU.

WMO is concerned that the repercussions o f d e c i s i o n s a t t h e W o r l d Radiocommunication Conference may only become apparent when it is too late to reverse them. These views are shared by operational centres such as the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, and space agencies such as EUMETSAT and the European Space Agency.

World Meteorological Congress

The World Meteorological Congress – the supreme decision-making organ of WMO – earlier this year passed a resolution expressing its serious concern at the continuing threat to several radio-frequency bands allocated to the meteorological aids, meteorological-satellite, Earth exploration satellite and radiolocation (weather and wind profiler radars) services posed by the development of other radiocommunication services.”

Specifically, the resolution asked the International Telecommunication Union and its Member Administrations to “ensure the availability and absolute protection of the radio-frequency bands which, due to their special physical characteristics, are a unique natural resource for spaceborne passive sensing of the atmosphere and the Earth's surface and are of crucial importance for weather, water and climate research and operation

WMO urges protection of radio frequencies vital to weather forecasts

Courtesy- SpaceX

22

The first Quarter has seen a number of milestones in our Connectivity strategy, procurement of EUTELSAT 10B, and foundations of the IoT strategy, as well as the order of first ELO constellation nano-satellites, according to Rodolphe Belmer, Eutelsat has began the roll-out of 'LEAP 2' cost-savings program, aimed at generating economies of €20-25 million by the end of FY 2021-22.

Founded in 1977, Eutelsat Communications is one of the world's leading satellite operators. With a global fleet of satellites and associated ground infrastructure, Eutelsat enables clients across Video, Data, Government, Fixed and Mobile Broadband markets to communicate effectively to their customers, irrespective of their location. Over 6,800 television channels operated by leading media groups are broadcast by Eutelsat to one billion viewers equipped for DTH reception or connected to terrestrial networks. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat assembles 1,000 men and women from 44 countries who are dedicated to delivering the highest quality of service. Rodolphe Belmer, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The first Quarter has seen a number of milestones in our Connectivity strategy, with the procurement of EUTELSAT 10B with significant pre-commitments in the mobility segment and the foundations laid for the IoT strategy, notably with the order of our first ELO constellation nanosatellites. Elsewhere, we have added a further lever to our cash flow strategy with the roll-out of the LEAP 2 cost-savings plan, aiming to generate opex economies of €20-25 million by FY 2021-22, which will be reinvested in our future growth verticals whilst preserving our EBITDA margin.

Despite our expectation that the revenues profile for the current year will be back-end loaded, the outturn of the First Quarter is slightly below our expectations, notably due to worsening trends in Data & Professional Video and the unplanned return of a couple of transponders in Russia. On the other hand, the coming quarters will benefit from easing comps in Government Services and Data & Professional Video, the contribution of new capacity and the ramp-up of African Broadband. Eutelsat Communications also announced the procurement of EUTELSAT 10B with significant pre-commitments, notably from Gogo, highlighting robust demand in the mobility market; Foundations laid for the development of our IoT strategy, with two complementary initiatives: Other key highlights include the order of first four ELO constellation nanosatellites, adding a future growth lever to Eutelsat's Connectivity strategy, the launch of IoT

FIRST, an end-to-end managed service operating in Ku-band on our existing geostationary fleet, and launch of the LEAP 2 cost-savings program to generate opex savings of €20-25 million by FY 2021-22 to underpin Discretionary Free Cash Flow objective, and deploy resources in the growth verticals while preserving our EBITDA margin;

First quarter revenues In the Broadcast sector, first Quarter revenues amounted to €194.7 million, down 1.7% year-on-year. This reflected notably the termination of a contract in Sub-Saharan Africa and the temporary effect of the return of a couple of transponders in Russia. eeOn a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenues were down by 2.0%.At 30 September 2019, the total number of channels broadcast by Eutelsat satellites stood at 6,976, down 0.3% year-on-year. The number of HD channels stood at 1,582 versus 1,419 a year earlier, up by 11.5% and represented 22.7% of channels compared to 20.3% a year earlier. On the commercial front, two multi-year, multi-transponder contracts were signed with Orby TV for capacity on EUTELSAT 117 West A for the launch of a new DTH service across the United States, and with Ultra DTH for capacity on EUTELSAT 65 West A to support the deployment of a white-label DTH platform across the Caribbean and Andean regions. Broadcast revenues should benefit from the entry into service of EUTELSAT 7C at the end of calendar year 2019, bringing incremental capacity (19 36-Mhz equivalent transponders) to the African broadcast market. In the first quarter Data & Professional Video revenues stood at €43.0 million, down by 19.6% year-on-year. They continued to reflect the ongoing pricing pressure and highly competitive environment in this application, and were also affected by volume losses in Data in Latin America and lower occasional use in Professional Video. First Quarter revenues from government services stood at €39.3 million, down 10.7% year-on-year, reflecting the carry-forward of the non-renewal of a single sizeable contract with a service provider in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018-19. In the fixed

broadband sector, first Quarter revenues stood at €19.9 million, down 3.3% year-on-year. Revenue trends in Europe are improving, reflecting the continued roll-out of the Preferred Partner Programme which is gradually being extended to new countries. The contribution of African Broadband remains modest at this stage, but is expected to ramp throughout the year. Eutelsat's first quarter revenues from mobile connectivity stood at €19.7 million, down 7.8% year-on-year. They reflected mostly a negative one-off of circa €1m related to the timing of revenue recognition which will be caught up next quarter. Other effects include notably the carry-forward impact of the end of a temporary wide-beam contract on EUTELSAT 172B in FY 2018-19 offsetting the contribution of UnicomAirNet from January 2019.

Procurement of EUTELSAT 10B A letter of agreement has been signed with Thales Alenia Space for the procurement of a new all-electric satellite, EUTELSAT 10B, scheduled to be operational by 2023. Located at 10° East, the satellite will assure service continuity for existing customers on EUTELSAT 10A, albeit with reduced c a p a c i t y, w h i l e s u p p o r t i n g t h e development of mobile connectivity revenues with two incremental HTS payloads. Firm multi-year capacity commitments representing more than a third of this incremental HTS capacity have already been secured, notably with Gogo, for in-flight connectivity services.

ELO Constellation In September Eutelsat unveiled its ELO constellation project targeting the Internet of Things (IoT) market. Starting with the launch of a f i rst ser ies of four nanosatellites, other satellites will progressively be added to the constellation if this new initiative proves successful, to reach a total of 25 satellites operational by 2022. The investment required for the constellation is included in Eutelsat's existing Capex outlook with a cost per satellite below 1 million euros. In this context, Eutelsat has signed a strategic partnership with leading IoT player Sigfox.

Setting new milestones in Q1Eutelsat Communications

MARKET REPORT

Eutelsat orders EUTELSAT 10B satellite for inflight and maritime connectivity servicesEutelsat Communications has signed a letter of agreement with Thales Alenia Space for the procurement of EUTELSAT 10B, a new all-electric satellite built on the Spacebus NEO platform. Scheduled to be launched in 2022, the satellite will be located at 10° East, an orbital position that offers a unique visibility spanning from the Americas to Asia. It will ensure service continuity for existing customers on EUTELSAT 10A, while supporting the development of the Group's activities in mobile connectivity thanks to two new incremental HTS payloads.Two powerful and innovative payloads to provide inflight and maritime connectivityResponding to strong growth in demand for mobile connectivity, EUTELSAT 10B will carry two multi-beam HTS Ku-band payloads: a high-capacity payload, covering the North Atlantic corridor, Europe, the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, offering significant throughput in the busiest air and sea traffic zones, and a second payload to extend coverage across the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and the Indian Ocean. The satellite's HTS payloads will be able to process more than 50 GHz of bandwidth, offering a throughput of approximately 35 Gbps. The entire satellite payload will be digitally processed, offering capacity allocation flexibility thanks to a digital transparent processor.Firm capacity commitmentsFirm multi-year capacity commitments have already been secured with several leading in-flight connectivity service providers, representing more than one third of the incremental HTS capacity. These partners will rely on EUTELSAT 10B to provide airlines with in-flight connectivity services.Service continuity at a key orbital locationThe 10° East location that EUTELSAT 10B will occupy has been operated by Eutelsat since 1987 and provides unrivalled coverage in the heart of the European, Middle Eastern and African zones. EUTELSAT 10B satellite will carry two widebeam C- and Ku-band payloads, to ta l l i ng 32 36 MHz equ iva len t transponders1 to ensure continuity of the missions of the EUTELSAT 10A satellite, whose operational life is scheduled to end in 2023. The capital expenditure represented by EUTELSAT 10B does not alter Eutelsat's existing envelope of 400 million euros per annum on average for the period from July 2019 to June 2022. RodolpheBelmer, CEO

Satellite connectivity in the South African market is set for a shake up, wi th infrastructure provider Vox announcing the introduction of several capped and uncapped data and voice plans, made avai lable through its partnership with Avanti Communications. “Ka-band satellite has been growing around the world; it's quick to install for end-users, and provides them w i t h m u c h h i g h e r throughputs as compared to other satellite technologies,” says Jacques Visser, head of wireless at Vox. ‘“Our partnership with Avanti helps us expand our existing Ka-band satellite services portfolio, bring new data and voice offerings to the South African market, and give our customers more choice.”Based in the UK, Avanti makes use of its fleet of four Ka-band HYLAS satellites and ground infrastructure in Amsterdam, Frankfurt , Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lagos and London among others, to provide satellite connectivity to individuals and businesses in over 118 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “This

partnership expands the coverage of our satellite s e r v i c e s t o m o r e g e o g r a p h i c a l a r e a s , including the Northern Cape locally, giving us for the first time coverage on Ka-band across the entire country, as well as into much of sub-Saharan Africa,” says Visser.According to Visser, the partnership with Avanti will allow Vox to offer an uncapped data plan, as well as several capped data plans. Subscribers to the capped data plans can add on an uncapped voice c h a n n e l . W h i l e t h e uncapped data plan runs off the HYLAS 2 satellite, the capped data/uncapped voice plans run off the newer HYLAS 4 satellite with a local landing station in South Africa, that reduces latency.

Visseradds that increased promotional offers for data and voice plans, as well as c o n s u m e r p r e m i s e equipment (CPE) subsidies, are now making satellite s e r v i c e s f a r m o r e competitive against other forms of f ixed, f ixed-w i re less , o r w i re less connectivity.

This makes satellite a solution for users who are not in major urban areas that benefit from high-speed connectivity such as fibre or LTE-A. Products such as uncapped voice could have a positive social impact in rural areas of the country, as small businesses or farmers can now affordably provide their workers with free calls so that they can stay in touch with family and friends.As a result of increased reliability and stability, a g r o w i n g n u m b e r o f businesses are also turning t o K a - b a n d s a t e l l i t e services as a failover connectivity, or even to connect their software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN).“Being able to offer our customers options such as high throughput uncapped data and uncapped voice plans, at this price point, is a g a m e - c h a n g e r f o r telecommunications in South Africa,” says Visser. “Gone are the days when satellite internet was seen as a slow, expensive service.”

Vox launches uncapped satellite Internet

Gogo, a leading global provider of broadband connectivity products and services for aviation, together w i t h E u t e l s a t Communications, one of the world's leading satellite operators, announced today a new satellite capacity agreement for high-speed inflight connectivity services. As part of the new multi-year agreement,

Gogo has leased HTS bandwidth on EUTELSAT 10B satellite, to be leveraged over Europe and the Middle East. The new satellite is set to launch in 2022.“We are advancing capacity capabilities given the growing demand for high-speed inflight connectivity services,” said Oakle igh Thorne, president and CEO of Gogo.

"Through our partnership with Eutelsat, Gogo 2Ku will continue to enable the b e s t p a s s e n g e r experience for global airlines.” "We are thrilled a b o u t o u r o n g o i n g relationship with Gogo, a long-standing partner and a leading provider for inflight connectivity,” said Philippe Oliva, Eutelsat's Chief Commercial Officer.

“This agreement highlights the relevance of our newly ordered EUTELSAT 10B for inflight connectivity and we look forward to supporting Gogo as they increase capacity in Europe and the Middle East to provide the best services to their airline partners.”

Gogo meets significant Inflight connectivity demand via a deal with Eutelsat

IN THE NEWS

24

In the last 10 years, Algeria have built mini-satellites, moving the continent out of the class of being 'sensed' to 'sensing'. At the same time, a country-wide, real-time Earth observation infrastructure has been developing. Today, Algeria now has a national space agency as well as regional centres and universities dedicated to building exper t ise in Ear th Observat ion technologies.With technological advancement on the being steady rise, a growing Earth observation market, an increasing Earth observation user community, a breed of enterprising Remote Sensing experts is emerging in Algeria.

On Feb. 23, 2012, the former President of A l g e r i a , A b d e l a z i z B o u t e f l i k a , inaugurated the Algerian CDS (Center for Satellite Development) on 23, February 2012. This center is located in the town of Bir El-Djir in Oran and is an operational entity of Algerian Space Agency, ASAL. This infrastructure allowed Algeria to build the third Algerian Alsat-2 B satellite, a twin of the Alsat-2A Earth observation satellite, and future satellite series, as well as to provide the appropriate technological environment to allow engineers and researchers to carry out activities in space

technology and other related fields.Before now, the Algerian government created its Space Agency in January 2002, Agence Spatiale Algérienne, ASAL or Algerian Space Agency, to develop, promote, and manage the countries space program. In addition, Centre of Space Techniques/Algerian Space Agency flown AlSat-1 as part of D M C ( D i s a s t e r M o n i t o r i n g Constellation), a 5 spacecraft optical imaging constellation developed and coordinated by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, SSTL UK. AlSat-1 was launched on Nov. 28, 2002, the spacecraft is operating nominally as of 2009 providing multispectral imagery of 32 m resolution in a swath of 600 km.The AlSat-2A spacecraft and its payload have been operating nominally since 2011. The imagery of the payload is of outstanding quality. On July 12, 2011, the AlSat-2A spacecraft was one year on orbit.Since July 21, 2010, the spacecraft operations are performed from the ALSAT-2 ground segment located in Ouargla, Algeria. The CDS/ASAL ope ra t i on t eam i s now fu l l y autonomous to control and monitor nominally ALSAT-2A and is also able to handle anomaly situation, analyze

telemetry, and correct the anomalies.During the first two years of operations many Orbit Control Maneuvers were executed: 10 of them were regular station keeping the operations were performed for ground track corrections and two were performed as emergency collision avoidance maneuvers.

AlSat-2 is an optical Earth observation project of Algerian National Space Technology Centre, CNTS. In Feb. 2006, agency signed an agreement with EADS Astrium SAS to design and built two satellites. The first of these, AlSat-2A, was integrated and tested in France at EADS Astrium, whereas the second one, AlSat-2B, was also integrated in Algeria within the Satellite Development Center, CDS in Oran. The AlSat-2 program includes the construction of two ground control segments as well as one station for high-speed downlinks of imagery permitting spacecraft operations from Algerian territory, a country of 2.38 million km2 in size.The cooperation agreement makes provision for Algerian engineers to work side-by-side with the EADS Astrium development team, with intensive training given in space technology. The AlSat-2

SPECIAL REPORT

Algeria’s rising space program

SPECIAL REPORT

25

contract laid the foundation for sustained co-operation with Algerian institutions in the fields of space technology for Earth observation, and its applications, as well as in the field of telecommunications.

The system has so far enabled Algeria to obtain very high quality images for use in a wide variety of applications: cartography, management of agriculture, forestry, water, mineral and oil resources, crop protection, management of natural disasters and land planning.

AlSat-1N, AlSat-1B missions Algeria put together in November 2006 a National Space Plan – Horizon 2020, where Earth Observation has a prominent place, focusing on natural resources, forecasting and monitoring of natural disasters, land management and infrastructure studies.The three satellites were manufactured at Surray Space Technology Limited, SSTL in partnership with Algerian engineers, ALSAT-1B is a 103 kg microsatellite based on the SSTL-100 bus. It carries an Earth imaging payload with panchromatic and multispectral cameras. AlSat-2B (117 kg) carries the NAOMI (New AstroSat Optical Modular Instrument). AlSat-1N (AlSat-Nano) is a 3U CubeSat carries a technology demonstration payload as part of a partnership between ASAL and the UK Space Agency. In Algeria, successful satellite design, test and operation experience of Alsat-1 satellite resulted in the construction of a satellite assembly integration and test (AI&T) facility in Oran city and the advanced Alsat-2A satellite, designed by France. After these technology and know-how transfer projects, Algeria is now developing its third satellite Alsat-2B at its own AI&T facility with its own personnel, and will be the third country in Africa to reach and benefit from space technologies, following South Africa and Nigeria.

AlSat-2 spacecraft AlSat-2 is the first Earth observation satellite system of the AstroSat-100 (AS-100) family; its design was based on the Myriade platform of CNES, a Myriade heritage of CNES DEMETER and Parasol missions, plus four Essaim microsatellites built by EADS Astrium for DGA, France. The spacecraft structure is an aluminum box of size: 60 cm x 60 cm x 100 cm. Figure

shows the platform mechanical accommodation; all 4 panels of the structure fold out during integration, allowing easy access to all equipment during platform integration. This accommodation allows a good level of flexibility with respect to the payload size.

In Feb. 2015, Algeria was exposed to quite a few natural disasters such as locust invasion, forest fires, floods, earthquakes,

2

landslides, movement of dunes, etc. Hence, it is of strategic importance for Algerian Space Agency to master and use space technologies for disaster management. Since 2003, there is a collaboration between ASAL and INVP (Institut National de la Protection des Vegetaux). The objective is to provide medium resolution satellite imagery as well as expertise to identify locust breeding areas in Sahel & Saharan regions based on ecological conditions analysis by identifying zones on space imagery, with high chlorophyll activities, favorable to locust breeding and development.

