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www.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 2018 1

View From The Top

Making the most of home-grownopportunitiesFor space industry observers, it’s easy to believe that anything is possible, thatthere are no limits to what we can do. All this talk of self-driving cars, hotels onMars, and super-fast global Internet for everyone makes people think we’re so much further along than we actually are. Whileall these ideas are under research and development, we’re still some way off seeing them actualised just yet.

If we look backwards, it hasn’t even been 50 years yet since man first set foot on the moon for the first time. In total, therehave been six manned moon landings, the latest in 1972. A lot of people have theories, some crazy, some entirely reasonable,about why we haven’t ventured back to the moon since then. But the argument that just keeps coming up is money, or lackthereof. It costs a lot of money to visit the moon, money that could (arguably) be better spent developing more affordablelaunch systems.

In order to keep forging ahead, it’s absolutely vital that investment in new technologies continues; reusable launchvehicles, for example, which in theory will one day provide considerably more affordable access to space, are just oneaspect of this. It’s also important that we take advantage of every resource that is available to us.

Here in the UK, we’re doing just that. Shetland Space Centre (SSC) bosses are adamant that their site in Unst offersunrivalled (in the UK) natural advantages for delivering small satellites into space. As the farthest north potential site in theUK, it is ideal for launching small satellites into Polar and Sun-Synchronous orbits, and there are no obstacles to directlaunch to these orbits such as populated centres or oil and gas installations. In addition, the airspace in the region is clear,with no major trans-Atlantic routes or military restrictions. Indeed, voices from the UK Space Agency, government andindustry have all agreed Unst would be an ideal location for a dedicated small satellite launch facility in the UK.

The UK might still be considered by some as small fry in the global space sector, but don’t expect that reputation to lastlong. With ambassadors, government, academia and organisations all working together to advance our home-growncapabilities, making the most of the resources here at our fingertips, the UK expects to account for 10 percent of the globalspace industry by 2020. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing us make a bigger mark on the international stage.

Editor - Amy Saunders

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

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mailto:[email protected]

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www.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 20182

Contents

No part of this publication may betransmitted, reproduced or electronicallystored without the written permissionfrom the publisher.

DS Air Publications does not give anywarranty as to the content of the materialappearing in the magazine, its accuracy,timeliness or fitness for any particularpurpose. DS Air Publications disclaims allresponsibility for any damages or losses inthe use and dissemination of theinformation.

All editorial contentsCopyright © 2017 DS Air PublicationsAll rights reservedISSN: 1745-5502

Printed by:Times PrintingSingapore

DS Air Publications1 Langhurstwood RoadHorshamWest Sussex, RH12 4QDUnited KingdomT: +44 1403 273973F: +44 1403 273972Email: [email protected]

EditorAmy [email protected]

Circulation ManagerElizabeth George

PublisherRichard [email protected]

Managing DirectorDavid [email protected]

Photo courtesy Shutterstock

1 EditorialMaking the most of home-grown opportunities

May/June 2018 - Vol.15. - No.3.

4 Satellite newsNews and Views

Contents

Q&A Sky and Space Global- page 6

Earth observation- page 10

Inflight connectivity- page 16

5G telecom networks - page 30

Connect 2018- page 34

UK Space - page 38

Q&A ViaLite- page 14

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News Review & Analysis

The IoT platform market has entered a consolidationphaseAccording to a new research report from the IoT analystfirm Berg Insight, the global market for IoT devicemanagement and application enablement platformsreached US$ 1.1 billion in 2017. Growing at a compoundannual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.2 percent, the totalmarket value is expected to reach US$ 4.9 billion in 2022.IoT platforms provide middleware to connect and managedevices and integrate collected data into variousapplications and services. These platforms are intendedto reduce the cost and development time for IoT solutionsby providing standardised components that enterprisescan build upon.

The IoT platform market is notably crowded and hostsa multitude of players spanning from small start-ups tomajor companies in the technology and industrial sectors.These companies have developed offerings that typicallyhave a specific focus on a set of capabilities, often relatedto their core businesses. GE and PTC spearheaded theeffort of promoting IoT in the industrial sector on abroader scale. While GE has shifted focus to mainlyprovide solutions rather than its Predix platform alone,PTC has emerged as the leader in the space. SoftwareAG’s Cumulocity IoT business and the wireless IoTmodule vendor Telit have also built strong positions inthe industrial sector. Software AG’s platform has forexample been selected by Siemens to complement itsIoT operating system MindSphere. Telit holds a strategicpartnership with Wind River that leverages Telit’stechnology in its Helix Device Cloud. Additional providerswith high involvement in the industrial sector includeBosch, IBM, SAP, Oracle, Exosite, Device Insight andAltair Engineering.

In 2017–2018, the major cloud infrastructure vendorsAmazon, Microsoft and Google continued to investheavily in their IoT offerings to drive growth in their cloudbusinesses. “The involvement of the cloud infrastructureproviders will over time lead to commoditisation of someservices currently offered by vendors in the IoT platformmarket and result in further specialisation of IoT platformproviders”, said Fredrik Stålbrand, IoT Analyst, BergInsight. Merger and acquisition activity has risen sharplyin recent time and the market has now entered aconsolidation phase. “Some level of fragmentation in themarket is expected to remain due to lack of standards,but also due to specific requirements in industriescharacterised by mission critical applications such asautomotive, healthcare and manufacturing, as well as inthe critical infrastructure industries”, concluded Mr.Stålbrand.

Open Cosmos and Satellite Applications Catapultannounce expanding In-Orbit DemonstrationProgramme with new 6U CubeSat missionopportunityOpen Cosmos has been contracted by the SatelliteApplications Catapult to provide its fast and affordablespace mission service to the In-Orbit Demonstrationprogram (IOD-6). This will enable the space technologieswith the best commercial capabilities to benefit fromOpen Cosmos’ 6U full mission services.

The Satellite Applications Catapult is expanding withthis mission its landmark In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD)Programme offering IOD-6. In collaboration with OpenCosmos, the IOD-6 mission offers companies theopportunity to trial their service using a larger 6UCubeSat platform in a diverse range of orbit options. Bydemonstrating the operational capability of their servicethrough IOD-6, companies are in a stronger position tosecure investment and customers. Successfulcandidates will be able to design, develop and launchtheir IOD-6 mission within 18 months.

Open Cosmos will be working with the successfulcandidate to integrate the payload and simulate themission performance on qbkit and qbapp. Once thepayload is validated, Open Cosmos will provide a one-stop-shop mission service integrating the payload in a6U qbee multipurpose nanosatellite, performing fullfunctional and environmental tests, procuring the launchand enabling the successful candidate to operate thepayload in orbit through their qbapp mission controlsoftware. The Satellite Applications Catapult will providecomprehensive mission, operations and businesssupport to help the company accelerate to operationalcapability and initial service delivery. The IOD-6 missionis supported by a grant of £700,000 from the UK SpaceAgency.

Rafael Jorda Siquier, CEO and Founder, OpenCosmos said: “At Open Cosmos, we are obsessed inmaking space accessible so organizations of all sizesand industries can solve the world biggest challenges.We are delighted that the IOD-6 Programme havecontracted our space mission services to bring to orbitthe most competitive service-or iented spacetechnologies. There is no better way to demonstrate.”