AlSat-2 is 3-axis stabilized. Attitude sensing is provided by 3 sun sensors, a star sensor, a magnetometer, and an Inertial Measurement Unit, IRU; actuation is provided by 4 reaction wheels (each of 0.12 Nms) and magnetorquers. A GPS receiver is used for onboard location and time services. The spacecraft has a body-pointing capability of ±30º in cross-track.The Electric Power Subsystem, EPS features an AsGa solar array providing a power of 180 W (EOL). In addition, there is a Li-ion battery of 15 Ah capacity. A hydrazine propulsion subsystem (N2H4, ÄV = 70 m/s) is being used for on-orbit maintenance. The spacecraft has a mass of 120 kg. The design life is 5 years.\

AlSat-2 features an onboard Solid-State Recorder, SSR of 64 Gbit capacity. Communications are provided in X-band with a downlink rate of 60 Mbit/s. For TT&C support, 2 S-band transceivers are utilized. The Telemetry, Tracking and Control and payload data are being acquired at the Arzew station complex in western Algeria (Oran region), where the

imagery is analyzed and from where the spacecraft is being controlled.AlSat-2A was launched as a secondary payload on July 12, 2010 on a PSLV launcher. The launch site was the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, India. Antrix Corporation Ltd. of Bangalore, India, is the launch provider and marketing arm of Indian Space Research Organization.. In July 2009, a Technica l Safeguards Agreement between the US and India was signed during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to India. Following this agreement, the US Government has given clearance in August 2009 for launch by ISRO of the Algerian satellites ALSat-2A and ALSat-2B, which have US components, on board an Indian space launch vehicleThe AlSat-2B spacecraft was launched in 2014 enabling Algeria to obtain very high quality images for use in a wide variety of applications, including c a r t o g r a p h y, m a n a g e m e n t o f agriculture, forestry, water, mineral and oi l resources, crop protect ion, management of natural disasters and land planning.

AlSat-2B was launched on September 26, 2016 as a secondary payload on the PSLV-C35 vehicle of ISRO. The launch site was Satish Dhawan Space Center, SDSC on the east coast of India. The primary payload on this flight was SCATSat-1 of ISROALSAT-2A was built and tested by Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse in partnership with 30 engineers from ASAL, while ALSAT-2B was integrated by ASAL's engineers themselves in-coun t r y a t A lge r i a ' s Sa te l l i t e

26

Development Centre (UDPS) in Oran. ALSAT-2B has a mass of 125 kg and has a metric-cube size of 60 x 60 x 130 cm. The satellite will operate in low Earth orbit and has a design life of five years. ALSAT -B's great success demonstrates that ASAL's engineers are fully competent and have acquired a great autonomy through this program

Status of the AlSat-2 missionsThe Algerian Space Agency is operating the AlSat-2 system, a constellation of two identical satellites AlSat-2A and AlSat-2B providing products of 2.5 m resolution for the panchromatic band, and a 10 m resolution in four multispectral bands, on a swath of 17.5 swath for both modes.

The ALSAT-2B satellite is in orbit since 26 September 2016. It accompanies the ALSAT-2A satellite to form a constellation of two satellites. The main tasks are cartography, management of agriculture, forestry, water, crop protect ion, management of natural disasters and land planning.

The attitude determination and control subsystem is composed of three sun sensors used during the initial attitude acquisition, one magnetometer used during the first phase and also during the coarse pointing mode, three gyroscopes and one star tracker initialized during the coarse pointing mode and used for the nominal mode. As ac tua to r s , t he re i s t h ree magnetorquers used for detumbling at the beginning, after that they will be used for wheel unloading. Four reaction wheels mounted in pyramidal configuration aimed to increase the angular momentum and finally a propulsion subsystem with four thrusters for orbit control.

ALSAT-2B delivers a high-resolution products consisting of a 2.5m resolution for the panchromatic band, and a 10 m resolution for the four multispectral bands, with a 17.5 km swath for both modes. The attitude determination during the nominal mode is carried out by three gyroscopes and a star tracker. The gyrostellar estimator is based on Kalman filtering; it is first initialized during the coarse pointing mode before transition to the nominal mode reason for which the estimator has enough time to converge in order to be ready for the different nominal mode pointing.

An accurate attitude information is often essential for space applications. Several attitude sensors have been developed with star trackers (SST) being the most accurate ones for three-dimensional orientation measurements. In order to further improve the attitude accuracy, multi-sensor data fusion is the common approach.

Sensor fusion generally refers to the process of combining measurements from several different sensors in order to obtain a better result than considering each sensor separately. The idea is to fuse sensors with complementary measure properties to combine their desired and cancel out their unwanted characteristics.

The data fusion is usually done in an estimation filter, so commonly this method is referred to as inertial stellar or gyro stellar estimation. The association of the sensors gyro/star tracker is very complementary and natural. Gyro propagation allows to smooth-out star tracker noise and to continue ensuring accurate attitude determination when no star tracker (SST) updating is possible.

Conversely, the star tracker allows compensating for long term gyro natural drift and gyro-scale factor errors during maneuvers. for instance. while a star tracker provides low frequency long-term stable attitude measurements, the attitude computed from the high-frequency gyro measurements is only short-term stable. The motivation to fuse star tracker and gyro is to generate a long-term stable attitude estimate at gyro measurement frequency of attenuated noise compared to the star tracker measurement and, hence, to optimally bridge periods where no star tracker measurement is available. In addition to the improved attitude information, the estimator provides an estimate of the gyro angular rate bias. Figure shows a comparison of the inertial attitude (gyro measurement), the optical attitude (SST measurement) and the estimated attitude from the fused (gyro plus SST) data.

In-orbit performance: Throughout the last 6 years in orbit, AlSat-2A has provided a great performance in terms of AOCS stability and agility. However, the reaction wheels, like all the equipments in space, are facing the external harsh environment to which the Fault Detection Isolation and Recovery strategy has been implemented to overcome these constraints especially for the Single Upset Events. It consists on setting the concerned wheel OFF then ON, and currently, the wheels are still working without any problems.

Sensor complementNAOMI (New AstroSat Optical Modular Instrument)NAOMI is a high-resolution imager designed and developed at EADS Astrium SAS: The instrument design is mainly driven by mission parameters and detector characteristics. The Time Delay Integration, TDI mode in the Pan band enables to reduce the pupil size for a given Ground Sample Distance, GSD. The pupil diameter is no more sized to comply with SNR requirements which can be achieved by increasing the number of TDI stages and is only driven by MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) requirement.

The imager provides imagery of 2.5 m in Pan and 4 multispectral (MS) bands of 10 m GSD. The optics system of the instrument employs state-of-the-art techniques such as SiC-100 (silicon carbide) material for the mirrors and the telescope structure, specific detectors, and a modular video chain design.

5

SPECIAL REPORT

Alcomsat-1 Communications Satellite’

Algeria's first communications satellite Alcomsat-1 was launched in December 2017. The satellite was deployed into the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) by Long March 3B (LM-3B) launch vehicle from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, China. Positioned at the 24.8°W orbital position, the satellite wi l l p rov ide serv ices, inc lud ing telecommunications, broadband internet, audio transmission, broadcast and television, satellite-based navigation, remote education, as well as enterprise and emergency communications. The coverage areas include Algeria, Sahel, and other regions in North Africa. The Alcomsat-1 project is part of Algeria's National Space Programme (NSP), which is intended to increase the nation's telecommunications capabilities while contributing to economic and social development.The satellite provides efficient and secured communications Network, while Increasing the capacities of the national telecommunications network; as well as access to information; continuity of communications services case of majors disasters. it will also respond to national needs in : communications, telephony, b r o a d c a s t i n g , e d u c a t i o n a n d e-health.offered by communications satellite constitutes a priority of the National Space Program (NSP), for this reason ASAL plans to launch and operate a communications satellite “Alcomsat-1”

In December 2013, ASAL selected China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) as the prime contractor to design, develop, manufacture, assemble, test, a n d l a u n c h t h e A l c o m s a t - 1 communication satellite. The contract also covers the supply of two ground control stations for use by the ASAL to control the satellite. The satellite was manufactured by China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) under a subcontract with CGWIC. Other contractors involved in the Alcomsat-1 satellite programme are China Satellite Launch and Tracking Cont ro l Genera l (CLTC), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and China Satellite Communications.

A l c o m s a t - 1 w a s d e s i g n e d a n d manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology, part of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, and is based on the DFH-4 satellite

Having access to the services

platform. With a liftoff weight of 5.2 metric tons and a designed life span of 15 years, the satellite will be used for a wide variety of public services such as television broadcasting, emergency communications, remote education a n d s a t e l l i t e - b a s e d s i g n a l augmentation, according to Great Wall Industry. With a launch mass of 5,225kg, the satellite carries 588kg of payload, which requires approximately 8kW of power. The satellite is equipped with two deployable solar arrays, which are capable of producing 10.5kW of electricity each that is stored in on-board batteries. The three-axis stabilised satellite employs a main propulsion system to climb towards the GTO, while its altitude is controlled using reaction control thrusters. The satellite also features anti-jamming capabilities.

The operations of Alcomsat-1 are controlled from two ground control stations, one in Médéa Province of Algeria, and the other in Ouargla Province. The ground segment is installed with 0.45m antenna device and state-of-the-art equipment to e n s u r e r e l i a b l e s a t e l l i t e communications to the users.

In Apr i l , 2018, Alger ia 's f i rs t communications satellite began operation, according to China Great Wall Industry Corp, the project's chief contractor. An in-orbit delivery ceremony for the Alcomsat-1 was held at the Algerian Space Agency's headquarters in Algiers. It is the ninth telecom satellite China has provided to foreign nations and the first space cooperation project between China and Algeria, the statement said.

Alcomsat-1 communication capabilities

The Alcomsat-1 telecommunication satellite incorporates a total of 33 transponders, including 19 Ku-band, 12 Ka-band, and two L-band transponders. Nine of the 19 Ku-band transponders are used to broadcast TV and digital radio channels, while the remaining are used to provide communications in North African regions, including Tunisia, Northern Chad, and Northern Sudan at speeds of 2Mbps.The Ka-band transponders are used to deliver high-speed broadband internet to the Algerian territory at speeds of 20Mbps. The satellite also features X-band, UHF and EHF transponders as well as two transmission and three receiver antennas.

Algerie Telecom launches consumer satellite broadband

Algerie Telecom Satellite (ATS), a subsidiary of state-backed incumbent operator Algerie Telecom, has revealed that it will augment its B2B-focused portfolio by launching residential satellite broadband internet services in September this year. As reported by Agence Ecofin, ATS' CEO Mohamed Anouar Benabdelouahad noted that the user cost for the consumer broadband service will be 'a little higher than that of ADSL … justified by the cost of equipment'. The service will focus on isolated regions, unserved border areas and other under-served zones, using bandwidth of the Algerian-owned

SPECIAL REPORT

satellite Alcomsat-1. The project supports the government's aims to reduce the digital divide between rural and urban dwellers.

Internet, telephony and VOD service via Alcomsat

Algérie Telecom Satellite (ATS), a subsidiary of Algérie Telecom, has introduced a triple play service to provide customers with internet, telephone and video-on-demand (VOD) via satellite. ATS looks to offer a pack that includes a digital demodulator loaded with TV channels, high speed internet, telephony and VOD. The package was delivered in partnership with two public companies, the National Enterprise of Electronic Industries (ENIE) and the Algerian Industry of Telephony (INATEL). ATS is considering local production of the packs in order to reduce cost.ATS President and CEO, Mohamed AnouarBenabdelouahad, said his company is talking to ENIE and INATEL for the production of the turnkey that would include an antenna, a modem and a satellite receiver."This project aims to provide a service dedicated to individuals through the r e c e n t l y l a u n c h e d A l g e r i a n telecommunications satellite, Alcomsat-1. The acquisition of a pack of ATS allows the consumer to have only one antenna with added value," he said.The President added that the residential KA band capacity will cover areas not served or poorly served by terrestrial

telephone and internet networks. When demand outweighs capacity, ATS said it will link up with other satellites to satisfy its customers until Algeria launches a second telecoms satellite.This move is an attempt by ATS to leverage Algeria's national satellite, the Alcomsat-1, to boost its revenues. ATS currently provides VSAT, geolocation and maritime telecommunications services. In 2017, it recorded a turnover of 6,007 billion dinars (US$52,861,600), against 3,378 billion (US$29,726,400) in 2016. The company posted a net profit of 1,002 billion dinars (US$ 8,817,600). "2017 was the best business year for ATS since its creation in 2006," said Benabdelouahad. For 2018, ATS has targeted surpassing 7 billion dinars (US$61,600,000) in turnover and is aiming to achieve this by adding the triple play offering.Alcomsat-1 allows for broadcast of 20 Mb/s-broadband internet on the KA band that covers the entire Algerian territory; it can also reach other African countries via the Ku Band.The Alcomsat-1 satellite which is scheduled to be operational six months after its launch on December 10 is for te lecommunica t ions , te lev is ion broadcasting and internet purposes. It has 33 transponders of which 9 are dedicated to the broadcasting of television channels and digital radios.

Interconnecting 4,000 health facilities via satellite

The Algerian government has also revealed that it has interconnected 4,000 health facilities across the country. This development was revealed by the country's Minister of Health, Population and Hosp i ta l Re fo rm Mokh ta r Hasbellaoui.The project was undertaken by Algerian Ministry of Post, Telecommunications, Technology and Digital Economy, and was unveiled by the Minister at the wilaya of Relizane.The project is expected to bring about the establishment of a health sector-specific data system, facilitate the implementation of procedures and examinations such as medical telediagnosis, and improve the conditions of care of patients.Algeria's first communications satellite Alcomsat-1 was launched in December 2017. The satellite was deployed into the geosynchronous transfer orbit by Long March 3B launch vehicle from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, China.Positioned at the 24.8°W orbital position, the satellite will provide services, including telecommunications, broadband internet, audio transmission, broadcast and television, satellite-based navigation, remote education, as well as enterprise and emergency communicat ions. The coverage areas include Algeria, Sahel, and other regions in North Africa.The Alcomsat-1 project is part of Algeria's National Space Programme, which is intended to increase the nation's telecommunications capabilities while contributing to economic and social development. The satellite is operated by the Algerian Space Agency.The new health project is an extension of the telemedicine network of Algeria (RT-DZ) that was officially launched on April 5, 2016. It is made up of the Internet interconnection of five university hospital centers, twelve public hospitals and hospitals. National Agency for Health Documentation is a technical piloting platform.Through the nat ional network of telemedicine that will soon join 4000 health facilities, Algeria wants to improve access of its populations to quality health care. Populations residing in remote locations are the most targeted.The Alcomsat-1 telecommunication satellite incorporates a total of 33 transponders, including 19 Ku-band, 12 Ka-band, and two L-band transponders. Nine of the 19 Ku-band transponders are used to broadcast TV and digital radio channels, while the remaining are used to provide communications in North African regions, including Tunisia, Northern Chad, and Northern Sudan at speeds of 2Mbps.The Ka-band transponders are used to deliver high-speed broadband internet to the Algerian territory at speeds of 20Mbps.The satellite also features X-band, UHF and EHF transponders as well as two transmission and three receiver antennas.

SPECIAL REPORT

IN THE NEWS

first and only satellite operator in the South Caucasus, Azerkosmos OJSC provides high-quality satellite services for the telecommunications sector and in the field of topographic survey. The strategic development plans of the company include expanding the coverage and range of services.

In 2018, Azercosmos launched the second telecommunications satellite Azerspace-2 into the target orbit, located in a geostationary orbit of 45 degrees east longitude. The main satellite control center is located on the 37th kilometer of the Baku-Shamakhi highway, and the backup one is located in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) in the Nehejir settlement of the Julfa district. The first communications satellite of Azerbaijan, Azerspace-1, was launched into geostationary orbit at 46 degrees east longitude on Feb. 8, 2013. The satellite was launched from the Kourou space center in French Guiana by Arianespace

Telecommunications Satellite, Azerspace-2 celebrates one year in space

This day, September 26 marks the first anniversary of the launch of the third satellite of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Azerspace-2. Under the leadership of Mr. President IlhamAliyev, Azerspace-2 was successfully launched into orbit on September 26 at 02.38 am GMT+4 from Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. During the following months, the satellite has reached its final orbital position, and all the testing processes were successfully implemented. In January 2019, the satell ite control was completely transferred to Azercosmos, and in February 2019, Azerspace-2 started its commercial activity.

The coverage area of Azerspace-2 includes the countries of Europe, Central and South Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. The satellite offers high technological capabilities, a wider coverage area, and high-quality services to meet the growing demand for network services of public and private sectors in the region.

The resources of Azerspace-2 enabled Azercosmos to attract new customers. It is worth to note the names of EUTELSAT S.A. of France and the leading satellite services provider of USA Intelsat among them. Today, Azerspace-2 broadcasts more than 80 encrypted TV channels over the African region.During its seven-month commercial activity, 80% of Azerspace-2 capacities

were exploited on a paid basis. Over this period, via Azerspace-2 Azercosmos generated the revenue amounted $14.1 million.Thanks to the successful commercial activities implemented via Azerspace-2, Azercosmos has further strengthened its position as a reliable partner to provide satellite services in the regional market.

China's first polar observation satellite supports polar research

China's first polar observation satellite, the BNU-1, has successfully obtained data on polar regions, according to the satellite's chief scientist. After nearly one month of in-orbit testing, the satellite is working normally and conducting full-coverage observation of the Antarctic and the Arctic every day, Cheng Xiao, the chief scientist, said at the China Symposium on Polar Science 2019.

Cheng said the satellite data connection system launched on Tuesday allows scientists around the world to obtain polar observation data acquire by the satellite. Registered users can also propose new observation requirements. The satellite continuously monitored a gigantic iceberg breaking away from the Amery Ice Shelf in east Antarctica in September, helping limit its impact on submerged buoys and investigation ships in the surrounding area.

Cheng said the satellite will help reduce China's reliance on foreign satellites for polar observation data. "The satellite's spatial resolution reaches 75 meters, which offers more detailed information on the ice cover and the sea ice," Cheng said.The satellite will also support China's upcoming 36th Antarctic expedition by enhancing its navigation capability in the polar ice zone. Developed by the Beijing Normal University and Shenzhen Aerospace Dongfanghong Development Ltd., the satellite weighs 16 kg and is equipped with two cameras and one receiver. It has great significance in promoting the research of polar regions and global climate change.

Lumina Broadcast Systems Australia and Integrasys enter into new partnership

Lumina Broadcast Systems Australia and Integrasys are pleased to announce our business partnership for Australia to represent the award winning Integrasys Satellite Carrier Monitoring Systems used by many Satellite Teleports for monitoring VSAT Systems around the world.

Satellite internet connects Spirit of Tasmania passengers

The spirit of Tasmania passengers travelling between Devonport and Melbourne will be able to access satellite internet from IPSTAR Broadband. The service reaches users through IPSTAR's Thaicom 4, a gyrostablised 1.5 metre antenna with a 16W KU band transmitter. Called NAVA, the service can be accessed on any wi-fi enabled mobile device including laptops, tablets and mobile phones at $20 per crossing or $12 per hour. The satellite internet will also improve the crew services by enabling them to remain connected at all times and able to check booking details and make amendments in real-time.

"We're continually looking for ways to improve the on board experience for our passengers and by introducing the NAVA system they can now enjoy a fast seamless service throughout their entire journey," Spirit of Tasmania CIO Simon P e a r c e . " F r o m a n o p e r a t i o n a l perspective, by ensuring a constant connection between our crew on board and our staff on shore, we are in the best possible position to continue providing exceptional service to our passenger and freight clients." Onboard the system s distributed using Cisco wireless network.

"Just as we are striving to provide high-speed satellite internet to families and businesses in rural and remote Australia, so too are we providing access to passengers and crew on one of the world's most famous sea crossings," IPSTAR MD Shannon Fisher said. "People want to share their experiences with friends and loved ones instantly and NAVA will enable passengers on Spirit of Tasmania to share photographs and other content as if they were onshore.”

New TV channels start broadcasting via Azerspace-1 satellite

Azercosmos, the Azerbaijani satellite operator, has signed an agreement on broadcasting Georgian TV channels MtavariArxi, Music Box, and the Russian ILLI TV, Trend reports referring to the operator. According to the agreement, beginning in October 2019, the TV channels are broadcast via the Azerspace-1 satellite at a frequency of 11095/H/30000.

These channels broadcast public, economic, analytical, sports, music, entertainment and cultural programs in Georgian and Russian languages. The

ASIA

28

IN THE NEWS

Integrasys have several modules available for Satellite Operators, Teleport Operators, VSAT Installers and SNG Operators. We are very excited to work with such an energetic company like Integrasys, they have a great product and excellent understanding of the requirements needed to optimise satel l i te platforms for the best performance at the teleport and in the field. Lumina Broadcast Systems Australia would l ike to welcome Arnaud Barthélemy who has joined our team to manage the Integrasys products to market, being one of the former Newtec co-founders since 1995, Arnaud comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the satellite technology and business around the world.

Thaicom and China Great Wall Sign MoU on UAV and Space Technology Cooperation .

Thaicom Public Company Limited has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) China's leader in commercial launch services, satellite systems, and space technology cooperation. The companies will cooperate in the area of appl icat ion development for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and BeiDou China's proprietary Global Navigation Satellite System (BDS). The deal is part of Thaicom's ambition to diversify its business and enter the emerging next technology markets through the integration of space, air, ground and maritime networks. AnantKaewruamvongs, Chief Executive Officer Thaicom, commented: “China Great Wall is an important strategic partner for Thaicom. As we are defining our new vision and making inroads into new business areas, the next phase of our company and future growth is fueled by new partnerships and Thaicom's integrated next generation service platform.” Anant added: “With the fast growing number of connected devices, terrestrial networks alone cannot keep up with the dramatic growth in data traffic and requirement for everywhere connectivity in the digital age, where a vast number of emerging new markets and services need to be accommodated. Space and airborne communication infrastructures are the backbone of the smart connected solutions for the emerging digital ecosystem on the ground. Therefore, our next generation service platform seeks to integrate space, air, ground and maritime networks for agriculture,

telecom and government services.” Liu Qiang, Chairman of the Board, China Great Wall Industry Corporation, said: “We are very excited to welcome Thaicom as a partner and support the company's future growth and entry into new digital service markets enabled by space and aerial technologies China Great Wall is known for. Satellite and aerial technologies enable smart applications and data analysis for these markets. China Great Wall's know-how and vast experience in space and aerial technologies including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) makes us an ideal partner for Thaicom to grow their business further.”

97 percent of rural settlements to have broadband internet access by end of 2022

Ninety-seven percent o f ru ra l settlements or more than 5,000 villages will gain broadband internet access by the end of 2022 and satellite technology will be technically feasible for the remaining 3 percent, reported Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and A e r o s p a c e I n d u s t r y AskarZhumagaliyev. “Internet access in rural areas is a basic element in the implementation of projects as part of the Digital Kazakhstan state programme. This will provide access to obtaining electronic public services, healthcare services, education and e-commerce. This will reduce the digital divide between the city and the village and provide residents with the opportunity to use digital technologies and give an impetus to the development of the economy,” Zhumagaliyev said. The country has access to broadband internet services in 117 cities and 3,324 rural settlements. They are provided with various technologies, including networks of fibre optic lines, 3G and 4G.Kazakhstan ranked 21st in the world by the number of mobile subscribers in 2018. The number of internet users was 81.3 percent in 2018 and Kazakhstan ranked 45th in the world ranking.The government plans to build fiber-optic lines and LTE networks (4G) to further provide rural areas with internet in 2018-2021. According to the plan, fibre-optic lines will be built in 1,250 rural settlements. As of the first half of 2019, fibre-optic lines were connected to 83 settlements, including 85 healthcare and 76 educational facilities. Some 685 villages will be connected to internet by the end of 2019 and 509 villages will be connected in 2020.The ministry will work to identify

unstable communication in the regions. Additional base stations will be installed in cooperation with local authorities and te lecom operators. For example, entrepreneurs built special facilities and mobile operators will install its stations in the Shchuchinsk-Burabai resort area. The same facilities will be installed in Almaty and the Pavlodar Region.“The ministry is also working to introduce a 5G network in Kazakhstan. The road map has been approved. The 5G network tests were conducted in Almaty and Nur-Sultan. A test is planned in Shymkent this October,” said Zhumagaliyev.

EOS acquires EM Solutions

Electro Optic Systems has agreed to acquire space communications company EM Solutions Pty Limited (EMS), a leading Australian technology company in the field of microwave satellite communications. EMS is based in Brisbane.EMS will form part of EOS Communication Systems.EOS recently announced (30 September 2019) that it had achieved a number of advances which together enable next-generation optical communication to and from space at bandwidths up to 20 times higher than microwave technology, and at lower cost. However, the company has long recognised that over $400 billion is currently invested in microwave communication infrastructure in space, and that this sunk cost and the all-weather capabilities of microwave technology will ensure a long-term role for microwave technology in space communications.EMS is a world leader in on-the-move satellite communications. It is a major provider of satellite communication systems for the Australian Defence Force, including Royal Australian Navy ships, and has been widely recognised for its advanced technology, winning awards such as the Essington Lewis Trophy (2018) Department of Defence SME Team of the Year, for innovation in defence communication.EMS' on-the-move radio and satellite p r o d u c t s d e l i v e r h i g h s p e e d telecommunications anywhere in the world to its customers. It is a trusted provider of secure and resilient communications for key customers such as defence forces and government agencies internationally.EOS has acquired 100% of all issued shares in EMS in exchange for 4,271,357 EOS ordinary shares and a cash payment of $1.485 million. These new 4,271,357 ordinary shares will generally be subject to a six month escrow period. At the average EOS share price for September, this values EMS at approximately $26 million.Although fundamentally a strategic acquisition, this transaction will immediately be earnings-per-share accretive to EOS because on its existing contracts EMS will contribute a higher proportion of EOS EBIT

ASIA

29

in FY2020 than the proportion of EOS' fu l ly d i luted shares issued as consideration.EMS is presently achieving EBIT growth around 10% and EOS expects to accelerate this growth. EOS' own forecast of growth exceeding 45% for the next two years will not be reduced by this acquisition.

EMS will immediately form an Australian base for EOS' new Communication Systems business, adding to EOS' existing Defence Systems and Space Systems business segments. The EMS senior management team of Dr Rowan Gilmore (CEO), Dr John Ness (CTO) and Mr Peter Bradley (Chief Engineer) will maintain their roles in EMS as EOS executives. EMS staff, now numbering 50, will be expanded.

EMS has sector-leading products. EOS plans to expand the market reach of these products through its own customer network, and add space-based and optical communication capabilities to EMS' ground-based technology. This will allow EOS Communication Systems to p r o v i d e a b r o a d r a n g e o f communications solutions to existing EMS and EOS customers, as well as the broader market.

EOS will now offer customers globally a range of proven communication solutions which are both leading edge and future-proofed. These products will offer EOS customers a secure transition to the future of ultra-broadband space communications.

EOS estimates that of $400 billion of space communications infrastructure which must be renewed in the next 20 years, at least $120 billion will require a combination of performance features across microwave and optical domains which EOS is now equipped to provide. The leading edge of this $120 billion in procurements is imminent. EOS will compete in this market.In addition to its role in anchoring the new EOS Communication Systems segment in Australia, EMS will immediately provide a platform for expansion of EOS' other business segments. EOS Space and Defence segments are currently limited by access to suitable researchers, scientists, engineers and technicians and adding a Brisbane site of operations to these rapidly-growing businesses will increase the catchment pool for their recruitment by 300%..

Sri Lanka's digital health solutions service provider partners with Western Hospital

Doc990, Sri Lanka's pioneering digital health solutions service provider, recently announced its partnership with Western Hospital to facilitate an Ongoing Number Service for patients. This latest and innovative new service offering updates the live doctor channeling queue in real-time via the Doc990 mobile app or doc.lk webs i te , resu l t ing in unmatched c o n v e n i e n c e a n d e f f i c i e n t t i m e management for patients as they access health services. Introduced for the 1st time in Sri Lanka, the Ongoing Number Services looks at serving patients and customers more effectively, while attempting to reduce patient crowds at hospitals, and was previously rolled out at the Asiri Group of Hospitals and Nawaloka Negombo.

A joint venture between Sri Lanka's premier connectivity provider, Dialog Axiata PLC, and three leading private hospital groups; Asiri Hospital Holdings PLC, Nawaloka Hospitals PLC and Ceylon Hospitals PLC (Durdans), Digital Health aims to implement and develop a state-of-the-art, integrated, e-commerce infrastructure for Sri Lanka's healthcare sector, through the provision of a digitally-enabled medical appointment management for healthcare providers, extending to several innovative new elements for Sri Lanka's digital health care value chain.

Patients can make appointments by calling 990, visiting www.doc.lk or via the Doc990 mobile app available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, while the Ongoing Number Service can be accessed through the mobile app and website.

WITSA sees remarkable progress in Bangladesh ICT sector

World Information Technology and Service Alliance (WITSA) Secretary General Dr James Poisant has highly appreciated Bangladesh's progress in the ICT over the last couple of years. “Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in ICT development,” he said while addressing the inaugural session of the three-day first-ever 'Digital Device and Innovation Expo-2019' in the city. Highlighting various areas of progress, including people's access to internet and mobile phones, DrPoisant said digital age changes everything.

The number of mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh has reached 162.6 million while internet subscribers 98.136 million. The WITSA secretary general also appreciated efforts of Bangladeshi ICT manufacturers, their designs and innovations. Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak inaugurated the expo at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city.

IN THE NEWS ASIA

China launched two satellite for its GPSsystem (Source: China Daily

30

Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing C o m m i t t e e o n P o s t s , Telecommunications and IT Affairs Ministry AKM Rahmatullah, BHTPA Managing Director HosneAra Begum, ICT Division Senior Secretary NM ZeaulAlam and Bangladesh Computer Samity President MdShahid-Ul-Munir were, among others, present.Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA), Information Communication Technology (ICT) Division, Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) and Idea Project jointly organised the expo with the theme “Made in Bangladesh: Nothing is Impossible'.

LeoLabs Unveils Kiwi Space Radar

LeoLabs, Inc., introduced a new era of transparency in LEO, with the launch of its Kiwi Space Radar (KSR). As the first commercial radar to track objects in LEO smaller than 10 centimeters, the KSR sets a new standard for tracking the full range of threats to satellites from orbital debris. Located in New Zealand, the KSR also expands LeoLabs' radar network to the southern hemisphere, and marks the first of a series of next generation LeoLabs radars to be deployed globally.

"The Kiwi Space Radar raises the bar on addressing the threat of collisions that have never before been tracked in LEO," said Michael Nicolls, co-founder and LeoLabs Chief Technology Officer. "By operating at a higher frequency than our earlier sensors, the KSR was designed to track an estimated 250,000 additional objects down to 2 centimeters in size. These objects account for most of the risk of collisons in space, and KSR is the first big step towards addressing that risk. It will enable thousands of new satellites to safely use LEO.""The Kiwi Space Radar represents a huge step in executing on our vision for customers and investors," said Dan Ceperley, co-founder and CEO of LeoLabs. "As thousands of satellites and new constellations deploy into LEO, our mission is to provide a backdrop of data-driven transparency and certainty to support satellite operators, regulators, space agencies, and industries that rely on satellite services. Today's KSR announcement proves a foundational piece of this vision. Our radar network constitutes a clear strategic advantage for us in building the leading LEO services platform and the 'catalogue of the future' for low Earth orbit." Kiwi Space Radar --- Innovation HighlightsIn addition to tracking small debris, the Kiwi Space Radar incorporates other significant features:

have found strong and reliable partners for the distribution of BBC channels into Asia,” said Shad Hashmi, SVP, BBC Studios. “MEASAT and Globecast have addressed our business needs and we look forward to continue partnering with them in the years to come.” MEASAT-3 is collocated with the MEASAT-3a and MEASAT-3b satellites at Asia's prime video hot slot of 91.5°E. The three satellites form the region's strongest video neighbourhood, providing UHD, HD and SD channels across Asia, Australia, East Africa and Eastern Europe. The MEASAT fleet will be further strengthened with the addition of MEASAT-3d in 2021.

Panasonic Avionics subsidiary Aeromobile partners with Truemove Thailand to enable customers to connect whilst inflight

Panason ic Av ion ics Corpora t ion subsidiary, AeroMobile, and leading telecommunications operator TrueMove Thailand, a subsidiary of True Corporation Plc, have partnered to launch an inflight data roaming bundle for their customers. The inflight bundle, which commercially launched in September 2019, will place inflight mobility at the heart of TrueMove Thailand's roaming packages. As the first operator in the country to launch an inflight roaming bundle, this agreement further cements TrueMove Thailand's position as a market innovator and respected service provider, with a highly competitive offering that brings more value and a greater experience for their 28 Million+ customer-base.

Customers who subscribe to the inflight service will be able to use their mobile phones to browse the internet, send and receive emails, texts and calls and stay in touch with friends on social networks, whilst travelling on AeroMobile equipped a i r c r a f t . M s . ParinthonTansuthepverawong , General Manager of True Corporation, says: "Our TrueMove H post-paid customers expect a high-quality user experience, and through our partnership with AeroMobile we are now able to offer valued inflight roaming service at an attractive price. We are delighted to bring this new service to our customers, who will be able to enjoy seamless, high-quality and secure roaming at 20,000 feet.”

Kevin Rogers, Sr Director Mobility Panasonic Avionics, CEO AeroMobile, adds: "We are pleased to partner withTrueMove Thailand and broaden the reach of our connectivity services across this region. With the new inflight roaming bundle, TrueMove's customers no longer

need to worry about continuing to communicate whilst traveling. This new market-leading package shows a continued commitment to providing the very best service to customers.” The service is currently available to post-paid customers that purchase the inflight bundle and will enable TrueMoveThailand'scustomers to enjoy more value and convenience when travelling.

Foxtel selects CommScope to redefine TV viewing in Australia

CommScope announced its continued partnership with Foxtel, Australia's leading Pay TV operator, to bring The New Foxtel Experience to subscribers across the country.

The New Foxtel Experience leverages CommScope technology to deliver thousands of hours of TV and on-demand movies as well as access to Netflix® for subscribers through Foxtel's iQ4 set-top box. Whether subscribers are streaming videos, recording live programming, or browsing through Foxtel's massive on-demand library, the iQ4 makes it simple to get everything they want all in one place.

CommScope's Professional Services group worked with Foxtel to deliver the iQ4's full-stack software platform, which integrates to multiple back-office systems to provide a seamless broadcast and IP connected user experience. The iQ4 combines broadcast satellite and IP capabilities in a single, powerful device capable of delivering 4K broadcast resolution, 802.11ac Wi-Fi®, and a 1TB hard-drive—allowing subscribers to watch what they want, when they want, the way it was meant to be watched.

“Our work with Foxtel highlights our continued leadership and combined expertise in professional services and software integrat ion,” said Steve McCaffery, senior vice president of Service Providers, International, CommScope. “We are setting a new standard for the television experience by combining the latest technology in support of the growing number of video formats that consumers enjoy. Foxtel's new iQ4 user interface brings it all together in a single, seamless experience, and we're delighted by its positive reception in Australia.”

Ka-band connectivity for China's aircraft

AirNet Technology Inc, an in-flight solution provider focusing on connectivity, entertainment and digital multimedia in China, has announced that one of its subsidiaries, Air Esurfing Information

IN THE NEWS

Automated search capability. As LeoLabs builds out the LEO catalog of the future, the KSR provides the ability to automatically search, discover objects and events. Generating orbital information without the need for human intervention will provide a more timely and complete picture for SSA and traffic management services. Southern hemisphere coverage. The KSR is the first phased-array radar of its class located in the southern hemisphere. It improves frequency of rev is i t s , enab les be t te r o rb i t assessment, and improves monitoring of maneuvers and events. Improved precision in measurements and orbit determination. Because the KSR dramatically increases the quantity and quality of observations for each satellite and piece of orbital debris, LeoLabs can deliver greater accuracy and timeliness to support miss ion dec is ions and threat assessment.

BBC Studios renews distribution deal with MEASAT in partnership with Globecast

MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd., in partnership with Globecast, has announced that BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, has renewed its agreement to distribute its BBC channels across Asia via the MEASAT-3 satellite. “We are delighted to continue the partnership with Globecast, supporting BBC Studio's channel distribution across Asia,” said YauChyong Lim, Chief Operating Officer, MEASAT. “This service extension with MEASAT and Globecast shows the strength of our 91.5°E video neighbourhood for broadcasters.”

The channels include BBC Earth HD, which inspires audiences by sharing the incredible wonders of the universe; CBeebies HD, which provides preschool age programming to encourage learning through play; and BBC Lifestyle Asia, which provides a wealth of inspiration for home, family and life. Globecast provides MEASAT satellite capacity, ground and uplink services to BBC Studios, carrying these channels to viewers across the Asian market. Shakunt Malhotra, Managing Director, Globecast, said, “We have a longstanding, productive partnership with MEASAT in Asia, delivering channels across the region and we are pleased that BBC Studios has chosen to renew their services with us.”

“With MEASAT and Globecast, we

ASIA

31

IN THE NEWS ASIA

32

Technology Co Ltd, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Lufthansa Technik, a provider of technical aircraft services, to provide inflight connectivity retrofit packages to aircraft in the Chinese market.During the term of this agreement, Lufthansa Technik will design and certify Ka-band-based connectivity retrofit packages for both the Airbus A320ceo and A320neo aircraft families as well as the Boeing 737NG and 737MAX. Lufthansa Technik will also work with ARE to provide Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)-validated European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Supplemental Type Certificates (VSTC) to support Chinese airlines. Lufthansa Technik will also supply material and provide material handling services for the installation of packages that can be tailored to the specific requirements of airline customers of ARE.Lufthansa Technik's portfolio covers the entire range of services for commercial and VIP/special mission aircraft, engines, components and landing gear in the areas of digital fleet support, maintenance, repair, overhaul, mod i f i ca t i on , comp le t i on and conversion as well as the manufacture of innovative cabin products.Collaborating with its partners, AirNet offers Chinese airlines internet connections through a network of satellites and land-based beacons.