Stuart Martin, CEO, Satellite Applications Catapultsaid: “The UK is the only country in the world to offer anIn-Orbit Demonstration Programme. By lowering the costof access to space and accelerating services to market,IOD addresses key barriers to innovation in the sector.IOD-6 is a great opportunity for companies looking for alarger satellite platform and represents a significantmilestone in the IOD programme. We are looking forwardto working with Open Cosmos to deliver the mission.They are a great addition to the IOD programme networkand part of a wider dynamic and entrepreneurialcommunity that is driving growth in the UK space sector.”

Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director for Growth, UKSpace Agency said: “We recognise that low cost accessto space is vital in developing a range of innovative spaceapplications which will help grow the UK space sector.We are working hard with partners, including the SatelliteApplications Catapult, to make space more accessible.This exciting mission with Open Cosmos is a greatexample of the support out there for small companieswith big ideas.”

Viasat acquires Horsebridge Defence and Securityto enhance military opportunities with UK defenceforcesViasat has acquired Horsebridge Defence and Security,a UK-based company focused on design, systemintegration and support of deployable secure networks.

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News Review & Analysis

Want to supply content for consideration?Contact the Editor: [email protected]

www.satellite-evolution.comThrough this acquisition the Viasat UK group gains deepermilitary communications integration expertise; enablingthe Company to continue to grow its business in the UKdefence market by delivering mission-critical ground-based communication networks and services.

From their UK-base in Cheltenham, HorsebridgeDefence and Security have developed robust relationshipswith the UK Armed Forces, supporting a number of UKMinistry of Defence (MOD) programmes.

“By acquiring Horsebridge Defence and Security, wehope to accelerate the trajectory of our ability to supportUK defence operations,” said Ken Peterman, President,Government Systems, Viasat. “Viasat builds best-of-breedtechnology solutions that leverage commercial innovation;and by combining our strengths with the deep domainexpertise of the Horsebridge Defenceand Security team, we intend toreliably extend commercial, military oremergency service networks to thetactical mobile edge.”

The Horsebridge Defence andSecurity team will be integrated intoViasat’s already established andgrowing Farnborough, UK-basedorganization. They will haveimmediate access to Viasat’s fullcommunications portfolio from theCompany’s most advanced satellitecommunication (SATCOM) and Link16 mobile networking solutions to itsinnovative cybersecur ity andinformation assurance capabilities.

“Viasat is a strong match for theHorsebridge Defence and Securityteam; we are aligned both culturallyand in our technical vision for how tobring secure ground networks to UKMOD and adjacent markets,” saidMartin Flather, Director, HorsebridgeDefence and Security. “Having accessto Viasat’s broad por tfolio oftechnologies and capabilities willenable us to create new securecommunications and mobilityplatforms that leverage high-capacitymobile networks with assuredavailability—with accredited securevoice, video and messagingservices—whenever and wherevermilitary forces require it in the UK oroverseas.”

Horsebr idge Defence andSecurity develops and integratestechnologies under its Kestrel II-branded services por tfolio. TheKestrel brand has a strong reputationwith MOD through successful deliveryof a high-capacity ground network fora specific operational mission. TheKestrel II portfolio offers a range ofcomplementary secure networkproducts, solutions and services that

are specifically targeted at today’s UK Defencerequirements and are continuously integrated andcontinuously developed (CI/CD) to stay at the forefront oftechnology. Financial details of the transaction are notbeing disclosed. The transaction is not expected tomaterially affect Viasat non-GAAP (pro forma) earningsfor fiscal year 2019. However, Viasat has not completedits valuation analysis and, accordingly, has not determinedthe impact to GAAP earnings.

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Q&A Sky and Space Global

Connecting the worldIncorporated in the UK in 2015, Sky and Space Global plans tolaunch a constellation of 200 nanosatellites into equatorial lowEarth orbit (LEO) for narrowband communications. With inter-satellite links and the ability to autonomously monitor andmanage satellite health and the in-orbit communicationsnetwork, Sky and Space Global is set to shake up globalcommunications. Amy Saunders met with Meir Moalem, CEO ofSky and Space Global, to learn more about the company’splans and market assessment.

Meir Moalem, CEO of Sky andSpace Global

June 2017 saw the launch of the 3 Diamonds nanosatellites


Question: From the outside, Sky andSpace Global appears to be well onthe way to developing its own uniquesatellite constellation. Can you tell usmore about the company’s vision?Meir Moalem: Sky and Space Globalwill connect the unconnected. It’s a veryinnovative, disruptive NewSpacecompany based on nanosatell itetechnology that has set out to providenarrowband communication services.We’re talking about voice conversations,text messages, instant messaging,machine-to-machine (M2M), Internet ofThings (IoT), to anyone, anywhere,anytime.

At the moment, we’re focused on theequatorial region, because there’scurrently no infrastructure there. If youtry to provide narrowband services inLondon, nobody would use them,because you can use your phone toconnect to the Internet. But, in the

equator ial region, there’s almostnothing. That’s where the market is,that’s where the demand is, and that’swhere we’re going to be.

Question: June 2017 saw the launchof the 3 Diamonds nanosatellites.What can you tell us about thesethree satellites, what they’veachieved so far, and what they meanfor the planned constellation?Meir Moalem: It’s an interesting story.The 3 Diamonds satellites were apathfinder mission; they were supposedto be technology demonstrators to helpus gain fur ther investment for theconstellation. They were designed to bevery small and very efficient, but alsoable to deliver narrowband communi-cations services. Most notably, theywere built to demonstrate inter-satellitecommunications, which is key tobuilding a satellite network. No one hascreated inter-satellite links betweennanosatellites before: We’re the first.

As we started to negotiate withpotential customers, they askedwhether they could procure services onthe existing 3 Diamonds nanosatellites,even though they’re only passingoverhead once or twice a day for severalminutes. So, the 3 Diamonds satellitesbecame actual commercial assets, aswell as providing validation for thebusiness model by proving that peopleare willing to pay for these kinds ofservices.

We’ve achieved a long list of world-firsts with the 3 Diamonds satellites. Thefirst ever text message, voice recording,phone call, the first email, data transfer,data store-and-forward, financialtransaction, cyber-security measures,and inter-satellite links. All of those were

The core Sky and Space Globalbusiness is to construct acommunications infrastructurebased on nano-satellite technologyand develop the highly complex andsophisticated software systemsthat will deploy, maintain orbitcontrol and handle communicationcode between each of the nano-satellites to give a global coverage.

Sky and Space Global aims toprovide low cost, nano-satellitecommunication coverage on ananywhere to everywhere base withrelatively low maintenance costs.Due to the experience andexpertise of the founders in theaerospace industry, the businesswill be able to develop inherentupgrading capabilities within shortintervals, utilising their unique IP-nanosat software protocols.

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SAS constellation (by SCISYS)

world-firsts for nanosatellites. When westarted the business several years ago,we were told it was impossible, that youcouldn’t do a phone call over ananosatellite; we’ve proved them wrong.