Azercosmos, CaspianSAT sign partnership agreement

Azercosmos and CaspianSAT, the company tha t o f fe rs o f fshore telecommunication services, signed a partnership agreement. According to the agreement, CaspianSAT will provide telecommunications services to the vessels operating in the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, the Persian Gulf, the Volga river, and Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, using the resources of Azerspace-1 and Azerspace-2 satellites.S o l u t i o n s c o v e r i n g b a s i c telecommunications requirements such as internet, telephony and TV broadcasting and other additional services on vessels are offered by CaspianSAT over Azerspace-1 and Azerspace-2 since October 2019.

SK Telecom's esports J V w i t h C o m c a s t Spectator sets sailSK Telecom Co., South Korea's leading mobile carrier, said that its esports joint

venture with U.S. sports and entertainment company Comcast Spectator has been officially launched as it looks to expand its presence in the fast-growing gaming market. SK telecom CS T1 Co.'s global headquarters office will be in Seoul, accord ing to the South Korean telecommunications giant. SK Telecom is the largest shareholder of the joint venture with a 55 percent stake. The JV launch came after SK Telecom and Comcast Spectator signed a strategic partnership at the MWC Barcelona, the largest mobile show of the year, in February.The joint venture will focus on esports team operations, content development, sponsorships and broadcasting deals to cash in on the fast growing entertainment sector. It also plans to expand the number of esports teams from three to 10, with six of them to be based in South Korea. They will compete in seven games, including "League of Legends," "Fortnite," "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" and "Hearthstone." According to investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, the global esports industry is expected to grow US$869 million in 2018 to $2.9 billion in 2022.

Optus Messaging removes major pain points for customers

Optus has introduced a digital Messaging service for customers that allows them to interact with Optus, not have to repeat their enquiry history, and then go about their lives while Optus solves their problem and then provides the customer with an update when their problem is solved. Optus Messaging is the latest 'always-on' help and support channel and is available through My Optus App and online via My Account. Optus Messaging provides a 24/7 direct line of communication with Optus care teams where customers can 'come and go' from a conversation at their own pace and convenience. Unique to Messaging, this service facilitates a conversational-style approach between Optus customers and care support teams by drawing on the latest technologies to blend digital and human experiences. Optus Vice President of Customer Care, Mark Baylis, said “Messaging is breaking new ground in the world of customer care and wi l l t ransform the way we communicate with our customers and most importantly, help us go further to deliver exceptional service.” “Over the past few years, we noticed customers have really taken to the convenience of our Live Chat service and we've able to build on this digital e x p e r i e n c e b y i n t r o d u c i n g Messaging.”“Unlike Live Chat, Messaging

allows customers to 'come and go' from a conversation but also means they no longer need to wait on the phone or a chat queue; making it easier than ever for customers to engage with us when they need help.” As a first for Optus, customers can start a Messaging conversation online through the web, and then jump across to the My Optus App on their mobile device to continue their interaction if that's easier. “One of Messaging's most important features is that our customers and care teams have access to the full conversation history which eliminates the need for customers having to repeat themselves as conversations can be picked up at any time by our support teams,” MrBayliss added. Mr. Baylis said the shift from voice contact centres to digital channels was being driven by customers as a way to engage and purchase products or services in a way that suits them.“We are thrilled customers will have an even more convenient way of connecting with us by leaving a message with us so they can get back to their day while we resolve their issue in the background and notify them when it's done.” Optus' commitment to leading the way in conversational care delivers to our customers simple, interactive and convenient support via their preferred channels, 24/7.

ZTE and China Telecom help Bluetron adopt China's first end-to-end 5G slicing and intelligent manufacturing solution

ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for Mobile Internet, together with the Zhejiang Branch of China Telecom, assisted Bluetron in commissioning China's first 5G SA (Standalone) site, which put 5G slicing, edge computing and smart manufacturing into trial to help Bluetron build a new 5G smart factory.To meet data requirements of industrial production, the Zhejiang Branch of China Telecom, ZTE and Bluetron have developed an integrated solution of 5G slicing, edge computing, and intelligent manufacturing. This solution realizes rapid deployment of machine vision slicing and fast backhaul of video streams by adopting key technologies such as, slicing stores, wireless slicing perception, end-to-end slicing security isolation, dynamic slice migration, UPF moving to edge, and UPF offloading. These slices can reduce the

IN THE NEWS ASIA

33

latency, jitter, and packet loss rate of video data transmission, guarantee the bandwidth and qual i ty of v ideo transmission and improve the accuracy and real-time performance of video analysis results. This solution is applicable to wireless data collection and operation monitoring scenarios, allowing operators to avoid on-site processes in harsh environments, thereby reducing the labor intensity and security risks of operators. Industrial cameras and edge computing gateways are deployed on the production line to replace monitoring instruments. The industrial cameras take a video of the feed inlet and upload the stream to the MEC through the uplink 5G slice. After calculating and analyzing the images, the MEC will automatically notify the classifier and raises an alarm in case of any abnormal image. The solution can also be used in enterprise full-service data integration scenarios, such as visual analysis of the bearer flow, device data c o l l e c t i o n , p e r s o n n e l s e c u r i t y management and remote device maintenance. "Committed to continuous technological innovation, ZTE works with operators and industry partners to explore the cooperation mode of the edge cloud and build an edge ecosystem together to comprehensively promote the commercial use of the MEC edge cloud and jointly promote the flourishing of 5G edge services," said Chen Xinyu, General Manager of ZTE Telecom Cloud & Core Network Product Line. ZTE is a provider of advanced telecommunications systems, mobile devices and enterprise technology solutions to consumers, carriers, companies and public sector customers. As part of ZTE's strategy, the company is committed to providing customers with integrated end-to-end innovations to deliver excellence and value as the telecommunications and information technology sectors converge. Listed in the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, ZTE sells its products and services in more than 160 countries. ZTE has so far obtained 25 commercial 5G contracts in major 5G markets such as Europe, Asia Pacific and MEA (Middle East and Africa). ZTE commits 10 per cent of its annual revenue to research and development and has leadership roles in i n t e r n a t i o n a l s t a n d a r d - s e t t i n g organizations.

Commercial TV transmission inaugurated through Bangabandhu Satellite-1

The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated the commercial transmission

of local television channels through the country's first satellite Bangabandhu Satellite-1. The PM handed over the transmission rights to the TV station owners in a program at Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel in the capital. Information Minister Hasan Mahmud, Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar, telecom Secretary Ashok Kumar Biswas, Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Ltd Chairman Shahjan Mahmood and Association of Television Channel Owners (ATCO) President Anjan Chowdhury were present on the occasion. The government has offered a discounted rate for the local TV stations so that they feel encouraged to use the country's own satellite.The Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company sources have said that for the next one year the company is offering Tk1.57 lakh per MHz spectrum per month, down from its original offer of Tk1.95 lakh. Earlier, most of the TV channels were taking the service from Hong Kong-based Star Alliance to which they used to pay around Tk3.50 lakh to Tk4 lakh.According to insiders, Star Alliance is now also offering discounted rate to the Bangladeshi TV channels in a bid to stay in competition with the BCSCL. Launched in may 2018, the total expenditure of the Bangabandhu Satellite 1 was Tk2,000 crore and as per the project proposal, the cost will be recovered in eight years. On October 21, 2015, the Cabinet Purchase Committee approved the project to buy the satellite system. Later, BTRC signed a deal involving Tk2,000 crore with French company Thales Alenia Space for the construction of Bangladesh's first-ever satellite Bangabandhu-1. The satellite was launched into the orbital slot at 119.1 degree east longitude. The slot was bought from Russian satellite company “Intersputnik” for $28 million in January 2015.

Southeast Asia's internet economy to hit US$100 billion

Southeast Asia's Internet economy is estimated to hit $100 billion in 2019, a 39-per cent increase compared to 2018, according to an industry forecast. The annual "e-Conomy SEA" report presented by the Singapore-based investment firm Temasek also projected that the region's digital economy could reach up to $300 billion by 2025, Efe news reported."The region has tremendous potential for further growth thanks to fundamental consumer behaviour changes, growing Internet connectivity and more," the

report said. "Investors remain bullish about Southeast Asia despite the global economic headwinds, with over $37 billion of capital poured into the region's Internet economy over the past four years," it added.With over 36 crore people across the region having online access, users have become used to performing day-to-day tasks such as shopping, booking a cab or making e-payments through the Internet. Though more than half of Southeast Asia's Internet economy remains concentrated in just seven sprawling metropolitan areas (Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore), activity in other areas is witnessing rapid growth, said the report.According to the report, 11 e-commerce and ride-hailing unicorns - such as regional giants Grab, Lazada or GoJek - attracted two out of every three dollars raised since 2016. In addition, $5 billion have been invested in more than 70 so-called "aspiring unicorns" - tech startups valued at between $100 million and $1 billion - that are "on the lookout for late-stage funding to scale further".

Bangladeshi internet users hit 98 million

With addition of nearly 7 million new users in the first eight months of this year, the total number of Bangladeshi Internet users reached over 98 million at the end of August, based on the statistics of the c o u n t r y ' s t e l e c o m r e g u l a t o r . Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n R e g u l a t o r y Commission (BTRC) data showed that the number of subscribers in the country reached 98.136 million.Of the total subscribers, the BTRC data showed that there were 92.361 million mobile Internet and 5.735 million broadband Internet users in the country while the rest of the connections are t h r o u g h W i M A X ( W o r l d w i d e Interoperability for Microwave Access).The country's cellphone companies in the first eight months of this year saw nearly 5.59 million new users to take the total subscribers base to 162.583 million at the end of last month. Bangladesh has currently four mobile companies, three of which are foreign-backed cellphone operators.The number of subscribers of the mobile operators, Grameenphone, RobiAxiata, Banglalink and Teletalk stood at 75.619 million, 47.760 million, 34.817 million and 4.387 million respectively at the end of August, BTRC data showed.

Vietnam to get Japan's first exported Earth observation satellite as part of disaster

IN THE NEWS ASIA

34

prevention initiativeA Japan-developed weather satellite will be exported to Vietnam under a Japanese public-private initiative, according to latest reports. Representatives of Japan and the Vietnamese government are in the final stages of talks on the matter, according to sources. The ¥20 billion initiative is aimed at supporting disaster prevention efforts in the emerging economy, as an increasing number of extreme climate events are occurring around the globe.Under the initiative, general trader Sumitomo Corp. will shortly take an order for the satellite from the Vietnamese government. The satellite will be produced by NEC Corp. The production cost will be mostly covered with low-interest yen loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. This is believed to be the first export of a Japanese Earth observation satellite, the sources said. The small satellite to be exported to Vietnam was developed with support from the industry ministry. It is based on NEC's Asnaro 2 test satellite launched in January 2018.The new satellite, weighing about 500 kilograms, can be launched using Japan's Epsilon solid-fuel rocket. Vietnam is poised to introduce a satellite to monitor its climate and environment in the wake of recent rain disasters. The Southeast Asian country plans to operate one satellite initially, and is considering the introduction of a second if necessary.

SK Telecom targets 2.5 million 5G connections by year-end

SK Telecom outlined ambitious targets around its 5G user base, aiming to capitalise on strong growth since it launched commercial service in April.Jong-Kwan Park, SVP and head of 5GX Labs (pictured), told delegates the South Korean operator had signed up 1.5 million 5G subscribers by early September, half of the country's total customer count at that point. It aims to lift the number to 2.5 million by the year-end, he said.Park said sign-up rates have been two-times faster than when 4G launched, citing attractive tariffs as a key factor. The operator initially discounted the cost of 5G by 50 per cent to encourage users to switch.Despite the discounts, Park said 5G ARPU was already double that of 5G, though he did not give precise figures.The operator is now working to break through the current maximum download speed of 2.7Gb/s in 2020.Park illustrated the need for such speeds with a popular feature called multi-view streaming, which allows users to watch multiple live broadcasts of gaming contests on their smartphones.SK Telecom will achieve the speed bump

using carrier aggregation, combining 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum with 145MHz of 4G bands. There are also plan to commercialise 800MHz of mmWave spectrum in 2020.“We are the number one operator in Korea. 5G is not coming to Korea its already in Korea. Going forward we are testing and preparing standalone and mmWave for commercialisation next year to further improve our network.”

Satellite center starts running in east China

A satellite research and development center has started operation on its north section in east China's Shanghai, according to China Science Daily. The L ingang Sa te l l i t e Cen te r was constructed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences which participated in the development of the Dark Matter Particle Explorer, nicknamed Wukong or Monkey King, and the quantum science satellite Mozi.

The north section of the center will undertake the manufacturing of communication, navigation and remote sensing equipment.Its satellite assembly plant with seven halls occupying 36,000 square meters will be able to cope with the development of more than 100 micro/nano-satellites.The construction of the center's south section started at the same time on Oct. 12 and is scheduled to be finished by 2021. It will support the volume production of more than 600 commercial micro/nano-satellites in the next 10 years.

5G internet service by 2021

Bangladesh Te lecommunicat ion Regulatory Commission (BTRC) officially disclosed its primary decision of making 5G internet service available in the country by 2021. BTRC gave licenses to the mobile operators with a condition that they will have to bring all the district headquarters under 5G service by 2023 while the entire country by 2026.The commiss ion revea led the information during a programme titled “Seminar on 5G in Bangladesh” held at Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) at Dhaka's Ramna. Posts and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar, who was present at the programme, said 5G and fourth industrial revolution are interrelated. “5G is not only related with telecom services, it will

also help boost digitisation and automation in every sector.”A committee formed by BTRC is already working to make a guideline on 5G which will be available from the first quarter of next year, the minister added. BTRC Chairman Md Jahurul Haque also spoke during the programme.

Discovery selects Synamedia's virtualized DCM to support its Asia Pacific migration to cloud encoding

Synamedia announced that Discovery, Inc. has chosen its virtualized Digital Content Manager (DCM) from its video network portfolio to increase operational eff ic iencies for i ts Asia Pacif ic distribution.A long-time Synamedia PowerVu customer, Discovery is centralizing its Asia Pacific uplink compression systems to its Sterling ,Virginia broadcast center. The company is turning to Synamedia's virtualized DCM to distribute signals across regions without interruptions. The platform, which complements traditional satellite distribution, enables Discovery to efficiently transition its distribution architecture to an IP-based virtualized video processing environment while protecting its revenue.

Synamedia's virtualized DCM offers exceptional video services for linear pay TV broadcast and live OTT streaming, including live transcoding to multiple bit rates and formats, scalable video functions, best-in-class video quality, and an intuitive user interface. Discovery has employed Synamedia's PowerVu Network Center to securely distribute its live linear international channels from hardware to a virtualized environment in the U.S. to feed the Asia Pacific region distribution. Synamedia's virtualized DCM adaptability and distribution capabilities allow Discovery to continue delivering the quality content its dedicated audience has come to rely on.

“We are excited to move to Synamedia's next gen virtualized DCM architecture for our Asia Pacific distribution," said Jim Rossiter, Vice President of Distribution, Americas and Asia, for Discovery. "Uninterrupted service is non-negotiable for us as we strive to provide the best viewing experiences for our audience. We needed a partner we could trust that can help us transition without impacting service delivery, and to continue to deliver high quality content to our clients.""Discovery is a true innovator and leader in entertainment today. Their trust in our technology to securely deliver their

variety of networks, is reflective of the innovation we are bringing to market and the focus we place on serving industry leaders like Discovery," said Dave Longaker, Senior Vice President and G e n e r a l M a n a g e r , A m e r i c a s , Synamedia. "The virtualized DCM is a key component of our video network portfolio, and our partners and customers around the globe are taking advantage of this solution to transition their businesses as they implement cloud and hybrid architectures that are flexible and future-proof.”

Spaceflight announces next three Rideshare Missions on ISRO's PSLV

Spaceflight announced it will launch 14 more spacecraft from India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) this year. Payloads will launch on PSLV's C47, C48 and C49 missions, scheduled to launch in November and December 2019 from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center. Customers aboard the missions include Analytical Space, Spire, iQPS and Kleos Space.Analytical Space Inc.'s (ASI) second technical demonstration spacecraft, dubbed Meshbed, will be launching on PSLV C47 in November. ASI's mission is an on-orbit demonstration intended to test technology that will enable users on Earth to gain faster access to satellite data. The spacecraft features a patented antenna from MITRE that could help enable faster access to space-based data, as well as government missions including tactical communications and i n t e l l i g e n c e , s u r v e i l l a n c e a n d reconnaissance.PSLV C48, slated for early December, w i l l c a r r y J a p a n ' s i Q P S S A R microsatellite and four multi-payload Earth observation nanosatellites that add to Spire Global's constellation of mari t ime, aviat ion and weather monitoring satellites. PSLV C49, also scheduled in December, will take Luxembourg-based Kleos' Scouting Mission satellites, the foundational system in the company's radio frequency monitoring constellation, and additional Spire nanosats to orbit.“PSLV continues to be a reliable launch partner for us, enabling Spaceflight to launch a variety of customers,” said Curt Blake, CEO and president of Spaceflight. “By the end of 2019, we will have executed 11 launches on PSLVs and sent more than 100 satellites to orbit on this vehicle. The consistency of the PSLV has played a critical role is assisting our customers, especially those launching

constellations, achieve their mission and business goals.”The company's last mission aboard this launch vehicle was PSLV C45, which deployed 21 rideshare spacecraft earlier this year. Spaceflight has completed five missions already this year, with another five planned in 2019. Other noteworthy 2019 missions include Spaceflight's GTO-1, which deployed the first commercial lunar lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, and two rideshare missions with Rocket Lab, which sent nine spacecraft to orbit. In December 2018, SSO-A, the company's historic d e d i c a t e d r i d e s h a r e m i s s i o n , successfully launched 64 unique smallsats, making it the single largest deployment of satellites from a U.S.-based launch vehicle.Spaceflight also recently announced its purchase of the first commercial launch of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) from NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), scheduled for early 2020.

Vietnam requests Japan's Earth observation satellite as part of disaster prevention initiative

A Japan-developed weather satellite will be exported to Vietnam under a Japanese public-private initiative, according to report by Japan Times. Representatives of Japan and the Vietnamese government are in the final stages of talks on the matter, according to sources. The ¥20 billion initiative is aimed at supporting disaster prevention efforts in the emerging economy, as an increasing number of extreme climate events are occurring around the globe. Under the initiative, general trader Sumitomo Corp. will shortly take an order for the satellite from the Vietnamese government. The satellite will be produced by NEC Corp.

The production cost will be mostly covered with low-interest yen loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. This is believed to be the first export of a Japanese Earth observation satellite, the sources said. The small satellite to be exported to Vietnam was developed with support from the industry ministry. It is based on NEC's Asnaro 2 test satellite launched in January 2018. The new satellite, weighing about 500 kilograms, can be launched using Japan's Epsilon solid-fuel rocket. Vietnam is poised to introduce a satellite to monitor its climate and environment in the wake of recent rain disasters. The

Rocket Lab successfully launches ninth Electron mission, deploys payload to highest orbit yet

Rocket Lab has successfully launched its ninth Electron mission, deploying a single spacecraft to orbi t for satel l i te manufacturer Astro Digital. The mission, named 'As The Crow Flies,' lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Mâhia Peninsula on 17 October 2019 . Approximately 71 minutes after lift-off, Electron's Kick Stage deployed the payload to a circular orbit of more than 1,000 km - more than twice the altitude of any Electron mission to date. The mission successfully demonstrated recent upgrades to the Kick Stage's 3D-printed Curie engine, including the move to a bi-propellant design for improved performance. Curie also serves as the propulsion system on Rocket Lab's Photon satellite bus, and the flight-proven engine upgrades support enduring missions in LEO, as well as higher orbits. This mission takes the total number of satellites deployed by Rocket Lab to 40 and continues the company's track record of 100% mission success for customers. The spacecraft on board was a Palisade technology demonstration satellite - a 16U CubeSat with on-board propulsion and next generation communications systems developed by Astro Digital, and software developed by Advanced Solutions Inc. including an advanced version of ASI's MAX Flight Software.

The mission earned its moniker, 'As The Crow Flies,' as a nod to Astro Digital's Corvus Spacecraft Platform which provides flexible and cost-effective solutions across a wide range of applications and mission profiles on bus variants ranging from 6U and 16U CubeSats to ESPA Class. Corvus is also a widely distributed genus of birds that includes crows. 'As The Crow Flies' was pulled forward in Rocket Lab's 2019 manifest after a customer originally slated for this window requested a later launch date.“Congratulations to the Astro Digital team for readying the spacecraft and taking advantage of an earl ier launch opportunity. Our teams worked closely to deliver a f lawless mission in a demonstration of the truly responsive space launch that small satellites need,” said Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck. “No longer do small satellite operators have to accept the limitations of flying as a secondary

IN THE NEWS ASIA

IN THE NEWS ASIA

payload, nor do they have to wait endlessly on the manifest of unproven launch vehicles. Frequent, responsive, and reliable launch is the new norm for small satellites thanks to Electron.”

Satellite center now operational in east China

A satellite research and development center started operation on its north section on Oct. 12 in east China's Shanghai, according to China Science Daily. The Lingang Satellite Center was constructed by t he I nnova t i on Academy fo r Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences which participated in the development of the Dark Matter Particle Explorer, nicknamed Wukong or Monkey King, and the quantum science satellite Mozi.The north section of the center will under take the manu fac tu r i ng o f communication, navigation and remote sensing equipment. Its satellite assembly plant with seven halls occupying 36,000 square meters will be able to cope with the development of more than 100 micro/nano-satellites. The construction of the center's south section started at the same time on Oct. 12 and is scheduled to be finished by 2021. It will support the volume production of more than 600 commercial micro/nano-satellites in the next 10 years.

Pacific Gas chooses Inmarsat's Fleet Xpress connectivity, protected by Fleet Secure Endpoint

The largest Liquid Ethylene Gas (LEG) ship owner in China has agreed a commitment to install Fleet Xpress connectivity from Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications on all its vessels. This will also include Inmarsat's Fleet Secure Endpoint, the new line of defence in the multi-layered strategy to thwart cyber threatsPacific Gas has committed to the new Fleet Secure Endpoint solution within the terms of its agreement to install Fleet Xpress across all their operational ships by the end of this year as well as on its future vessels.The Hong Kong-headquartered group has the capacity to carry 3 million tons of cargo annually and has signalled intentions of an expansion beyond its existing focus on very large gas carriers and liquefied ethylene gas carriers into Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) carriers and Very Large Ethane carriers (VLECs)The ambitions of Pacific Gas have driven evolving connectivity needs, demanding the bandwidth, seamless global coverage, guaranteed performance and 24/7 support

available through Fleet Xpress, according to Capt. Tao Yong, Vice President Fleet, Pacific Gas“Fleet Xpress helps us to scale our digital activities and complement the ship management software that we installed for resource planning on vessels,” said Capt. Tao Yong. “With real-time data exchange, vessels are now an extension to our shore office and we base our operational efficiency and performance gains on continuous monitoring and real-time upgrades and assistance. Internet access at sea is also vital for crew welfare and essential to attracting and retaining talented crewCapt. Tao Yong adds that always-on connectivity and shipping's progress towards digitalisation creates new requirements to protect ships against cybercriminals. Stable connections are vital for a company continuously monitoring its ships remotely using CCTV for security, for example.

“With our growing dependence on technology and providing open internet access we could be susceptible to cyberattacks, so we needed more than a conventional anti-virus to protect our systems 24/7 and from the various kinds of evolving threats,” continued Capt. Tao Yong. “As a modern ship owner we ensure that all our vessels are equipped with state-of-the-art technology and security systems that complement Inmarsat's global, secure and reliable connectivity.

Fleet Secure Endpoint monitors ship systems for security breaches introduced at 'endpoints', either by malicious software or by a new crew device with no security installed, reporting a 'rogue node' and isolating them from the rest of the network until issue resolution. Powered by ESET Endpoint Security – recognised for its high performance by industry authority Gartner Inc. - Fleet Secure's advanced monitoring stands out from the competition by offering the user a greater sense of control and awareness over their environment.

“Pacific Gas is one of the growing number of quality operators adopting practical and pragmatic mitigation strategies that prioritise cybersecurity on shore and at sea,” says Peter Broadhurst, Senior Vice President of Safety and Security, Inmarsat. “These companies recognise that the risks of a cyberattack on a vessel extend beyond loss of reputation; they include the risk of delays to the ship and cargo delivery or increased insurance premiums.”

AVIA hosts the Asia Video Summit in Singapore The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) will host its second Asia Video Summit this year from 4 - 6 November at the Ritz Carlton, Millenia, Singapore. With over 100 speakers representing 80 companies across the Asia Pacific region, the Asia Video Summit brings to its delegates a riveting line-up of sessions covering the themes of Business Models, Advertising, News, Human Capital and Policy

With video delivery migrating on-line, monetisat ion becomes entirely different to traditional Pay TV, and the right Business Model remains the central question for the industry. And as the industry continues to witness major consolidation, what is not often discussed is the impact it has on the Human Capital that makes up this workforce. Also, with social media and YouTube cornering the Advertising market, how does the industry curate premium content services that attract the appropriate share of advertising for the time people spend consuming it?

But of all the content services, News is the one that is at the forefront of the most active debates in 2019. With more people relying on social media for News, the role of curated news services is more important than ever before to counter the fake news epidemic. And as curated video continues to migrate to internet delivery services, and online piracy remains one of the biggest threats to the video industry, governments are now waking up to the reality that the internet is a place that needs law and order. Do we have the right Policies in place for the curated video industry today? Louis Boswell, CEO, AVIA commented, "I am looking forward to this year's event. This is the one time of the year where we ask our stakeholders to come together to discuss the key issues we face as an industry. In a non-partisan and honest environment, with more to discuss than ever before, the Asia Video Summit is critical as we plot the future trajectory of our industry.

Maxar Technologies, Australian Space Agency sign cooperative agreementMaxar Technologies has signed a joint statement of strategic intent and cooperation with the Australian Space

IN THE NEWS ASIA

Agency. Under the statement, Maxar and Australian Space Agency will investigate collaboration in areas of mutual strategic interest related to Earth intelligence and space infrastructure capabilities, and space-related Australian education and training initiatives. These projects may include development of next-generation space robotics, ground stations focused on optimized servicing of large satellite c o n s t e l l a t i o n s , o p t i c a l a n d communications satellites, space-based maritime surveillance and artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies that extract insights from Earth observation data at scale.

“Maxar is honored to support the Australian Space Agency as it seeks to expand the nation's role in the international civil space community, and we look forward to contributing technology and expertise from our 65-year heritage in space to projects and programs that enable them to achieve this goal,” said Dan Jablonsky, Maxar CEO.

“The Australian Space Agency aims to triple the size of the Australian space industry to $12 billion and create 20,000 new jobs by 2030,” said Anthony Murfett, Deputy Head of the Australian Space Agency. “Signings with companies such as Maxar will continue to develop the local space economy, and benefit Australians through space technologies. Cooperation across government, private industry and r e s e a r c h b o t h n a t i o n a l l y a n d internationally will provide linkages for Australia to access a greater segment of the global space economy.”The operations of DigitalGlobe, SSL and Radiant Solutions were unified under the Maxar brand in February; MDA continues to operate as an independent business unit within the Maxar organization.

Kacific secures infrastructure location with Petro1 for its broadband services to Indonesia and the wider region

Kacific Broadband Satellites Group (Kacific) has selected PT. Petro One Indonesia (Petro1) to provide ground infrastructure services in Indonesia for its brand-new satellite, built by Boeing, which will launch at the end of 2019. Petro1 will host, operate and provide first level support for Kacific's gateway hub at its secure facilities in Surabaya and Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia. The state-of-the-art primary gateway will include a 9-metre antenna and associated

equipment to transmit and distribute data to and from the satellite. An additional diversity site, over 60 kilometres away, will ensure better availability and a redundancy capability. Petro1 will provide a high-grade, well-f i b e r e d s e c u r e d d a t a c e n t e r environment for the system servers, 24/7 service care, which includes onsite service staff 24/7. The satellite's high-power beams cover Indonesia 's many is lands and sur round ing ocean, de l i ver ing affordable, high-speed broadband to telecommunicat ions companies, internet service providers and governments. This contract with local partners represents a multi-million dollar infrastructure investment into Indonesia by satellite operator Kacific. “Kacific chose to locate its ground infrastructure in Indonesia because it is a priority market for us,” says Kacific CEO, Christian Patouraux. “Our high-speed broadband will supplement and augment the Government connectivity programmes which aim to strengthen broadband infrastructure across the nation. Petro1 has a highly trained technical team and access to excellent facilities, which will ensure the optimal performance of the Kacific1 satellite in Indonesia.”

Petro1 CEO Marlina Sagaf says, “We are very pleased to have won the trust and business of Kacific for this long-term teleport hosting, support and the maintenance component of this remarkable high-speed satellite. Petro1 and Kacific will bring to the Indonesian people a great internet usage enabler to the entire Indonesian archipelago, especially for people and businesses in rural or remote locations. Together with Kacific, our Petro1 team intends to provide a robust and reliable high speed VSAT service from our earth station locations in Surabaya and Pasuruan.”

Intellian satcom pairs with Hyundai Global Service's smart ship solution

Intellian has launched a satcom package for smart ships with marine engineering and service provider Hyundai Global Service (HGS), a subsidiary of the world's No.1 shipbuilding company Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) group. This is the first joint project to come from the companies' signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July.

The package, which integrates satellite communications with HHI's existing smart ship solution, was launched at an event entitled 'HGS & Intellian Satellite Package Launching Show' at Nurimaru APEC House in Busan, Korea on October 22 – the first day of Kormarine. In attendance were invited ship owners and executives of HHI and major shipping companies.

This world-first service is a combination of HHI's 'Integrated Smart Ship (ISS)' solution – a digital ecosystem for vessel and f lee t management wh ich incorporates a powerful data analysis platform – and Intellian's satellite communications antenna systems. HGS selected Intellian as partner due to its broad range of innovative, resilient antennas, and its flexibility to operate with global service providers to provide comprehensive service to customers.The new package will provide HGS with a standardized smart ship package to supply for newly-built HHI ships, while Intellian will secure new customers. Moreover, as it offers internet provision right from the sea trial, customers are freed from the inconvenience of fitting network services to the vessel. HGS will also provide customer support for any smart ship solution issues, guaranteeing faster response times and trustworthy service.

Kwang Heon An, CEO of Hyundai Global Service, said: “This new product launch has great implications for us as a disruptive venture which could bring about big changes to the smart ship paradigm. Through close partnership with Intellian, we will strengthen our competitiveness to offer customer value and take a step forward as a global leader in the market.” Eric Sung, CEO of Intellian, added: “This product is the world's first comprehensive package for smart ships, and can be realized only through the global No.1 shipbuilding group. It is the first step to leading the smart ship market. We will deliver a totally new value to market end-users through our innovative technology.”

China's private reusable rocket to be launched in 2021

A Chinese reusable carrier rocket that u s e s l i q u i d o x y g e n - m e t h a n e propellants made its first public appearance Friday at the ongoing 2019 Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing. The rocket named the Hyperbola-2, will be launched for the first time in 2021. It may make up for China's lack of

reusable liquid-propellant rockets.The Hyperbola-2 was developed by a Beijing-based private rocket developer i-Space. Its primary stage can be reused, reducing more than 70 percent of the rocket production cost, according to Dong Yanmin, the company's vice president of technology. It will not only meet the growing demand for small and medium-sized satellite launches but also provide emergency and ride-share launches, Dong said.The 28-meter-long rocket, with a takeoff weight of 90 tonnes, has a lift capability of sending 1.9 tonnes of payload to low-Earth orbit. The rocket is low-cost and reliable, which can provide high-quality satellite launches, Dong sai.

Rocket Lab partners with Kongsberg Satellite Services for Electron and Photon ground station support

Rocket Lab has partnered with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), to be the sole provider of ground station services for the Electron launch vehicle and Photon satellite bus customers. The agreement sees Rocket Lab deliver a complete solution for small satellite operators, including satellite design and build, launch, and ground segment support leveraging an existing global network of ground stations.

Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle is currently the only commercial, dedicated small satellite launch vehicle operating a regular service to orbit, making space more accessible for small satellites. With a proven launch vehicle in operation since January 2018, the next evolution of Rocket Lab's mission services is the Photon satellite bus. Designed for seamless pairing with Electron, the Photon satellite bus streamlines the entire end-to-end satellite experience for customers from design to build to launch.Likewise, KSAT's KSATlite ground network is designed and optimized for small satellite systems, providing s t r e a m l i n e d a c c e s s ( t h r o u g h standardized API driven interfaces) and scalable support that grows to meet mission needs.

The closely integrated partnership with KSAT now provides launch to operations ground segment support for Photon customers – the final piece for small satellite operators seeking an end-to-end mission partner. This enables small satellite operators to focus on what really matters—their applications and their

customers—freeing engineering time and capital from having to develop a spacecraft platform, secure a launch, and coordinate access to ground stations from different providers.The partnership between Rocket Lab and KSAT provides Photon customers downlink and uplink capabilities in UHF, S-band, X-band, and Ka-band across a global ground station network of over 200 antennas that supports 50,000 contacts per month.Rocket Lab Chief Executive and Founder, Peter Beck, says, “Rocket Lab's partnership with KSAT will play an important role in continuing to streamline the path to orbit for small satellite operators. We solved the launch challenge when Rocket Lab began regular and reliable launch services in January 2018. Now we're simplifying the spacecraft side of the equation with the combination of Photon and KSAT's ground network support.”

Satellite-based lake health monitoring system an aerospace winner

Seequent wins New Zealand aerospace innovation challenge; continues to expand its geoscience solutions to help solve earth, environment and energy challenges. Seequent is developing a satellite-based remote sensing solution that could virtually monitor the water quality of every lake globally. Seequent's Lake Indicator Modelling System (SLIMS) can capture water quality data across many hundreds of lakes at once and model and visualise it through time, to help freshwater scientists identify lake health changes as they occur.

Seequent was awarded the grand prize at the New Zealand Aerospace Challenge 2019 on Friday after demonstrating how its globally scalable SLIMS solution could effectively and economically monitor the health of all New Zealand's 3,820 lakes. With currently only 2% of lakes currently monitored via established methods of lake water sampling and analysis, SLIMS enables organisations to monitor changes in lake conditions with the ability to use historical satellite data to identify seasonal trends. This allows users to identify lakes exhibiting any unexpected change for closer monitoring and management. The Challenge, powered by global aerospace giant Airbus, and delivered by ChristchurchNZ and SpaceBase, sought solutions to identify, monitor or measure water or soil pollution

using satellite data and unmanned aircraft technology.

Daniel Wallace, Seequent General Manager for Civil and Environmental, said the company jumped at the opportunity to participate in the Challenge to apply their innovative technology above ground in an exciting new space with huge potential to positively impact sustainability.“Water quality and the health of our lakes sustains our way of life. It's not economical to visit all lakes to monitor adverse environmental impacts, but with satellite remote sensing every lake can be monitored virtually. Algal blooms, sediment events and other adverse changes in lake health, which could otherwise be unseen and unknown suddenly emerge with our new monitoring solution. Subsequently these lakes could be visited to further investigate the health degradation.” Seequent's multi-disciplinary team, which included collaborators from Lincoln Agritech and the Waterways Centre for Freshwater Management, also received support from Environment Canterbury and the University of Waikato. The team received a cash prize of $30,000, over $15,000 of Airbus data vouchers, $2,500 of legal support and an offer of commercialisation support from Xstart, a tech focused incubator based at the University of C a n t e r b u r y ' s C e n t r e f o r Entrepreneurship.

Gilat, China Satcom lay foundation for future chinese satellite communication for Aero, Maritime, Land mobility & fixed applications

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd, a worldwide leader in satellite networking technology, solutions and services and China Satellite Communications Co., Ltd. (China Satcom), today announced the strengthening of the already established strategic partnership to jointly provide advanced satellite communication services covering: Aero, Land and Maritime fixed and mobility applications. Gilat and China Satcom will work in partnership to enable and deploy Gilat's DVB-S2X technologies throughout China while supporting all business verticals.

China Satcom is a l icensed telecommunications service provider in

IN THE NEWS ASIA

China which also owns and operates the most capable and extensive Ka-band spot beam satellite system in China, the only Ka-band system currently available for IFC service in the country.“The agreement with China Satcom is a significant step towards realizing the latest efficient and high-performance satellite communication technology across China, well positioning China Satcom to deliver excellent customer experience to the end user,” said Yuan Si, China Country Manager for Gilat. “This project is one more milestone in our years-long partnership with China Satcom, and our commitment to provide the innovation needed to best position China Satcom to provide Aero, Land and Marit ime connectivity in the region, as well as to create the foundation for future satellite expansion with China Satcom's next HTS and VHTS satellites.”