Question: What can you tell us aboutthe full constellation plans?Meir Moalem: Our satellites are beingmanufactured by GOMspace inDenmark; we have a contract with themto develop 250 satellites. We plan tostart launching a year from now, and by2020, we’ll have the full 200 requiredfor the low Ear th orbit (LEO)constellation in space. At first, it’ll takea time to manufacture each satellite, buttowards the end of the process, we’ll beproducing two or three satellites eachweek. We’re building a production line,and once it’s working and we’ve clearedout the early problems and technicalissues, manufacturing will really speedup.

The constellation latency isexpected to be very low,. Of course,latency is only really an issue for phonecalls, it doesn’t really come into play withthe other services we provide. Latencycomes not only from the location of the

satellite or the relative distances of thesatellites, but also from the hardwareand software involved. It’s all about howthe data is processed, encoded, andcompressed, and that’s the biggestchallenge. We’re working very hard toensure we’re very efficient.

The satellites will operate over S-band; we’re not selling the customerbandwidth or throughput, but availability.Our promise to our customers is thatwhen they try to use our service, we willprovide the availability. It’s the same aswhen you make a regular phone call –you don’t know what the bandwidth is,all you care about is that it works whenyou need it. Because we’re providingnarrowband services, we don’t need agreat deal of spectrum; we only need afew MHz, and we can squeeze millionsof network users onto this very narrowslice of spectrum, over the entireequatorial region.

The inter-satellite links are based onS-band as well, using a small flat panelantenna. We’ve tested them up to 3Megasymbols per second on the 3Diamonds satellites, and I think theycan achieve more than that. The linkswork over distances of 500-1,000km.

On the next generation of nanosatellites, the Pearls, which are a slightlylarger satellite with a more advancedpayload, we think the links will work overgreater distances still, which is morethan enough for our purposes. Thechallenge right now is the grounddevices and connecting many end-users to the network.

We have a contract with Virgin Orbitto launch our satellites – we’ve acquiredfour dedicated launches, and we havethe possibility to buy more. I think we’llbe looking at around 20 satellites perlaunch, but of course it depends on theactual performance of Virgin Orbit,which we won’t know for sure until theydo their first launch. It also depends onthe final mass of our satellites, whichare still under development.

Question: The satellite market hasseen a great deal of change in recentyears, and Sky and Space Global ispoised to be a part of that. What’syour assessment of the market today,and where will Sky and Space Globalfit within it?Meir Moalem: There are around threebillion people living in the areas we’re

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looking at i.e. Africa, South America andSoutheast Asia. Those are areas witheither no infrastructure at all, or poorinfrastructure. It’s a huge market:Demand is there, and it’s growing.There’s no foreseeable future fordeploying terrestrial networks in theseareas, it’s just too expensive. Thatmeans that the only way of providingconnectivity is through space.

There is connectivity provided tothose areas right now from space, butit’s too expensive; for phone calls, you’relooking at US$1-2 per minute, on top offees of around US$50 per month just tohave that connection. It’s not reallyaffordable for the people. However, it’snot just about the individuals; it’s alsoabout the corporate entities, thebusinesses, the governments. They allneed connectivity as well.

The market is growing for bothnarrowband communications and otherapplications as more and more IoT andM2M devices are deployed all over theworld.

We’re the first company to providethese kinds of services, and we’re alsothe most advanced. The otherconstellations we’re hearing about aremainly for M2M and IoT, which is a verysmall part of what we do. We believethe market is big enough for multipleplayers, for a lot of companies to stepin and still be able to resell theirservices. We’re very different fromcompanies like OneWeb or SpaceXbecause they’re planning to sell highspeed Internet, which is a different kindof service that requires expensiveground infrastructure which isn’tparticularly mobile. It’s an entirelydifferent market to ours. Traditionalspace industry constellations requirebillions of dollars to develop systems,while we, as a NewSpace company,only need tens of millions – that’s quitea difference. Traditional space industryconstellations are also looking at muchlonger lead times before they’reoperational, while we’ll be fully up andrunning in the next two years.

Question: Interest in NewSpace isbooming the world over, but opinionsare mixed on what it all means.What’s your assessment of theNewSpace movement?Meir Moalem: We’re building ourcompany based on NewSpacetechnology. The nanosatellite tech-

nology has really matured: I think thattwo or three years ago, people weretalking about nanosatellites as ‘toys forboys,’ or objects for students to explore,with no commercial viability. But they’vematured, and nanosatellites are veryreliable today. Our 3 Diamondssatellites, for example, have beenworking perfectly for almost a year now,and another nanosatell ite, keymanagement people from SAS wereinvolved in that was developed by HighSchool students, is still operatingperfectly in space after three years.

Nanosatell ite technology hasreached a point where you can actuallydo something with it. The question is,can we build commercial applicationsfor nanosatellites in space? We believethat we can. Planet, for example,believes that it can provide remotesensing capabilities with nanosatellites,and they’re doing that. I think the futureis really promising.

Question: The digital divide remainsa pressing issue throughout much ofthe world; do you feel enough isbeing done to address the issue, andhow will Sky and Space Globalattempt to tackle this problem?Meir Moalem: It’s an oppor tunitybecause it’s such a pressing issue. Ifyou solve the problem, or at leastprovide a par tial solution, you’reimproving your business. If you’reconnecting more people, your businessdevelops.

My PhD dissertation is about spaceprogrammes and their importance, andthere’s a chapter about the information,communication and technology (ICT)revolution. In today’s research, there’sa lot of proof about the benefits of ICT;with connectivity, there can be betterhealthcare, better education, improvedfinancial systems and governmentorganisations. Everything is improvedwith an ICT infrastructure.

The areas that we’re talking abouthave almost no infrastructure, so justimagine the possibilities once they do!If you have an infirmary manned by aparamedic or nurse with no ability toconsult with a medical doctor; withconnectivity, they can make a call to adoctor, or send a photo of a medicalproblem, and can be advised on thebest course of action. How about agovernment which has no idea there’sbeen a flood in a remote location? With

connectivity, not only can thegovernment be aware of what’s goingon, it can receive an early warning towarn people to evacuate the area.

We believe that, not only becauseof what we’re doing, but other providersas well, we can create a major leap inthe existing infrastructure that willimprove the ecosystem in thesecountries. That means these areas canexpect an economic boom.

As for the power requirements fordevices and infrastructure, solar panelsare probably the answer. For yourphone, for example, you can get a smallfolding mobile solar panel that you cancharge from anywhere. More and morein Africa, people are installing solarpanels on top of their houses becauseit has become quite affordable. It’s acircular process: No one is investing inpower supply in these areas becausethere is no demand, but if you providean incentive for people and companiessuch as connectivity, then the pressureto build power supply infrastructureincreases. It works both ways. We’recreating an incentive for the economyto improve, which in turn improves ourbusiness.

Question: What’s on the horizon forSky and Space Global in the nearfuture?Meir Moalem: I’d divide our plans intothree different channels.

The first is the technology channel;developing the satellites. We’re almostat the Critical Design Review (CDR),which is the step before actualproduction. Once we’ve passed that,we’ll have a high level of confidence thatour plan will work. We expect this in thevery near future.

The other channel is the commercialchannel. We’re talking to additionalcustomers and trying to develop newagreements and finding out whatcustomers are willing to pay. Moving outof our comfort zone in Africa, where wealready have a lot of agreements set inplace, we’ve moving on to the Americasand Southeast Asia.