Korean Telecom joins forces with Discovery to promote Korean content globally

Korean Telecom Group's Skylifetv has agreed a joint venture (JV) content partnership with Discovery to shine a global spotlight on Korean content and strengthen i ts market compet i t i veness. The partnership will aim to create original, non-scripted Korean entertainment content both for Korean and International audiences.The JV will launch by the end of the year with the aim that content will be broadcast across SkylifeTV channels, Discovery' Korea channel and Discovery's global network. The deal will also be responsible for the distribution of all content it creates across every media and platforms.

Hyun-Mo KOO, president, KT Customer and Media said: “This JV establishment with Discovery is a major milestone for Korea's local content industry and brings a wind of change in Korean entertainment programs' ecosystem for consumers. “We are re-imagining various strategies to grow our original IP market and relying on the whole group companies to try partnership initiatives collectively and I believe this partnership marks the signal flare for various collaborations opportunities with Discovery ahead”. Simon Robinson, president Discovery Networks Asia Pacific and chief financial officer Discovery Networks International said:

“This partnership between our Asia Pacific business and Korea Telecom Group's SkylifeTV underscores Discovery's unrivaled expertise in creating high quality real-life entertainment for local and global audiences and leverages a fantastic opportunity for our two companies to create

original content specifically for Korean audiences.

"I believe we are uniquely positioned to produce original, high quality content that will engage, inspire and inform Korean and international audiences. This content partnership will also shine a spotlight on the innovation coming from the Korean creative industries and spark additional international curiosity and interest in Korean content”.

Singapore court jailed and fine a retailer of illicit streaming devices

In a landmark court case brought by the Premier League, Singtel, StarHub and Fox Networks Group, a Singapore retail outlet Synnex Trading and its Director Mr. JiaXiaofeng were found guilty of four criminal charges of copyright infringement and ordered to pay a SG$160,800 fine. Mr. JiaXiaofeng was also sentenced to a three months jail term and a SG$ 5,400 fine. Synnex Trading operated a retail outlet in Geylang Road which sold illicit streaming devices (ISDs) preloaded with applications which provided access to thousands of unauthorised TV channels and video-on-demand content including live sports. Today's conviction was the second successful prosecution in Singapore against retailers of illicit streaming devices (ISDs). In April this year the company director of “An-Nahl” pled guilty a similar copyright offence resulting in the court handing down a fine. Neil Gane, the General Manager of AVIA's Coalition Against Piracy ( C A P ) c o m m e n t e d : “ To d a y ' s sentencing provides both a deterrence and clarity to ISD retailers in Sim Lim Square and elsewhere, that selling illicit streaming devices is illegal”. Gane added: “ISD retailers mislead consumers when they claim that the content accessible through such TV boxes is legal and that requisite subscription charges goes to rights-holders. As such, consumers are wasting their money when purchasing an ISD and an alleged 'annual subscription' especially when they find their ISD can no longer access live sports matches or their favourite TV shows. ISDs can never provide quality programming and a service guarantee, contrary to what consumers may be told by unscrupulous retailers.” Earlier this year the Singapore government announced that it will be

amending the Copyright Act to update its copyright regime in an effort to support creators and users of video content. A critical part of the suite of a m e n d m e n t s i n c l u d e s n e w enforcement measures to further deter retailers from profiting from providing access to content through unauthorised sources such as ISDs that enable access to pirated TV channels and video-on-demand content. A YouGov consumer survey commissioned by AVIA's Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) earlier this year, revealed that 20% of Singaporean consumers use a TV box which can be used to stream pirated television and video content. Of the consumers who purchased an ISD, more than a quarter (28%) asserted that they cancelled their subscriptions to a Singaporean-based online videoe

Elon Musk's satellite telco targets Australia

Entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX has started the regulatory process to obtain permission to operate its Starlink satellite broadband service in Australia. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said the operator is one of three foreign companies seeking such permission. The other two - Canada's Kepler Communications and US firm Swarm Technologies - have satellite networks aimed at internet of things (IoT) applications.“These operators have approached the ACMA to commence the regulatory approvals process to eventually obtain space apparatus licences to operate in Australia,” ACMA said in a consultation paper.SpaceX is planning to provide broadband services via an initial constellation of 12,000 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, though it recently filed in the US to launch up to 30,000 more satellites than first expected in order to power the global internet service. The services could be live as soon as next 2020. The company had mooted plans to seek regulatory approval late last year when it implored the ACMA not to limit its potential coverage to only pockets of Australia. The ACMA noted that any satellite operator wanting permission first needed to pass a “prerequisite” step of being added to the foreign space objects determination maintained by the authority. It is now seeking to amend that determination and has invited comment from industry.“Inclusion of an entity in the foreign space objects determination does not confer a right on that entity to obtain a licence nor operate in frequency bands identified in the space object class

IN THE NEWS ASIA

licence,” the ACMA noted. “Rather, it is a necessary prerequisite that must be in place before a space apparatus licence can be issued.”

Russian company keen on building second satellite for Bangladesh

Glavkosmos, a Russian state-owned satellite company, has thrown its hat in the ring for designing, building and launching Bangladesh's second satellite, which the government plans to send into orbit by 2023. Six senior aeronautical engineers from Glavkosmos led by its deputy director general VitalySafonov are now visiting Dhaka following request from the telecom division to learn about Bangladesh's requirements for Bangabandhu-2. Glavkosmos will then conduct a feasibility study to give an idea of the perfect location of the orbital space and technological status, Telecom Minister Mustafa Jabbar told The Daily Star yesterday.

The feasibility study will also give an estimate of the amount needed to launch Bangabandhu-2. The Glavkosmos team, which is being accompanied by Russian Ambassador to Bangaldesh Alexander Ignatov, yesterday sat for its first meeting at J a b b a r ' s o f f i c e . B a n g l a d e s h Communication Satell ite Company (BCSCL) Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood, Telecom Secretary Ashoke Kumar Biswas and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Chairman MdJahurulHaque were also present at the meeting.

“Actually, their meeting with me was an ice-breaking session. They have briefed us about the different kinds of satellites and we just told them we now have at least some experience about satellites and we want the second one to have an orbital position near our country,” Jabbar said.The Bangabandhu-1's position is far from Bangladesh, due to which the country cannot get full use of the satellite. “It is was a geostationary one and the country does not need another of the same kind,” Jabbar said.

The country's first communications satellite, Bangabandhu-1, was designed and built by Thales Alenia Space, a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. It was launched into space from Florida on May 11 last year. All local television channels are now broadcasting via the satellite, taking up about 40 percent of Bangabandhu-1's capacity. Meanwhile, France has also expressed its interest in financing the second satellite. Jabbar said the government had an election promise to launch a second satellite and by 2023 they want this satellite to at least take shape for launch. A senior official of BCSCL said they

are close to appointing a consultant for the second satellite and the consultant wou ld ma in ta in con tac t w i th Glavkosmos. Glavkosmos has invited senior officials from Bangladesh to visit Russia to oversee their satellite business.\

Saber Astronautics wins $2.1 m contract with RAAF for space domain awareness

Australia's Department of Defence has awarded space engineering company Saber Astronautics a Defence Innovation Hub contract for an intelligent data fusion network to process a large number of space objects. The contract, valued at AUD $2.1M will use new and existing sensor networks to provide advanced insights in space domain awareness and democratise access to spacecraft location data.

With the number of space objects set to triple over the next decade there are new businesses developing sensors to find objects in space, with telescopes and radars cropping up around the globe. “We even found hobby astronomy groups getting in on the action,” says Saber Astronautics CEO Dr Jason Held. “New satellite companies in the USA and Canada often call Australian astronomers, stressed because they couldn't find their satellite and needed help.”

Sensors vary widely in size and capability and come from both commercial and government sources. Saber Astronautics will use its decade of heritage with machine learning and data fusion algorithms to merge these myriad types into a single solution. In the network, hobby astronomers can be just as important as the government in identifying satellites.

“This contract represents the beginning of a truly collaborative Space Domain Awareness capabil i ty that can encompass many ground-based observations which dozens of cutting-edge companies generate every day,'' explained Saber Astronautics Director Andreas Antoniades. “This project will help everyone have safer missions, protect the planet, and assist with the growing problem of space traffic management.”

Mediahouse.PH and SES Launch CLUBTV, delivering more TV

choices to viewers across the Philippines

Millions of homes in the Philippines will be able to enjoy new international TV channels thanks to CLUBTV, a new thematical ly- focused TV plat form launched by Mediahouse.PH, a division of Magistan Media, a project management firm specialising in television operations and advertising, on SES's satellite SES-9.

Starting with six channels, CLUBTV offers a wide variety of genres that will bring additional choices and popular thematic topics that interest young Filipinos: GINX Esports TV, HealthWellness, Pet & Pal, Luxe&Life, My Cinema Europe and Motorvision TV. The platform will allow the channels to address existing audiences of pay-TV operators, including Cignal TV as of December, bringing a new selection of content to subscribers at no additional cost. Mediahouse.PH serves as the aggregator and marketer of the TV channels.

Projections show TV households in the Philippines increasing to 20.7 million by 2024 from 18.7 million in 2019. For TV households, satellite Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV is the fastest-growing TV reception mode against terrestrial and cable TV in the Philippines, with the number of satellite TV households estimated to be 3.7 million by year end and forecast to increase to 5.8 million in 2024. SES will provide both satellite capacity via SES-9, located at the prime orbital location of 108.2 degrees East, and managed media services such as ad insertion, encoding, monitoring and multiplexing. SES has established a strong presence in Asia Pacific via its premium video neighbourhood at 108.2 degrees East, which currently broadcasts channels to over 17 million TV homes across the Philippines and Indonesia.

“We are very excited to deliver these channels with a razor-sharp thematic focus to the Philippines,” said Ralph Siebenaler, CEO of Magistan Media / Mediahouse.PH. “With this new platform, we are delivering new content cost-effectively, and in excellent technical quality to millions of households. This platform is also an excellent opportunity for global content owners or TV channels to enter the Philippine market or extend their reach.”

“As the video landscape is increasingly competitive in the Philippines, pay-TV operators need to differentiate themselves by offering new content to their audiences, and this new TV platform aims to help them achieve just that. It is also an excellent example of how SES goes beyond leveraging the power of satellite to partnering with local players, and jointly

IN THE NEWS ASIA

JFK's terminal one launches facial recognition boarding with Vision-Box

Vision-Box and TOGA partnered to successfully launch biometric boarding at JFK to upgrade the passenger experience. Vision-Box and Terminal One Group Association (TOGA) announce a landmark agreement providing seamless biometric boarding at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Lufthansa is the launch carrier deploying the one-step paperless biometric boarding process at their largest US gateway. Air France, Japan Airlines, and Norwegian Airlines are expected to follow suit, as part of all 22 international carriers operating from JFK Terminal 1. The digital advancement of the passenger experience at JFK's Terminal One is a partnership between Vision-Box, TOGA, and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). With rising passenger volumes and demand for quicker and contactless processes, TOGA turned to seamless biometrics as a primary solution. Boarding airplanes with up to 500 passengers in under 20 minutes have tremendously improved the guest experience with using facial recognition to replace passport and boarding pass checks. Miguel Leitmann, CEO and Founder of Vision-Box, reinforces: “It's become crucial for airports and airlines to adopt biometric capabilities along the processes which require interaction with the traveler, therefore enhancing and scal ing operational capacity for growing quicker within their existing footprint. Our Vision-Box Orchestra platform enables airports and airline's capacity to grow digital and substantially improve performance indicators, while seamlessly securing passenger's journey and privacy.” The biometric platform is designed to securely identify travelers with a brief glance at a camera and instantly verify their identity with US CBP. The seamless and efficient one-step process validates the eligibility of the traveler without having to present a passport or boarding pass. Aircraft entry is accomplished with a full digital boarding experience, where passengers are boarded in a seamless and paced way, allowing the airlines to save time and gain efficiencies. Being an innovation leader aiming to ensure maximum passenger privacy and security, Vision-Box's seamless boarding solution is certified by the Privacy-by-Design seal from the leading authorities in this matter. This means that personal biographic and biometric data is managed by a thoroughly audited and certified software platform designed for maximum protection. No personal data or images is stored by private entities and only US government maintains the US departure

information. The delivered platform accommodates the individual carriers' boarding processes through next-generation common-use services enabling JFK with one of the largest biometric boarding capability planned to be successfully deployed in the US. Steve Rowland, TOGA Executive Director, commented: “Biometric self-boarding is one of our top priorities – improving the passenger experience and enhancing security and safety for all those who travel at JFK Terminal One. We are proud to introduce this unique, paperless, biometric boarding process, and CBP and Vision-Box have been tremendous partners in this effort.” The deployment of biometric boarding has strategic purposes for the US Government as well. The boarding solution was fast tracked for use by CBP's Biometric Exit program, with positive results outlined in the Fiscal Year 2018 Entry/Exit Overstay Report by the US Department of Homeland Security. Within the next four years, it is expected that CBP's Biometric Exit technology will cover more than 97% of departing commercial air travelers.

Airbus unveils network switchover technology with Dabat Hybrid Roaming

Airbus demonstrated Dabat Hybrid Roaming, its latest development which combines the power of secure communications with innovative technology. Dabat Hybrid Roaming,a unique association between Airbus' TactilonDabat hybrid terminal, and the TactilonAgnet 800 Solution has made its grand entrance at this year's event and has been introduced in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for the first time. It is designed to bring ease and simplicity to daily operations with state-of- the-art seamless swi tchover technology which ensures high network resilience and secure operations. The Airbus TactilonDabat hybrid terminal combines both Tetra and LTE radio technologies in one unique terminal. The end users can perform their daily tasks without being restricted solely to the Tetra radio coverage available. TactilonAgnet 800 is an app for smart devices such as the TactilonDabat. It enables the use of features such as push-to-talk, status notifications, data transmission, text messaging, image sending and emergency calls on the TactilonDabat. Group communication with other device carriers and the control room is also possible. Dabat Hybrid Roaming extends Tetra radio coverage by switching to LTE

coverage through the TactilonAgnet 800 application installed on the device. This enables a seamless network change which supports public safety operations and maximises the benefits of hybrid communications.The security of the solution is preserved because all TactilonAgnet traffic is securely protected via the secure client VPN. In the event of lack of coverage, the end-users can now benefit from an instant and seamless switchover from Tetra to LTE to maintain their mission and business critical operations. On top of the smooth transition between both Tetra and public or private LTE Public Safety solutions proposed by the new feature, the user can benefit from all the fundamenta l Tact i lonDabat characteristics, such as individual voice calls and messaging with status reports, group calls, group messaging, and emergency calls.

Brazil launches first 5G Broadcast trial

Grupo Globo, which runs the largest Brazilian and Latin American TV network, has carried out the first 5G Broadcast field trial in Brazil at the occasion of the Rock in Rio festival.The objective of the project, launched w i th equ ipmen t f rom German manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz, is to validate the operability and market opportunities of the 5G Broadcast technology.The Rock in Rio festival was broadcast on an experimental UHF channel using the new technology in late September 2019. Rohde & Schwarz supplied an R&S TMU9evo transmitter and the R&S BSCC network component.5G Broadcast has a signal characteristic similar to that employed in digital terrestrial TV. Like the 5G Today project in Bavaria, Germany, the field trial is intended to contribute information for discussing the further development of TV in Brazil and worldwide.

Viasat's dual-band in-flight connectivity system receives supplemental type certificate

Viasat, a global communications company, announced its dual-band (Ku-Ka) business aviat ion in- f l ight connectivity (IFC) system received Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) from the FAA certifying its use on the Bombardier Global 5000/6000/GEX

36

IN THE NEWS A ER CASM I

family of business jets. At all stages of flight, crew and passengers aboard the Global 5000/6000/GEX family of aircraft are now able to enjoy advanced streaming services including Viasat Unlimited Streaming, participate in conference calls and leverage other business and entertainment applications. “By delivering high-speed and high-quality in-flight connectivity, Viasat's dual-band solution creates an enhanced passenger journey,” said Jerry Sanders, director, Business Development at StandardAero. “Bombardier owners will now have the option to invest in a new IFC system that will let passengers and crew use the internet however they prefer. T h r o u g h t h i s e x c l u s i v e o f f e r , StandardAero is providing a unique competitive option for aircraft owners.” Viasat's dual-band offering combines the advantages of Ka- and Ku-band into a single solution that provides added reliability. This hybrid service allows an aircraft to leverage the ability to shift between networks, utilizing Ku-band to supplement Ka-band services. The dual-band offering provides global high-speed coverage across the world's most heavily traveled flight routes with speeds that are high-quality, consistent and available. Built for the future, Viasat's dual-band system will be forward-compatible with Viasat's future-generation satellite constellation, ViaSat-3, which is expected to deliver greater global capacity and even higher internet speeds than Viasat's current satellite fleet. In addition to delivering powerful speeds, Viasat's dual-band system also provides a back-up connectivity solution, taking advantage of two networks from one trusted source.

“Securing STC approval for Bombardier Global 5000/6000/GEX aircraft is a significant milestone,” said Claudio D'Amico, business area director, Business Aviat ion, Viasat . “Our technical innovations and capabilities are enabling Bombardier Global business jet passengers and crew to be highly productive and entertained even at 40,000 feet. In working with StandardAero we are enabling business passengers and crew to get a high-quality service wherever they fly.” Operators and other maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities that support Bombardier Global aircraft can work directly with StandardAero to install Viasat's dual-band IFC system aboard the Bombardier Global 5000/6000/GEX.

Carlisle Interconnect Technologies (CIT) announces new satcom STC

Carlisle Interconnect Technologies (CIT), a division of Carlisle Companies

Incorporated (CSL), is pleased to announce the award of a new Federal Av i a t i o n A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ( FA A ) supplemental type certificate (STC) for installation of satellite communications (SATCOM) provisions on Boeing B777-300 and B777-300ER series aircraft. This award helps ensure consumers have the high-quality, in-flight connectivity that they have come to expect each time they fly. The specified FAA STC allows for the installation of structural provisions and the outside aircraft equipment package for a cabin upgrade incorporating a dual-band (Ka/Ku) terminal. The dual-band terminal allows for in-flight network switching across Ku- and Ka-band satellite networks, providing more reliable in-flight entertainment and communication access to travelers. “We are proud to announce this certification, the second for this system and sixth overall for CarlisleIT's connectivity platform,” said Chris Rawley, product line manager, aircraft connectivity solutions of CIT. “By collaborating with the committed team at Jamco Aero Design and Engineering (JADE), we were able to successfully complete the overall SATCOM system installation and bring high-quality results to the airlines and our customers. This certification, among others, marks another way in which CarlisleIT is leading the connected aircraft market.” The certified installation design follows a previously issued FAA STC for Airbus A320 series aircraft. CIT provided all design, qualification, approvals, and certification resources associated with the installation. The aircraft equipment packages were manufactured and conformed at the company's facility in Franklin, Wis.