The last channel is the funding. We’retalking to investors and strategic partners,and we strongly believe that we canacquire the US$100 million that willsecure our constellation. This is notrequired all at once, and a lot of optionsare on the table, so I am confident we willfind the best one for the company.

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Earth Observation

Artist Impression - VividX2 in Space

Colour video from space – A uniquechallengeEarth observation is a rapidly-expanding sector right now, and certainly one of the most active inthe NewSpace movement. UK-based Earth-i has recently launched VividX2, a prototype for theworld’s first commercial satellite system designed to capture high definition colour video fromspace.

12 January 2018, 04.18 GMT, 505km above the IndianOcean: 31 satellites cascade away from the nose of a PSLVlauncher. As the upper stage of the rocket orbits the Earth at28,000km/hr, the satellites tumble across the bands of whitecloud and deep blue ocean below.

One of the first satellites to be ejected from the launcherwas a boxy spacecraft around the size of a small fridge andcovered in solar panels. Known as VividX2, this compactsatellite may not look particularly impressive, but thetechnology inside promises to help transform the multi-billion-dollar global business of Earth observation. VividX2 is theprototype for the world’s first commercial satellite systemdesigned to capture high definition colour video from space.It has been built by small satellite manufacturers SurreySatellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in partnership with Earth-i, a provider of satellite imagery and analytical services.

“It was extraordinary to watch,” said Adrian Norris, Earth-i General Manager, who had a front row seat at missioncontrol in Sriharikota in southern India for the launch. “There’sa tremendous feeling in the company that everything we’vebeen working towards in the last few years is becomingtangible.”

Providing space-derived productsOnly established three years ago, UK-based Earth-i hasquickly built a global reputation for providing images andspace-derived products to a wide range of clients in both thepublic and private sectors. Earth-i currently uses data fromexisting satellite constellations, such as the DMC3/TripleSatConstellation and the KOMPSAT series of satellites, butVividX2 represents the first stage in the development of thecompany’s own fleet.

“The view we take is that to fulfil the needs of our clients,it’s vitally important we have our own source of data,” saysEarth-i CEO, Richard Blain. “The vision for Earth-i is tobecome one of the world’s leading providers of Earthobservation derived data.”

Earth-i recently signed a contract with SSTL to build thefirst five satellites in its new constellation, due for launch in2019, with two further groups of five planned by 2022. Withits single powerful HD camera, designed to take still imagesand around two minutes of video at a time, VividX2 will putthe technology through its paces.

“Having a fleet of satellites means we can revisit the samepoint on Earth several times throughout the course of the

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Earth Observation

Earth-i CEO, Richard Blain

day,” says Blain. “With video we’re revisiting every fraction ofa second and creating therefore a whole new type ofinformation from space that isn’t available today – that willdrive an amazing array of new and interesting applications.”

A potential challengeBut capturing video from space isn’t easy, otherwise manyother companies would probably already be doing it. Justconsidering the physics involved is mind boggling.

Satellites orbit the Earth at around 7km/s, which equatesto passing over the ground at the same rate. At that speed,while the planet is rotating 500km below, the satellite needsto constantly adjust its position to stay focussed on the samearea, record HD video and transmit it back to mission control.Two minutes is about the maximum time it can point its cameraat a single location before passing over the horizon.

Norris agrees that operating the satellite, and the eventualconstellation, will be potentially challenging. “We’ve got a veryprecise attitude control system – unusual in a satellite thissize – that lets the camera stare very precisely at a target onthe ground as it’s flying over,” he says. “We’re expecting toget a very stable video sequence of quite a small target.”

In test footage, obtained by an earlier SSTL-built satellitecalled Carbonite-1, moving vehicles and objects of aroundone and a half metres could be made out. “With VividX2 we’llbe seeing objects about a metre in size, in full colour andwith much improved quality,” says Norris. “It will be significantlybetter.”

As well as the satellites themselves, Earth-i is also buildingnew ground infrastructure and an operations centre. The aimis to make the whole system as client-focussed as possible,delivering images of anywhere on Earth on-demand andwithin minutes of being taken.

“Clients will tell us what they want, and the constellationmanagement systems will work out the best way to acquireimages or video clips of that area,” says Norris. “We’ll sendcommands to the constellation, telling satellites when toswitch-on and where to point, until the area the customerhas asked for has been imaged successfully.”

Video from space?So, what sort of demand is there for video from space? “The

key is to extract the information from the imagery, not justtake pretty pictures for pretty pictures’ sake,” says Earth-i’stechnical advisor, Paul Brooks. In other words, it’s aboutproviding answers to people on Earth. “The remote sensingmarket is worth billions of dollars a year and we need toprovide the information – the insights – to the end users ofwhat they want.”

With global coverage and the ability for multiple dailyrevisits and video capability, Earth-i’s new satellites are likelyto have a wide range of applications. One use might be toaccurately measure the levels of a commodity on a globalbasis. A resource such as copper, for example, is mined andstored at multiple locations.

The satellites could also be employed to monitoragriculture, map changes in land use or assess the aftermathof natural disasters, observe the flow of refugees across aborder or the patterns of traffic around a busy motorwayintersection.

“Customers come to us with a wide range of needs,” saysProduct Development Manager, Owen Hawkins. “There’s ahuge variety of different levels of questions – from datathrough to insights that people are coming to us with,” hesays. “That challenges us to find solutions across that wholespectrum.”

To make sense of what Hawkins refers to as a “deluge ofdata” from space, he is overseeing the development of newAI and machine learning technologies. “We need to do somecutting-edge work to answer the unique needs of the satelliteswe’re putting into space,” he says. “Because of the way thesatellites operate, we’re aware we also have hard technologychallenges to process the video.”

At its Guildford headquarters in southern England, Earth-i is in the process of recruiting new staff from across thetechnology sector. Many are from, what might be consideredunrelated, areas such as medical imaging. “We’re picking thebright stars, leading lights of these industries to come andhelp us to bring that knowledge into the space sector,”Hawkins says.

With the development of this supporting technology wellunderway, Earth-i Chief Technology Officer, John Linwood,argues that the company isn’t only in the space business butthe business of predicting the future. “Whether it’s theinsurance industry, commodity traders or the power industry,we can analyse patterns of life to predict traffic growth, powerdemand or even commodity production into the future,” hesays. “We want to help people make smarter decisions.”

A globally-recognized playerMeanwhile, back from India, Norris is working with SSTL tooversee the commissioning of VividX2. With its solar panelsnow deployed, the team operating the satellite is slowlybringing subsystems online and aligning the camera.

“We’ll then go through a campaign to focus the cameraand get a good understanding of how it’s behaving in space,”says Norris. “There’s a lot to do!”

For Blain, the successful launch of VividX2 means theexpansion of his business remains on track. “Since 2015we’ve been able to leapfrog ourselves to become a globallyrecognised player with a great deal of credibility,” he says.“We’re well on our way to becoming one of the world’s mostsuccessful space companies.”

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Q&A ViaLite Communications

Delivering RF over fibreViaLite Communications, a division of Pulse, Power &Measurement Ltd (PPM), designs and manufactures RF overfibre links and systems to meet a wide range of applications,including satellite teleports, downlinks, VSAT, interfacility linking,cellular networks, broadcast and GPS timing signal distribution.Amy Saunders met with Gary Wade, Product Manager atViaLite, to discuss the global satcom sector and the company’splace in a rapidly-evolving market.