Link Microtek's new dual-channel Ku-band rotary joint is ideal for satellite-on-the-move and radar applications

The latest addition to Link Microtek's comprehensive range of microwave rotary joints is the AMCORJD-2KU device, which offers a coaxial dual-channel Ku-band capability that makes it ideal for both satellite-on-the-move and radar applications, either military or commercial. While microwave rotary joints of this type are usually designed with a high-frequency transmit channel and a lower-frequency L-band receive channel, the new device features two channels operating in the Ku band. Minimising crosstalk is therefore a critical consideration, and the rotary joint achieves an impressive 50dB minimum isolation between the channels with typical figures being better than 70dB.

The Ku-band receive channel allows designers of satellite-on-the-move stabilised antenna platforms to eliminate frequency conversion hardware from the rotating side of the assembly, making for a simpler and more compact antenna design. In addition, the device's two-channel non-contacting design means it can provide the long life with continuous rotation that is required for use in compact radar antennas.

In terms of microwave performance, the central transmit channel delivers a VSWR of 1.3:1, an insertion loss of 0.3dB and power rating of 20W CW, while the outer receive channel achieves a VSWR of 1.35:1, insertion loss of 0.5dB and a power rating of 10W CW. The internal design of the AMCORJD-2KU is based on techniques used in Link Microtek's large, complex S-band rotary joints, which are typically deployed in air-traffic control, weather forecasting and s h i p b o r n e a p p l i c a t i o n s . T h e miniaturisation involved in this transfer of technology was a major developmental challenge as the new device measures only 63.5 (D) x 37.2 (L) mm, excluding its four SMA female connectors, whereas the S-band rotary joints can be in excess of a metre in length. Designed and manufactured at Link's premises in Basingstoke, the AMCORJD-2KU is fabricated from lightweight aluminium with a sealing rating of IP64 to protect it from the ingress of moisture and dust. It has an operating temperature range of -40 to 55°C and is specified with a 10 year lifetime of continuous rotation.

Infinet Wireless demonstrates cutting-edge fixed wireless access solutions at WISPAPALOOZA 2019

Infinet Wireless, the global leader in fixed broadband wireless connectivity, will showcase its brand-new mmWave-band solutions designed to enable customers to enhance speeds, capacities and latencies, all while reducing costs, at WISPAPALOOZA 2019.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, from Tuesday, October 15 to Thursday, October 17, Infinet Wireless will showcase its brand-new Axion 28 portfolio – its latest breakthrough in wireless broadband access within the 28 GHz band. The new family of solutions is designed to support the deployment of high-density multipoint networks that deliver performance up to 1,200 Mbps in the 56 MHZ band.

With Axion 28, Wireless Internet Service

IN THE NEWS A ER CASM I

37

A ER CASM IIN THE NEWS

Provider (WISP) multiservice-networks infrastructure can be rolled-out in urban landscapes, laying the foundation for smart cities to be built from distributed enterprise networks with as much as 10km between sites, to CCTV and traffic-management systems and networks in remote areas.

“So far 2019 has been a year in which 5G has really started to come to fruition,” said Kamal Mokrani, Global Vice President at Infinet Wireless. “As a result, operators across America and around the globe are racing to upgrade their networks to satisfy end-users' demands for faster, enhanced connectivity. However, there are many hurdles ahead in achieving ubiquitous connectivity, such as spectrum congestion in traditional frequency bands below 6GHz and spectrum re-farming when operators' ex-WiMAX spectrum is being taken away. “At WISPAPALOOZA 2019, we will demonstrate how telecom operators and enterpr ises can overcome these challenges and increase connectivity speeds, capacities and raise their service levels with our brand-new industry-first mmWave-band solutions – providing them with a competitive edge.”

Representing a new phase in the development of the 71-76 GHz frequency range, Infinet Wireless will also present its Quanta 70 family of wireless products. The solution is designed to enable wireless systems to deliver performance up to 480 Mbps in the 125 MHz band at distances of up to 5km. Furthermore, the range is also characterized by low usage and an absence of licensing and can be used to create high-density networks with minimal mutual influence of wireless systems. Infinet Wireless will showcase several upgrades to its point-to-point (PTP) portfolio, including the second generation of its InfiLINK XG 1000 – a record-breaking solution designed for high performance backhaul.

Infinet's Quanta 5 – the industry's highest spectral efficiency solution suitable for a diverse range of applications including back -hau l i ng fo r base s ta t i ons , transmission of high resolution CCTV and video streams, and providing internet access to remote locations – will also be on display. “WISPA is the voice of the fixed wireless broadband industry and represents the innovators across the industry which are looking to provide fast, affordable connectivity – that is why it is only natural for us to demonstrate our latest cutting-edge solutions designed to support telcos' and enterprises' network upgrades as they look to increase their capacity and coverage at this year's event,” added Kamal.

Blake

Broadcasting/CBNN signs major Satellite Television Distribution deal throughout Europe, Asia and North America

BBN (Blake Broadcasting) has executed a 3-year+ deal with SES as its exclusive broadcast Satellite Network Provider for CBNN Networks in Europe, Asia and North America. CBNN is a growing network of cable (linear television) properties and OTT Networks reaching over 400 million homes. SES is the largest satellite operator in the world, representing the most significant reach in the broadcast industry. SES also works with the world's largest live sports, news and event organizations, and takes care of the distribution networks, playout workflows, content management and monetization services and all backend services, so that CBNN can focus on delivering the highest quality content to their audiences worldwide. “We are very pleased to work with SES as they are the premiere broadcast satellite provider in the world. We are especially honored to be a selected broadcaster on the Astra 1M or 19.2 E Satellite, as that is the most exclusive and most watched satellite platform in Europe. Our broadcast operations in Europe will be proudly based out of Luxembourg. SES will also manage our satellite broadcasts throughout Asia and North America and our linear television expansion plans throughout 2020. In addition, MX1 (now merged into SES) will manage overall c h a n n e l c o n t e n t d i s t r i b u t i o n , management, playout and monetization integration. Their exceptional level of service will allow us to primarily concentrate on providing the highest quality news, sports, Esports and entertainment content for our channels. We look forward to SES playing a key part in our rapid global growth,” said Bob Blake, CEO of Blake Broadcasting and a founder of CBNN, Oak Park Capital and several news networks.

EOS to create its own radar microsatellite constellation "EOS SAR"

US-based EOS Data Analytics Inc. (EOS), a space portfolio company of Noosphere Ventures, today unveiled EOS SAR – a project to develop its own synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors intended for deployment in a constellation of microsatellites.

EOS SAR has been in stealth mode for over two years. EOS has more than 5 years of experience in developing data analytics products and cloud services for optical and SAR data from satellites. Over the years the company has developed an in-depth understanding of commercial and government remote sensing markets, which informed the decision to create its own SAR satellite constellation.

"EOS learned that the remote sensing market has strong demand for high-resolution high-quality SAR data, but low supply of such data. The choice of SAR technology is driven by the need to image Earth's surface through dense cloud cover, in any season and all weather. It is critical for users to have access to uninterrupted, persistent situational awareness," said Max Polyakov, CEO of EOS and Managing Partner at Noosphere Ventures.

EOS engineers have already designed a radar prototype and are moving ahead with the development of a low-cost high-performance SAR payload for small satellites with ultra-high resolution down to 25 cm. EOS SAR satellites will operate in Stripmap and Spotlight modes (including interferometry) and will cover a wide range of applications. EOS is also considering dual-frequency SAR in X-band and S-band on a single satellite. Dual-band operation increases versatility for all weather imaging and improves object-ground contrast. A special configuration of the radar front end allows for imaging of selected areas in both bands in a single orbit.

The SAR payload incorporates a deployable reflector antenna developed in-house at EOS. This antenna technology enables EOS SAR instrument to improve satellite efficiency and offer superior image quality. Moreover, the antenna itself has low mass and dimensional characteristics, making it more favorable and less costly to launch the satellite into orbit."EOS is strategically leveraging deep expertise and diverse capabilities within Noosphere Ventures portfolio including radar electronics, deployable antennas, propulsion systems, batteries, and data analytics in order to create a SAR payload technology which delivers unsurpassable performance at an unbeatable price. At the same time, we are open to cooperation and are currently looking for bus providers and a constellation owner to deploy and monetize the constellation. The constellation will be part of a fully US owned and operated commercial remote sensing enterprise," Max Polyakov added.EOS is building a SAR satellite payload

38

IN THE NEWS A ER CASM I

39

suitable for constellations enabling high revisit rates. A constellation of 12 satellites will provide 2-3 hours revisit time for a given area. The first SAR satellite launch is expected in 2022, with commercial constellation operations beginning in 2023.

Raytheon to help Jet Propulsion Lab explore the universe

Raytheon Company will develop new space systems and flight software, and provide engineering, training and operations support for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech, under a five-year, $150 million contract. The contract could potentially be worth $300 million over 10 years if all options are exercised. "JPL's pioneering spacecraft and rovers have led to groundbreaking discoveries of our solar system and beyond," said Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. "This is an incredible opportunity to continue enabling the future of space exploration."Work on the new contract is expected to begin in October, though Raytheon has supported JPL since the 1960s, when the company developed the Mars Infrared Radiometer for the Mariner missions. The company currently manages the lab's data systems, testing and developing software and providing on-call technical support during critical events like Mars rover landings. "For the past 20 years, we've worked side-by-side with JPL's engineers and scientists," said Todd Probert, vice president of Raytheon IIS. "Helping JPL explore the mysteries of our universe is something most of our team literally dreamed about when they were kids."As part of the new contract, Raytheon will also be supporting a number of classified missions.

In addition to supporting JPL, Raytheon IIS manages a large portfolio of space programs for the U.S. government, including the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a 6.2 million gallon instrumented pool at NASA Johnson Space Center where astronauts learn to work in space and train on a submerged full-size mockup of the International Space Station.

The company manages NASA's earth science data network — which makes critical climate data available to researchers — and developed and sustains the Joint Polar Satellite System ground station, which tracks storms. Raytheon IIS also operates the United States' two primary space launch facilities.

Maxar opens new facility in St. Louis to support growth in U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Programs

Maxar Technologies announced that it will open a new facility in St. Louis, Missouri, to support growth in several U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) programs.

The facility will be located in the historic Globe Building, in the heart of downtown St. Louis. Maxar expects 48 employees to initially staff the facility, most of whom are new hires that will support the NGA's Global EGD, Janus Geography and SBIR Phase III contracts. St. Louis is the Midwest geospatial hub of the United States in part due to its proximity to the National Geospatial and Intelligence Center West facility, the T-REX Geospatial Resource and Innovation Center and several other commercial GEOINT companies.

“The establishment of our cutting-edge facility in St. Louis is a strong reflection of Maxar's commitment to unlocking the power of geospatial data for our customers,” said Tony Frazier, Maxar's Executive Vice President of Global Field Operations. “This new facility will provide our customers with easier access to better geospatial products and insights for success across the breadth of defense and intelligence missions.”

The operations of DigitalGlobe, SSL (Space Systems Loral) and Radiant Solutions were unified under the Maxar brand in February; MDA continues to operate as an independent business unit within the Maxar organization.

tHughes receives 2019 Innovation Award for industry-first combined LTE and satellite router

Hughes Network Systems, the world's leading provider of broadband satellite networks and services, announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has named the Hughes HT2000L Multi-Path Terminal as winner of i t s 2019 TMC Labs INTERNET TELEPHONY Innovation Award. The first of its kind in the industry, the HT2000L provides connectivity for both satellite and LTE services in a single hardware

terminal; either operates as the primary network path or as back-up, with automatic failover switching between the two paths.

“The future of business is hyper-connected,” said Dan Rasmussen, senior vice president, North America Enterprise, Hughes. “Virtually all distributed enterprises – such as quick service restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations – span urban, suburban and remote locations that all require secure, reliable and scalable Internet connections. The HT2000L meets that need with a single, plug-and-play device that del ivers broadband speeds as either a satellite modem, an LTE modem or both.”

“The TMC Labs INTERNET TELEPHONY Innovation Award recognizes the best and the most unique products and services that this industry has to offer. Hughes has proven their commitment to quality and the further development of the IP communications industry through its HT2000L,” stated Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “Congratulations to the entire team at Hughes for earning this great honor. I look forward to seeing more innovative solutions from them as they continue to contribute to the future of IP communications.” “Hughes is honored to be recognized for this innovation in multi-path networking and performance optimization technology,” said Rasmussen. “Our commitment to going the extra mile to deliver value to our customers inspires us to innovate industry-defining solutions.”

ThinKom completes first-ever in-flight MEO-GEO satellite roaming tests

ThinKom Solutions, Inc. has completed a series of very successful in-f l ight connectivity tests of its Ka-band antenna on SES' O3b medium-Earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary (GEO) satellites. The tests provided the first live demonstration of airborne communication with the O3b MEO satellites and included seamless handovers between MEO and GEO satellites during flight.The in-flight demos used the Thales FlytLIVE connectivity network and incorporated the Hughes JUPITER™ ModMan integrated to the ThinKom Ka2517 antenna.The flights took place Sept. 17-18 over South Florida and the Caribbean Sea, using a commercially available ThinKom Ka2517 phased-array airborne antenna mounted on a Gulfstream G-III test aircraft. With the Hughes JUPITER Aeronautical system and ModMan, the antenna demonstrated the ability to achieve high data throughput rates while seamlessly switching among successive O3b MEO satellites, as well as transfers between O3b and SES' GEO constellations.

The Ka2517 achieved downlink error-free data throughput rates in excess of 265Mbps, with beam switching speeds of less than one second, while automatically resolving adjacent satellite interference (ASI) issues. “This is the first in-flight demonstration o f a n a e r o n a u t i c a l a n t e n n a communicating across a MEO-GEO hybrid satellite network. The Ka2517 with the JUPITER ModMan met or exceeded all test parameters for spectral efficiency, data throughput, beam agility, switching speeds, ASI mitigation, low-angle performance and inter-constellation roaming,” said ThinKom Chief Technology Officer Bill Milroy.“The demonstration further establishes that ThinKom has the only proven 'no compromise' antenna solutions that can support seamless global satellite communication in the air with automatic roaming among GEO, LEO and MEO constellations,” Milroy added.Based on ThinKom's patented phased-array VICTS technology, the Ka2517 is an airborne antenna designed to communicate through satellites in low, medium and geostationary orbits. The low-profile antenna radome provides near-zero aeronautical drag in flight and supports global coverage including polar and equatorial latitudes. The field-proven Ka2517 is currently in commercial production, and units are in o p e r a t i o n a l s e r v i c e o n U . S . government aircraft.“The test by ThinKom underscores the effectiveness of the Hughes JUPITER System for both MEO and GEO connectivity, and, when combined with a high-quality antenna such as the ThinKom Ka2517, to deliver superior spectral efficiency, link availability and performance,” said Reza Rasoulian, Vice President, Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES).SES' high-throughput O3b MEO constellation is the only operationally and commercial ly proven non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) broadband constellation today. The constellation has positively impacted millions of people with low-latency, high-performance data connectivity services and has enabled SES Networks, SES' business unit focused on data solutions, to offer more capaci ty, enhanced coverage, increased efficiencies and greater flexibility to its customers.“These successful demo tests are raising the bar for in-flight connectivity and the connected passenger experience. The seamless integration of our MEO and GEO satellite networks will provide our customers with unprecedented redundancy, higher connectivity speeds and a whole new

level of operational models,” said Elias Zaccack, Executive Vice President, Global Sales, at SES Networks. “We're very excited to have achieved this milestone together with our long-term partner Thales, as this is yet another example of how our mutual collaboration continues to bring innovative connectivity solutions with unmatched performance.”“These in-flight tests performed together with SES, ThinKom and Hughes are an outstanding demonstration of the seamless connectivity through MEO and GEO satellite systems. Thales Alenia Space was particularly pleased to participate in this worldwide first, using the O 3 b s a t e l l i t e c o n s t e l l a t i o n w e manufactured for SES,” said Pascal Homsy, Executive Vice President, Telecommunications Business Line, Thales Alenia Space

Comtech awarded $3.0 m additional funding from U.S. Army

Comtech announced its Mission-Critical Technologies group, which is part of Comtech's Government Solut ions segment, received additional funding of $3.0 million on the previously announced three-year $124.2 million contract to provide ongoing sustainment services for the AN/TSC-198A SNAP (Secret Internet Protocol Router (“SIPR”) and Non-classified Internet Protocol Router (“NIPR”) Access Point), and baseband equipment. SNAP terminals provide quick and mobile satellite communications capabilities to personnel in the field. The contract has been funded $77.9 million to date.“We are pleased the U.S. Army continues to trust Comtech's expertise in providing quality support for our fielded VSAT systems,” said Fred Kornberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comtech Telecommunicat ions Corp. “Th is additional funding demonstrates the importance of the mission supporting our warfighters.”

Zero Density, Sequin AR announces partnership to push boundaries of reality in the United States

Zero Density continues to expand its exquisite global partner network with another significant partnership, this time in the United States. Ground-breaking virtual studio and augmented reality product Reality Engine combined with the Sequin AR's creative trailblaze is set to deliver

spectacular projects. The duos have created numerous award-winners of several Emmys, Broadcast Innovation Awards and more with their superior work and ready to bring together their e x p e r t i s e .Lawrence Jones, Executive Creative Director at Sequin AR, said: 'We are excited to partner with Zero Density to create groundbreaking augmented reality, virtual sets, and immersive experiences leveraging the power of Reality Engine. Together we will push the boundaries of what is possible for Zero Density clients.'Ulaº Kaçmaz, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Zero Density, said 'It is thrilling to be working with Sequin and its creative team, consisting of award-winning pioneers and trend-setters. Zero Density and Sequin will become a powerhouse that will actualize striking projects.'?Unreal Engine native Reality Engine is a real-time node-based compositor with its proprietary keying technology Reality Keyer, offering the most photorealistic 3D virtual studio and augmented reality product in the industry. Sequin AR's launch of Augmented Reality TV and Film Division with ICM and the partnership with Zero Density aim to bridge the gap between Hollywood producers and technology vendors as well as expanding the use o f Unrea l `Eng ine in entertainment.