Gary Wade, Product Manager atViaLite

Site diversity link. Photo courtesy of ViaLite


Question: Can you provide a briefoverview of ViaLite’s development,from its founding through to whereit stands today?Gary Wade: We started out in 1994 andpurchased a company, a year later, thatmanufactured scientific point-to-pointfibre optic links. There was a limitedmarket for those, and we soon realisedthat we had to move into a morecommercial field. In 1999, ViaLiteClassic was launched, and weimmediately took on a 25-year servicecontract that’s still running today. Thecontract really launched us into thecommercial side of things and is for fibreoptic links to bring GPS signals intobase stations in the Londonunderground. The links are used forTETRA radio for the police and LondonUnderground operators.

In 2010, we launched ViaLiteHDwhich really brought us ahead of thecompetition. The HD stands for highdensity as there are more channels in

the chassis; it went from 8 to 26, sothat’s a huge jump. The product is a lotsmaller and it’s software driven, whichmeans it’s more dynamic and there aremore options; meaning we can tailor astandard product into what thecustomer needs.

Question: There are a fair number ofplayers in the market specialising inRF over fibre - What sets ViaLite apartfrom its competitors?Gary Wade: We focus on RF over fibreproducts and also the satellite market.One of our big differentiators is that wehave the widest dynamic range in themarket. Some of our competitors usedto have an uplink and a downlinkproduct, whereas we have just oneproduct that does everything. With theindustry moving to high throughputsatellite (HTS), having one product witha very wide dynamic range turned froma ‘nice to have’ to an absolute must-have, so that really played to ourstrengths. We have also recentlystepped up our dynamic range evenfurther and offering our Hyper WideDynamic Range product – HWDR –gives customers even more bandwidthacross a single fibre.

Our flexibility also sets us apart. Withthe same chassis, you can have GPS,L-band links, S-band links, etc., so it’sa very versatile product. It’s what we calla standard customised product.

Additionally, ViaLite has the longestproduct warranty in the market at fiveyears and offers a design service forsimple and complex systems, which isparticularly necessary for long distancelink systems.

Question: Which markets are key toViaLite’s business, and how have

ViaLite Communications designsand manufactures RF over fibrelinks and systems. ViaLite is adivision of Pulse, Power &Measurement Ltd (PPM).

The wide dynamic range andbroadband nature of ViaLitetechnology suppor ts thetransmission of data of anymodulation type with minimaldegradation. A diverse range ofapplications is catered for byViaLite products, optimised forspecific applications including:satcom teleports, satellite groundstations, satellite downlinks, VSAT,interfacil ity l inking, cellularnetworks, TV broadcast and GPStiming signal distribution.

The ViaLite user base is diversefrom SME’s to blue chiporganisations.

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ViaLiteHD 3U Rack-Chassis

these changed over the years?Gary Wade: Before, we were veryfocused on Europe as we’re based inthe UK. Then in 2013, we decided tofocus on really opening up our marketpresence in the USA. At that point wemade the leap from having a distributorwho wasn’t doing a great deal for us anddidn’t have the vision to grow, to havingour own company registered inWashington DC. We also added a fullUSA rep network, and our sales havegrown significantly since then with theUSA now the biggest market for ViaLite!

The satell ite communicationsmarket is 60 percent of our business.We’re in a very fortunate position, as Ihave mentioned HTS has played intoour strengths and the long distancelinks that we offer are an important partin Ka-band diverse sites that arenecessary with the introduction ofhigher frequencies such as Ka-band.We work with Intelsat, Eutelsat, Telesat,SES, etc., most of the top 10 satelliteoperators! We don’t tend to supply asmany of the independent teleportoperators, but that’s mainly becausethey usually have smaller teleports sodon’t have RF over fibre. But when theydo switch over, they are reassured thatfor the main operators we are thesupplier of choice.

Question: The satellite sector is in agreat state of change right now, withnew technologies such as HTS, lowEarth orbit (LEO) constellations, andre-usable launch vehicles shakingthings up. What’s your assessmentof the satellite sector today, andViaLite’s place within it?Gary Wade: HTS has been great for us.

Before, our product with its widedynamic range was a nice-to-have andmade installation easier. Now, with HTS,operators need our products’ dynamicrange as there are some products outthere that just do not work with HTS. Ifyou want to put the full L-bandbandwidth through fibre, then ViaLiteHDallows you to do this.

Ka-band has also made a bigdifference. In the last three years, we’vedeveloped a long-distance capability;before, we could do 0-10km, 50km and100km, and now we are doing Ka-banddiverse systems, as well 600+kmsystems to join teleports together. Justto be clear, that’s all via analogue RFover fibre so there’s no digitalconversion with its associated hugeoccupied bandwidth or latency inconversion; just the analogue RF to lightconversion that we have been doingover 20 years – but much further. OurDWDM long distance system really

plays to our strengths in the currentmarket.

There are, of course, already talksabout moving to higher frequencies.We’ve not seen much demand for Q andV-band yet, although we do need to lookat where that technology may take us.Those higher frequencies cause evenmore problems than Ka-band,particularly with rain fade, also moregateways will be needed as there willbe even more throughput. That allmeans there will be more links withfibre, especially over long distances. It’sdefinitely going to play further to ourstrengths.

Question: What about Brexit – As aUK-based company, have you felt theimpact of that yet?Gary Wade: The biggest issue for ushas been the effect on the exchangerate. It’s better for a UK company sellinginto the USA, but we buy from some ofour key suppliers in US Dollars, so it’ssort of break-even. So all in all, it’s nothugely affected us so far.

Question: What’s on the horizon forViaLite in the next couple of years?Gary Wade: In addition to our roadmapof new RF over fibre products, we arejust starting a new phase of Europeangrant-funding, which we hope will bringexciting and ground-breaking productsto customers in the next two years. Weare also making changes to our globalorganisation; sales team, customersupport engineers and partners, tobetter support our existing customerswhilst growing with the new customerbase.

Some of the ViaLite team

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Inflight Connectivity...

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Photo courtesy of Gogo

Delivering seamless inflightconnectivityThe mobility market is broadly expected to be one of the greatest growth drivers in satellitecommunications in the near future, with aeronautical connectivity the largest growth marketwithin that sphere. Providing seamless inflight connectivity (IFC) is no easy task, yet there arequite a range of companies around the world successfully delivering high-quality, in-demandservices.

Inflight connectivity (IFC) may not be a particularly newservice, but demand has boomed in recent years with theproliferation of mobile devices throughout the population.According to the ‘Sky High Economics: Quantifying thecommercial opportunities of passenger connectivity for theglobal airline industry’ report from the London School ofEconomics and Political Science (LSE) in association withInmarsat, inflight broadband has the potential to create aUS$130 billion market within the next 20 years, resulting inUS$30 billion of additional revenue for airlines by 2035. Thereport predicts that broadband-enabled ancillary revenuesfor airlines will come from four main revenue streams:

• Broadband access charges: Providing connectivity topassengers inflight

• E-commerce and destination shopping: Makingpurchases onboard aircraft with expanded product rangesand real-time offers

• Advertising: Pay per click, impressions, sponsorship dealswith advertisers

• Premium content: Providing live content, on demand videoand bundled W-IFEC access

Considering how often we discuss IFC, it’s important toremember that uptake is still quite low. Indeed, according tothe report, only around 53 airlines of an estimated total of5,000 currently offer IFC, although it’s broadly expected tobe ubiquitous on commercial airlines by 2035 off the back ofpassenger demand. ‘Sky High Economics’ also reported thatairlines currently receive an additional US$17 per passengerfrom traditional ancillary services such as duty-free purchasesand inflight retail, food and drink sales; broadband-enabledconnected ancillary revenues are expected to add an extraUS$4 by 2035.

Full service carriers are expected to generate US$19billion in revenues by 2035, or approximately 63 percent ofexpected airline revenues during the period. Capitalising onlonger flight times, additional revenue will come from theability to maximise e-commerce platforms and making dealswith content providers to offer premium packages. The studypredicts that low cost carriers will generate US$11 billion by2035, the bulk of which will come from selling connectivity topassengers. The ‘Sky High Economics’ report also identifiedthe greatest opportunity for broadband-enabled ancillaryservices lies in the Asia-Pacific. Airlines in that region are

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Passengers using Gogo

expected to gain US$10.3 billion of revenues through 2035,while airlines in Europe and North America can anticipateUS$8.2 billion and US$7.6 billion respectively.

“The opportunity available to airlines is enormous. TheSky High Economics study predicts the creation of a US$130billion market within the next two decades,” wrote DrAlexander Grous, Department of Media and Communications,LSE and Author of Sky High Economics. “Globally, if airlinescan provide a reliable broadband connection, it will be thecatalyst for rolling out more creative advertising, content ande-commerce packages. We will see innovative deals struck,partnerships formed, and business models fundamentallychanged for new players to lay claim to the US$100 billionopportunity away from airlines. Broadband-enabled ancillaryrevenue has the potential to shape a whole new market andit’s something airlines need to be planning for right now.”

A word from the operators“The IFC market is one of the fastest growing markets forbroadband satellite communication,” confirmed Doreet Oren,Director of Product Marketing and Corporate Communicationsat Gilat Satellite Networks. “According to an NSR reportissued last year, the number of connected aircraft is expectedto grow by an order of magnitude within a decade. In 2016,3,800 aircraft were connected and in 2026, the totalconnected aircraft are projected to be 28,400. NSR furtherreports that the annual aero satellite equipment market-sizeis expected to more than double within this decade, from$280M in 2016 to $590M in 2026.”

Don Buchman, Vice President and General Manager ofCommercial Aviation at Viasat, agreed that there’s still a longway to go: “The IFC market is quickly growing and thecompetition to offer the best on board Wi-Fi service is rising,”he said. “However, there is still a disparity on the servicesoffered, simply because of the capacity, speeds and coverageavailable by each IFC vendor. While some carriers, likeJetBlue or Qantas, are offering unrestricted, high-speedconnectivity at no additional cost, others are still providingslow speeds, often at a substantial premium for the passenger.In this environment, it’s perhaps unsurprising that passengersaren’t so fast to take advantage of the service—meaning wehaven’t yet seen IFC reach its full potential.” Anecdotally, we’dtend to agree with Buchman here – services on most flightsare still so poor that it seems an exercise in futility to handover cash for such patchy connectivity.

Aditya Chatterjee, SVP of Aero Segment Market Solutionsat SES Networks, added: “In a word, the IFC market isbooming. IFC is fast becoming a must have for passengersand airlines across the globe.” He went on to discuss regionalvariations: “North America is certainly leading the market,where the majority of passengers are increasingly selectingairlines based on WiFi availability. As travellers throughoutthe rest of the world see the types of IFC services beingdelivered aboard airlines serving North America, more andmore airlines in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are beingpressed to provide the same levels of capacity andapplications. The Middle East and African aeronauticalsatcom market, for example, will generate US$320 million inretail revenues by the end of 2026. Demand for morepassenger and crew connectivity on routes within the MiddleEast and Africa is the biggest driver of that revenue jump.”

In such a fast-growing market, where are the bestopportunities and what are the greatest driving forces? SES’Chatterjee outlined the five primary driving forces behindtoday’s soaring IFC demand:

• The sheer volume of air travel continues to grow at recordlevels, and this is an indisputable driving force. In fact,IATA projects 7.8 billion people will travel by air in 2036,nearly double the four billion air travellers expected to flythis year, with Asia becoming the biggest driver of thatunprecedented growth in air travel.

• The number of connected passengers is driving thenumber of connected aircraft globally. The number ofconnected aircraft will triple between 2010 and 2026,offering up an incredible opportunity for SES and thesatellite industry to blanket the globe in high-poweredcapacity to enable IFC services virtually anywhere.

• Increasingly ubiquitous global coverage. SES continuesto invest in big quantities of high-powered capacity aroundthe globe, enabling all the leading IFC service providers

Broadband access E-commerce Advertising Premium content Total2018 $822 million $36 million $26 million $39 million $1 billion2028 $9 billion $3 billion $2.9 billion $731 million $15 billion2035 $15.9 billion $6.8 billion $6 billion $1.4 billion $30 billion

Forecasted airline share of the US$30 billion broadband enabled ancillary revenue opportunity. Credit: ‘Sky High Economics:Quantifying the commercial opportunities of passenger connectivity for the global airline industry.’

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. and ultimately the airlines and passengers they servearound the world. SES is the first global solution providerwith multiband, multi-orbit capacity in both GEO and MEO.SES is band and orbit agnostic when it comes to workingwith our customers and IFC partners, which positions usto enable new IFC capabilities tailored to the exciting aeromarket.

• Another fundamental driving force is the rising numberof passengers who are bringing their portable electronicdevices (PED) on board commercial and business aircraft.One in three passengers brings at least three devices onboard and is willing to pay for Wi-Fi. Passengers expectto have all the capabilities they have at home, includingemail browsing, social media and video streaming. Otherdrivers that are becoming increasingly important will bethe ability to stream on demand HD video directly to theirown device and use virtual reality.

• The demand for connectivity that enables airlines to runtheir aircraft and overall operations far more efficiently.The number of sensors aboard new commercial airlinersis mind boggling, and airlines are using connectivity totrack everything from fuel consumption and engine datato the impact of weather on operational efficiencies.Airlines are expected to save billions by monitoring andmanaging operations via satellite connectivity – moneythat could help fund part of the next generation ofpassenger and crew IFC offerings.

Oren, too, opined that several driving forces haveconverged to facilitate the fast growing IFC market: “First,the consumer expectation to stay connected everywhere allthe time with high throughput broadband has expanded toboth domestic and overseas air-travel. Second, satellitecommunication, the only technology capable of such globalcoverage during flight, has taken significant steps forward,both on the ground and space segment; the abundance of

HTS capacity has driven costs down, making satellite afeasible option for IFC; and in terms of the ground segment,there have been significant achievements to the aero modemsin utilizing HTS, optimizing performance and efficiency forIFC. Thirdly, airline travel has never been more popular, andcompetition among the airlines never more fierce. A growingcompetitive advantage today is for those airlines who offerhigh quality high throughput connectivity.”