Vishipel selects ORBCOMM's vessel monitoring system for commercial fishing market in Vietnam

ORBCOMM Inc., a global provider of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, has announced that it has been selected by Vishipel, a leading provider of telecommunications services and maritime equipment, to provide its Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) for commercial fishing vessels throughout Vietnam. ORBCOMM's VMS delivers complete visibility and control of fishing vessels and maintains vital communications links with home ports utilizing ORBCOMM's satellite service offering. Vishipel is using ORBCOMM's robust VMS as a major component of their VIFISH 18 kit in order to improve the monitoring, control and management of fisheries resources by the Vietnamese government to help prevent Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. ORBCOMM's VMS provides Vishipel's customers with detailed, continuous reports on vessel location

IN THE NEWS A ER CASM I

and fishing route tracking along with the ability to establish geofences for authorized fishing zone monitoring. The system can also send real-time weather and safety alerts to crews at sea and e n a b l e s t h e c r e w t o s e n d communications, including distress alerts, from ship to shore to enhance maritime safety and security and help guide rescue operations. In addition, ORBCOMM is working with Vishipel to develop direct connections to on-board and shore-based IT systems to enable seamless transmission of required forms, logs and files from the vessel to port authorities, which will help streamline operations, reduce paperwork and ensure regulatory compliance. “Utilizing ORBCOMM's advanced IoT technology, our vessel monitoring system provides Vishipel with a comprehensive feature set at a great value to improve their customers' maritime safety and operational efficiency, while ensuring compliance with Vietnamese fishing regulations,” said Marc Eisenberg, Chief Executive Officer of ORBCOMM Inc. “We're pleased to provide Vishipel with a future-proof system that leverages the speed, reliability and coverage of ORBCOMM's satellite service offering, while expanding our geographic reach into Vietnam's growing fisheries market.” “ORBCOMM's powerful and reliable vessel monitoring system helps Vishipel ensure that our customers' fishing vessels are working at peak efficiency at all times through continuous monitoring of vessel performance and maintaining constant communications with home ports no matter where they are on the world's oceans,” said Phan Ngoc Quang, General Director of Vishipel. “Through our partnership with ORBCOMM and the measurable and immediate ROI their industry-leading VMS product delivers, we are pleased to provide the solution of choice for Vietnamese fisherman.” Vishipel is part of an elite group of authorized service providers in Vietnam to offer a VMS solution to the fishing industry that meets the Vietnamese Government's regulations for vessels that are more than 15 meters to be installed with a VMS device by April 2020.

Viasat's Next-Generation Ka-band in-flight connectivity system approved for Gulfstream G280 AircraftViasat, Inc, a global communications company, announced its business aviation Ka band in-flight connectivity (IFC) system has been approved by the

FAA for the Gulfstream G280™ airframe. The FAA's approval of a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) allows Viasat and Gulfstream to offer high-speed, high-quality in-flight internet service on the super-midsize G280 business jet. Upon successful completion of an ongoing In-Service Evaluation (ISE), Viasat's Ka-band solution will be made available as a customer option.The STC confirms approval for installation of the Viasat terminal and wiring on-board the G280 aircraft. With the shipset installed, private jet passengers and c rew can be simultaneously connected to a high-speed, high-quality internet connection that will enable multi-site video conference calling, access to corporate VPN connections and email, streaming of bandwidth-intensive videos, TV, music and more – during all stages of flight. Viasat is currently going through an ISE with a number of Gulfstream G280 operators through January 2020. Viasat's Ka-band solution is expected to be available as a customer option in the first quarter of 2020."Achieving STC approval demonstrates the flight worthiness of Viasat's Ka-band in-flight connectivity equipment for use on super-midsize business jets," said Claudio D'Amico, business area director, Business Aviation, Viasat. "In working with Gulfstream we are now ready to bring faster internet speeds, more capacity for streaming and a forward-compatible connectivity solution to the skies. This system will allow any G280 owner to have an onboard internet access system with exceptional quality, performance and speed. Initial operator feedback from the ongoing evaluations has been positive, and we are excited to make Viasat's Ka-band solution available to all G280 customers in the first quarter of 2020."

SpaceX adds another 30,000 satellites to already ambitious plans

Elon Musk's grand plan to dominate the skies just became a lot grander as another application emerges, this time to add 30,000 satellites to the SpaceX constellation. Submitted to the ITU by the FCC on behalf of SpaceX, the paperwork would add scope for an additional 30,000 satellites on top of the 12,000 the company already has permission to launch. According to Space News, the FCC submitted 20 filings, each for 1,500 satellites at different low-earth orbits.In recent years, satellite connectivity has proven to be an unpopular means with many telcos in developed nations turning

noses up at the idea. There was an attitude present in the industry that satellites were for poorer nations who did not control the same budgets, though the industry does seem to be coming around.At Mobile World Congress this year, several companies were touting their assets to the increasingly cash-strapped telcos. With the cost of investment in access infrastructure soaring, satellite is becoming a more popular feature of the connectivity patchwork to deliver services to those in isolated and inaccessible regions.It does seem the ambitious Musk is backing the continuation of this trend. Apparently 12,000 satell ites isn't anywhere near enough.Interestingly enough, reports have also emerged SpaceX is in discussions with the US army for its Starlink broadband network. High-speed, low-latency communications are a no-brainer for the army, especially when you consider the global presence of the US army, though it does appear the team is in discussion for the Starship part of the business also.As it stands, SpaceX's Starship is currently working with NASA as a logistics partner after the space agency retired its space shuttle programme. However, it is also suggested the army is interesting in Starship as a means to quickly move personal around the globe.The low-orbit satellite segment is certainly starting to heat-up, and this revelation should add more fuel to the fire. Alongside SpaceX, the likes of OneWeb, Space Norway, Telesat, and Amazon are also fighting for real-estate amongst the stars. Theoretically, the low-orbit satellites should offer greater levels of performance than traditional satellites, gigabit speeds and latency less than 25 ms, though pricing has not been unveiled by the providers.It is promising to see aggressive progress to enhance the rich tapestry of connectivity, but there are still significant hurdles to overcome. There are currently c.5,000 satellites circling the earth, of which only around 2,000 are in operation. With some very wealthy companies launching tens of thousands of satellites into the skies, each will have to prove their plans to minimize debris and prevent collisions.As it stands, SpaceX has 60 satellites in the skies, which could be as many as 1,000 in the very near future. Considering there are only 2,000 currently in operation, the skies could become very busy in the very near future.

GTMaritime protects onboard cyber security in record numbers

A ER CASM IIN THE NEWS

GTMaritime has seen exceptional growth in the use of its secure, maritime optimised email software and other cyber-security solutions as vessel owners and operators step up a gear to harden onboard networks and protect their ships from digital threats. Many have been spurred into action by IMO's decision to bring cyber-security under the remit of the ISM code from 2022Some 5,677 vessels are now employing solutions from GTMaritime's portfolio – an increase of more than one-third over the past year. Put another way, nearly one in ten vessels in the global merchant fleet are using GTMaritime technology to safeguard onboard systems from m a l i c i o u s c o d e . Notably, the deployment of the made-for-maritime anti-virus solution GTSentinel has jumped 23% since September 2018, wi th near ly 1,500 vessels now subscr ib ing. Standard ant iv i rus protection software can underperform at sea due to patchy connectivity and bandwidth constraints, often leaving vessels and businesses at risk.

GTSentinel was developed specifically by GTMaritime to overcome these failure points. It allows fleet IT managers to schedule the distribution of anti-virus updates on a live, daily or weekly basis. Updates need only be sent once to each vessel and then propagated to all onboard devices thanks to a unique serverless peer-to-peer distribution mechanism. The 'buddy system' minimises the impact of updates on the ship's communications infrastructure and lets fleet managers strike a balance between airtime costs and updating anti-virus software.When coupled with GTMaritime's advanced email solution, GTMailPlus, GTSentinel ensures vessels are equipped with the highest level of protection against ransomware, spam, viruses and malware.In the last six months, GTMaritime services have stopped more than 59,500 malware attacks which were unknown to standard antivirus services and halted more than 68,000 known viruses in their tracks. They have also prevented more than 200,000 spam messages clogging up onboard inboxes

Mike McNally, who joined GTMaritime last year as Sales & Marketing Director, has now taken on the role of Global Commercial Director, responsible for all sales, marketing, technical sales support and sales operations. He said: “As the leading independent provider of maritime email we feel a responsibility to continuously enhance the cyber security aspect of our solutions. We have made hundreds of updates and enhancements

this year and will continue to do our best to keep ahead of the threat profiles.”

GTMaritime continues to respond to rising demand for its security solutions, McNally added. Over the past year, it has added nine new resellers across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, he said.

SES and Thales reach record speed and enhanced coverage via integrated GEO/MEO network

SES and Thales have taken inflight connectivity to a new level, successfully demonstrating uninterrupted access to high-throughput broadband applications for the first time over a platform supporting multi-orbit interoperability, switching seamlessly between SES's geostationary (GEO) and O3b medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite beams. The demo flight from Melbourne, Florida to the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua saw dozens of switches successfully completed between GEO and MEO beams, and between multiple MEO satellites within a beam, using the Hughes JUPITER(TM) Aeronautical system high performance airborne modem system, SES and Thales announced today. Engineers aboard the test flight were able to simultaneously use a broad range of bandwidth-hungry services demonstrating rates in excess of 265 Mbps via the Thales FlytLIVE connectivity network featuring the Hughes JUPITER System and a Hughes ModMan integrated with the ThinKom Ka2517 phased-array airborne antenna. Leveraging the same high-powered, low-latency O3b MEO capacity that has already redefined connectivity at sea, the engineers were able to demonstrate quality and reliable delivery of 4K video streaming, super-fast social media networking, e-commerce t ransac t ions , aud io conferencing, interactive gaming and web browsing on-board the Gulfstream G-III aircraft. The seamless integration of SES's satellite networks offers customers unprecedented redundancy, leveraging two diverse systems to ensure uninterrupted service: GEO for network resiliency and proven fibre-like high-performance from O3b MEO. The O3b constellation of 20 MEO satellites is manufactured by Thales Alenia Space. SES expects upcoming GEO/MEO trials to deliver even higher connectivity

speeds, a precursor of things to come for both commercial and business aviation as SES nears the scheduled 2021 launch of its O3b mPOWER system.O3b mPOWER is SES's fully funded, next-gen, ultra-high-capacity, low-latency, and highly flexible MEO satellite-based data communications system. A scalable terabit-level constellation with 35,000 fully-shapeable and steerable beams, O3b mPOWER is backwards-compatible with the first-generation O3b MEO system and can deliver a whole new level of customisation that allows bandwidth to be tailored to specific passenger and operational connectivity requirements over certain travel routes and regions. SES's interoperable GEO/MEO platform has already been validated in the cruise industry, revolutionising the guest experience at sea by delivering up to 1 Gpbs per ship to major cruise lines around the world with its managed MEO- and GEO-based connectivity service. The test flight paves the way for SES to similarly redefine the connected air passenger experience by enabling different operational models, including blanketing of large dense traffic routes, bolstering of capacity around major airports, or even following individual aircraft from take-off to landing – all at record speeds and with low latency. “The world's first low-latency, high performance broadband aero experience is closer than ever before with this tremendously successful demonstration of MEO and GEO interoperability. Driving scale and performance into our customers' networks is fundamental in delivering the best passenger experience in the skies. Our cruise customers have long experienced the benefits of the combined power that low latency MEO- and GEO-based connectivity brings to network performance and resilience. This innovation is now on its way for connected commercial and business air travel,” said Steve Collar, CEO of SES. “We are gearing ourselves up for the launch of O3b mPOWER and now, wi th a demonstrated ability to roam seamlessly across our GEO and MEO networks, our customers will enjoy unprecedented speed and pe r fo rmance f rom our O3b constellation, while also benefiting from the scale and reach of our GEO fleet.”

C-Band Alliance joins with U.S. wireless community on FCC filing detailing C-Band auction principles

The C-Band Alliance (CBA) announced that it joined a number of national, regional, and rural wireless operators in an FCC filing

IN THE NEWS

detailing a set of principles to guide a process for auctioning off terrestrial rights to C-band spectrum. Consistent with the goal of clearing spectrum and completing the auction efficiently and expeditiously, the CBA has proposed to clear a first tranche of 120 MHz of spectrum, inclusive of the 20-MHz guard band, in 46 top metropolitan zones within 18 months of an FCC order. The second tranche of the remaining spectrum would be made available within 36 months of the C-band auction, providing cleared spectrum throughout the entire continental U.S.

The auction design outlined in the principles agreed to by the CBA and the wireless operators addresses the shared goals of fairness and transparency and assures that the auction is open to all qualified bidders, consistent with FCC practice. The auction principles suggest use of a multi-round ascending clock auction format that is substantively similar to other recent FCC auctions. The principles call for a single auction that would include all proposed cleared spectrum, divided into 20 MHz blocks based on PEAs, regardless of clearing timing or tranche. Other principles detailed in the filing include the setting of an aggregate reserve price and the agreement for participants to be bound by the FCC's communications rules, reporting obligations, and enforcement.

As the CBA has previously committed, the joint principles call for a portion of the auction proceeds, beyond what is needed to cover the costs of the auction and the transition of the spectrum, to be contributed to the U.S. Treasury. C-Band Alliance Chief Executive Officer Bill Tolpegin said, “The a l ignment of stakeholders in the creation of an open and competitive 5G environment in the U.S. is a significant step forward and a win for all concerned. An expeditious sales process that is transparent, well-understood by potential buyers, and consistent with FCC processes paves the way for our clearing of the spectrum and the deployment of 5G services in C-band within 18 months of an FCC order. We are confident that the CBA proposal generates the greatest value for the U.S. in terms of both public interest and economic benefit. It is the right path for enabling 5G leadership in the United States.”

C-Band Alliance proposes to clear 300 MHz of spectrum for nationwide 5G deploymentThe C-Band Alliance (CBA) announced that it will commit to clear 300 MHz of C-band spectrum to support fast 5G wireless

deployment throughout the continental U.S. In an updated filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the CBA detailed that the 300 MHz of spectrum includes a 20-MHz guard band to protect existing satellite services from 5G interference.

Further enhancing its plan to clear s p e c t r u m q u i c k l y , t h e f i r s t tranche—which clears spectrum within 18 months of an FCC order in 46 top metropol i tan zones—is ` now increased to 120 MHz, inclusive of the 20-MHz guard band. The second tranche of the remaining spectrum will be made available within 36 months from a CBA-led auction, providing cleared spectrum throughout the entire continental U.S.

As it completed the work necessary to enhance its proposal, the CBA col laborated closely with U.S. broadcasters and programmers that serve nearly 120 million American homes via the C-band. This work included analyzing the potential use by some customers of technologies such as advanced modulation, single format transport and advanced video compression, including High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Each of these technologies improves the efficiency of satellite video delivery, allowing the same video content to be transmitted over less spectrum. The CBA proposal commi t s t o imp lemen t t hese technology upgrades at no cost to those satellite customers implementing them.

The CBA remains committed to ensuring that existing customers continue to enjoy the quality of service they experience now, with no interference from 5G services deployed in the future. The CBA member companies will maintain continuity of all current C-band customer services and maintain the value of the continental U.S. C-band video distribution neighborhoods. In its most recent ex parte filing, the CBA updated its commitments to its customers, including on key elements such as the transition plan, hardware selection, and interference detection processes. The CBA also affirms its commitment to covering all other costs of the transition, such as the required filtering of earth stations throughout the continental U.S. as outlined in previous CBA submissions and the order of eight new satellites from U.S. manufacturers.

FindMy launches next generation satellite IoT livestock tracker powered by Globalstar

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd.announced that FindMy, the IoT animal tracking pioneer, has launched its next-generation tracker. The FindMy e-Bell Model 2 collar is more robust, smaller and lighter, and now features Bluetooth for easy set-up and a longer-life replaceable battery for lower maintenance. Today, as FindMy marks its 10-year partnership with Globalstar, and with over 45,000 collars deployed in the field, FindMy collars have transmitted 20 million IoT tracking messages by satellite, enabled by Globestar's powerful, low cost STX3 chipset and its worldwide fleet of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. This data allows farmers to reliably monitor and protect their valuable herds wherever they roam, including regions beyond the reach of mobile phone networks.

The appeal of FindMy is such that it has even attracted customers whose farms are in locations with good mobile coverage – this is due to the price competitiveness of FindMy's satellite-enabled solution, and the highly functional and user-friendly app and user interface which FindMy provides.FindMy has spent the last two years designing and engineering the new animal collar, which will be available from Spring 2020. Additional new features include a custom antenna that adds extra assurance of successful message transmission, and a new app that makes it easy for farmers to configure and customise the collar's transmission settings. The e-Bell Mark 2 is easily self-configurable for farmers and the new industrial-grade FindMy devices are engineered to meet military-level satcoms standards for robustness in all weather conditions.

Enhanced software can now deliver a complete snapshot update of the herd/flock location at particular times of day specified by the farmer dependent on when they head out to the hills to check on the animals. The system also includes an improved accelerometer sensitive enough to detect whether an animal is in distress, such as if it is frightened or being chased.

Norwegian sheep farmer HalvorMjoen originally founded FindMy in 2009 to support his fellow sheep farmers whose flocks graze fence-free in the mountains and often range across borders into Sweden, Finland as well as Russia. In addition to monitoring sheep, FindMy has also been adopted by reindeer-herders, many with ancestral heritage from the indigenous Sami communities in the far North, whose livestock range across the Arctic Circle.

IN THE NEWS

With advert placement, you support the publication of this magazine in Africa. Advertising in Spacewatchafrica will offer your institution/organisation a cost-effective platform to reach your potential clients and business partners. We offer you exclusive contact with your business partners, government officials, academic and industry sectors.

SPACEWATCHAFRICA MAGAZINE MOST CURRENT ADVERTISEMENT RATES

4-color Advertising Rates Colour DimensionBack Cover Full Page $3,000 9.5” x 13”Inside Back Cover Full Page $2,000 9.5” x 13”Inside Front Cover Full Page $2,000 9.5” x 13”Inside Full Page $2,300 9.5” x 13”Inside Half Page $1.250 4.75”x 13” Double Spread $5,000Special page 2(inside front cover) and 3 $6,000Two adjoining centre page $5,000Front page earpiece $1,500(One third) $750 4.75” x 6.5”Special Report (including editorial) $3,000 Full cover page spotlight (special) $15,000

Advertisement placements on African Satellite Communications Yearbook attracts discounted rates, 20% off the above rates.

Hurry now and book your advert on Spacewatchafrica (onine and hard copy edition) as well as the African Satellite Communications Yearbook and benefit from the industry lowest rates while helping your organization reach the widest audience possible across Africa, middle east and beyond.

An additional 30% discount off the advertising rates above will be given to an advertiser who reserves for a minimum of six months (6 advertisements) or more.

All dimensions are listed as width by depth in millimeters (mm). Build pages to trim size and if bleed, extend dimensions beyond page edge by 10mm. Keep live matter 6mm from trim size. Preferred file formats are EPS, JPG or PDF.

For placement enquiries, please email us at info@spacewatchafrica.com, or call +2348036471114, 7084706167

AFRICA