Buchman believes that the opportunities for IFC aresignificant: “Today, Viasat is providing high-quality, IFC andstreaming that is similar to what we provide to hundreds ofthousands of people in their homes. We’re able to deliverthis type of premium service because we have the mostcapacity on orbit at the most affordable cost as we own ourown satellites. Our service is generally available in the NorthAmerican market, and once the infrastructure is in placeglobally, we will be able to deliver IFC - with the highestspeeds - to every airline across the world. This will in turntransform how IFC is viewed as a service, becoming anintrinsic part of the inflight experience. For instance,entertainment, retail and even destination planning will betransformed – with offerings no longer limited to what movies,duty free goods and travel guides are carried on board anaircraft.”

Delivering IFC is not without considerable challenges, ofcourse. Buchman highlighted the greatest challenge asproviding enough resources to meet demand. “Currently, thereisn’t the global coverage to provide an uninterrupted, high-speed signal wherever an aircraft is flying to and from.However, with new satellites, like ViaSat-3 - offering morethan 1Tbps of network capacity - launching in the 2020timeframe, we should begin to see the reality of anuninterrupted, high-speed connection spanning the globe,”commented Buchman. “With this in place, the next challengewill be agreeing on standards and the best business modelsfor each airline. Eventually the market will decide, but until

Panasonic’s eXO showing HD overhead video

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then, we will see competition between different technologiesand how passengers pay for IFC e.g. does it remain as anadditional cast? Is it limited to just messaging and lightbrowsing? Is it part of the ticket price, or only offered to certainpassengers? Or will it be paid for by integrated marketingpartnerships and sponsorship, leaving it free to thepassenger?”

Gilat’s Oren agrees that the challenges are far from over,and that capacity remains a threat to growth. “Due topassenger’s growing demand for continuous highperformance broadband connectivity, delivery of sufficienthigh throughput capacity to the aircraft continues to be achallenge. To this end, we have seen new aero modems,such as Gilat’s Taurus, delivering aggregate rates of 400Mbps,enabling Internet and multimedia applications for all airplanepassengers,” said Oren. “In addition, there is a lot of workgoing on for next-generation Electronically Steered Array(ESA) antennas. Traditional mechanically steered antennaswill not be sufficient and efficient enough to address themarket transformation. The characteristics of ESA antennassuch as very low profile, instantaneous bandwidth, beamagility, multi-beam connectivity, scalability/modularity andlongevity – are imperative for unlocking new businessopportunities and for the performance of satellite networks.”

“Deciding whether IFC is a free or paid service remains achallenge for many of the airlines today. Ultimately thatdecision will have a big impact on the delivery of popularvideo streaming and social media applications aboard someairlines,” observed SES’ Chatterjee. “As satellite operatorsbring more HTS to the aero IFC market, antenna developersare also bringing more effective platforms to market as well.At the same time, Netflix and others are working on softwaresolutions that enable the delivery of HD, even 4K content topassenger devices using a fraction of the bandwidth requiredtoday aboard commercial and business aviation flights.”

It seems that everyone is fully-expecting the IFC marketto boom in the future, developing into a more mature marketin the decades to come. Gilat’s Oren agrees: “As the

technology matures and demand increases, the market willevolve to include new business models and additional aircrafttypes. Mobility applications and NGSO satellites pose majorchallenges and opportunities to the performance andeconomics of satellite connectivity.” Oren continued:“Therefore, we see significant industry investments in ESAantennas for the aero market to meet a set of imperativerequirements. It is critical to deliver higher antenna gain withlower profile and lower add-on drag.”

Viasat’s Buchman is anticipating increasing competitionas the IFC market develops: “We are already seeing airlineschange their IFC provider as they get a better understandingof which technologies offer the best performance, and thebest experience for passengers and in turn deliver the bestvalue to the airline. We are on the cusp of IFC breaking intothe mainstream and becoming an expected component ofinternational flight, rather than a nice-to-have extra service.This will mean increasing competition, but also increasedcollaboration – as satellite providers and airline partners worktogether to ensure an uninterrupted connection for flights.”

Meanwhile, Chatterjee from SES sees ‘blue skies aheadwith capacity demand soaring’ to meet passenger appetitefor connectivity in flight that compares with what they expecton the ground. “SES is building a global ubiquitous network,much like the cellular networks on the ground that offer upseamless connectivity virtually anywhere around the world.SES has launched multiple HTS satellites in recent years –much of that capacity tailored to meet the growing passengerIFC demands as well as the airlines’ increasing efforts tooperate more efficiently on a global basis,” said Chatterjee.“Just look to Europe and you’ll get an accurate glimpse ofIFC in the near future. There were just short of 550 connectedaircraft in Europe a year ago, and forecasters expect thereto be more than 6,300 connected aircraft over Europe by2026. As the number of connected aircraft skyrockets to meetthe insatiable appetite for connectivity across a mind-bogglingnumber of air travellers – expected to double from four billioncurrently to nearly eight billion over the next 18 years, satellitecapacity in space combined with antenna, modem andapplication services innovations will play a huge concertedrole in meeting very high expectations for inflight connectivity.”North America continues to set the expectations and drivethe demand eastward to Europe, the Middle East, Africa andAsia. “Of the four billion new air travellers expected to take tothe skies over the next 18 years, more than half will comefrom Asia,” added Chatterjee.

Panasonic Avionics upgrades services across the boardPanasonic Avionics Corporation is inarguably a world-leaderin delivering inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC)solutions across the globe. Today, more than 1,800 aircraftuse Panasonic Avionics’ global high-speed IFC service, andmore than 10,000 aircraft are expected to be connected withPanasonic Avionics by 2025.

Upgraded servicesNovember 2017 was an incredible month for PanasonicAvionics in terms of upgrading its service offerings, with twomajor developments announced.

Panasonic introduced a major advance in IFC with thestart of service of its first HTS capacity over the Pacific Ocean.

Aditya Chatterjee, SVP of Aero Segment Market Solutions atSES Networks

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. Utilising the EUTELSAT 172B satellite, Panasonic will deliverenhanced inflight broadband connectivity, live TV and mobilephone services to aircraft flying high traffic routes across theAsia-Pacific region spanning the West coast of North Americato Asia, and down to Australia and the Pacific islands.

Panasonic is layering HTS capacity over key air trafficareas across its global satellite network to meet the growingconnectivity demands of airlines and their passengers. It willcontinue to introduce HTS in every region of the world, sincethe combination of spot beams and high-level frequency re-use provide improved economics, more bandwidth and fasterdata speeds as passengers. HTS also use a broad overlaybeam, which is used to economically deliver up to ninechannels of live TV to passengers in flight. Notably,EUTELSAT 172B is the first HTS to use a multi-port amplifier,which allows power to be dynamically moved among the HTSbeams to meet demand. The ability for the HTS beams to‘follow’ aircraft and other mobile users enables Panasonic tobetter meet customer demand and cost-effectively ensureconsistently high levels of service.

Long-time partners Panasonic and Singapore Airlineshave also announced eight new innovations in personalisationwith the launch of a new IFEC offering, myKrisWorld. Thenew system embraces Panasonic’s vision for IFEC, whichcentres around the concept of ‘the Internet of Me,’ taking allof the things that people care about and bringing themtogether to deliver personalized and contextualizedexperiences. Each of these features is made possible byPanasonic’s ability to deliver actionable analytics, where datais used to improve the quality of the passenger experience.

With myKrisWorld, the experience star ts beforepassengers even board their flight. Passengers can useSingapore Airlines’ app or website to preview content andset up their customized playlist. Once on board, they caneither synchronise their mobile device or log in at their seatto access their pre-selected content. Crowd-sourced data willoffer up alternative titles that are popular. It can askpassengers if they want to finish the movie that they startedon the previous flights and make recommendations basedon a passenger’s individual habits and what content istrending inflight at that moment in time.

“Last year, we helped Singapore Airlines introduce theiraward-winning companion app. Today, we’re taking thatpersonalized experience to even greater heights with a seriesof innovative features that include passenger log-in at theirseat; playlist, bookmark, language preference storage andwallpaper customization between flights; customized andpersonalized entertainment spotlights; popular, trending andrecommended content; and exclusive content based onfrequent flier tier,” said Hideo Nakano, Chief Executive Officerfor Panasonic Avionics Corp. “By embracing the culture ofmobile, we can increase the rate of evolution in the passengerexperience, transforming what was once a passiveentertainment system into another digital channel that airlinescan leverage to better serve their customers.”

What’s NEXT?There was a major flurry of activity in April as Panasonicannounced the launch of NEXT Marketplace in response tothe growing demand of airlines to increase ancillary revenue,and to enable a new generation of revenue-generating inflight

services. NEXT Marketplace provides a complete end-to-enddigital retail solution that incorporates a flexible set ofshopping channels for passengers through seatback screensand mobile devices. It also provides airlines with tools for thecreation of dynamic retail offer ings and inventorymanagement that can be tailored to a variety of retail modelsand promotional scenarios. Panasonic’s strategy with NEXTMarketplace is to partner with industry leaders like gategroup,which serves more than 700 million passengers annually withits retail and catering operations. Gategroup’s involvementwill include its technology partner Black Swan, which willprovide its extensive data analytics capabilities, enablingairlines to develop increasingly targeted and effective inflightofferings.

Panasonic is also setting up a new office in Silicon Valleyand has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help deliverdata analytics and insights from Panasonic’s NEXTMarketplace. The new Silicon Valley operation will focus ondelivering Internet of things (IoT), cloud and data analyticsfor Panasonic’s NEXT platform, while also managingoperations-focused data, such as maintenance and the healthmonitoring of aircraft IFEC systems. Working with AWS,Panasonic Avionics will provide airlines with crucial dataanalytics capabilities, leveraging its Avionics Specific DataLake. The Lake will provide data of any type securely in oneplace, enabling advanced machine learning and deeplearning algorithms to provide airlines with near real-timeinsights into their connected passengers and operations.Panasonic’s new data operation has been established toenable airlines to overcome the challenges posed by currentdata collection and analysis methods, which often took placemanually and post-flight leading to unreliable and outdatedinsights.

“The establishment of our Silicon Valley operationrepresents a major step forward in the cloud and data-basedsolutions we are able to offer our airline partners. More thanever before, it enables Panasonic to connect the businessand pleasure of flying, enhancing the passenger experiencethrough the connected aircraft,” said David Bartlett, Chief

eX3 premium configuration with Altus monitors

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Technology Officer of Panasonic Avionics Corporation. “Theconvergence of enabling technologies has set the stage fortransformational data analytics, giving Panasonic the abilityto provide airlines with invaluable passenger and operationalinsights, which in turn allows them to build brand loyalty andincrease efficiency.”

Many elements of NEXT Marketplace can be leveragedand enhanced by NEXT Cloud-based data analytics. Theseinclude NEXT Theatre, which enables passengers onconnected aircraft to access airline content anywhere acrossthe globe, opening up avenues for new business models suchas near-real time content licensing and usage-basedpayment. NEXT Marketplace utilises the secure NEXT Cloudin providing a global secure payment platform, secure reliableand convenient shopping via a dynamically updatablecatalogue. It also opens up possibilities for airlines to offercloud-based services such as music, transportation and moreto deliver an enhanced passenger experience and thepotential for airline revenue sharing.

During the same month, Panasonic announced the debutof its new airline on board loyalty platform, NEXT Loyalty,with Singapore Airlines as the launch customer. NEXT Loyaltyis Panasonic’s new suite of solutions for enablingpersonalized inflight experiences for passengers and allowingairlines to extend their loyalty programs into their onboardservices. It allows passengers to login or to pair their mobiledevice at the seat via the airline app. Once signed in,passengers will be recognized and provided with a variety offamiliar personalized features including: Resuming unfinishedmovies from previous flights, receiving recommendationsbased on viewing history, unlocking exclusive content andoffers based on loyalty program status, viewing a customizedlook-and-feel of their interactive associated with their profile,saving settings for language/subtitle preferences, preferredgenres and accessibility, and more. Airlines will further benefitfrom the opportunity to understand usage patterns andactivities inflight and utilize those data analytics to better tailorfuture inflight services.

Airline dealsPanasonic hasn’t slowed down its announcements this year,either, with April being a particularly prominent month forarranging new deals with air l ines following theannouncements on the NEXT platform.

Panasonic and Turkish Airlines announced a major dealfor IFEC solutions to be line-fit installed on 50 wide-bodiedaircraft the airline has on order, with options for a further 10.Panasonic’s X-Series IFEC system, along with its rivetMEDIAsolution and a suite of connectivity services including inflightWi-Fi, mobile phone use, and global live TV, will be fitted on25 Boeing 787-9s and 25 Airbus A350-900s, with the firstaircraft due to be delivered to Turkish Airlines in June 2019.

The system will fur ther enhance Turkish Airlines’passenger experience with a personalized home theatreexperience that includes HD screens for each passenger,audio and video entertainment on demand, capacitive multi-touch screens, inflight shopping and hospitality features,route-based IFE, passenger survey functions and USBcharging facilities. It will also include Panasonic’s uniquePassenger Data Integration (PDI) service, which will allowTurkish Airlines to add higher levels of personalization to its

inflight experience, and to seamlessly recognize the travelpreferences of their guests and recommend content, servicesand amenities specific that will enhance their experience bothin flight and in their destination city. PDI will leverage a custom-designed Companion App that will enable passengers tosecurely pair their mobile device to the IFE system andpersonalize and enhance their entertainment experiencethrough capabilities that include custom playlists and a‘second screen’ environment.

rivetMEDIA, which combines one of the aviation industry’smost advanced inflight marketing platform with a dedicatedsales and service team, will deliver all the key advertisingservices needed by Turkish Airlines, their external partnersand paying advertisers. The technology enables airlines totarget by seat class, route, device, language, and passengerdata. This will allow Turkish Airlines to optimize promotionsfor a wide range of optional services, partnerships, loyaltyprograms, and paid advertising all within a comprehensivepassenger experience. The platform delivers video, nativedisplay, and sponsorship options for high-impact, fraud-freemarketing with best-in-class targeting and results.

Turkish Airlines’ aircraft also will be fitted with Panasonic’snew satellite modem, which offers bandwidth up to twentytimes greater than previously available, enabling a host ofnext-generation IFC benefits from high quality live TVprogramming to fast Internet, video streaming, inflight mobilephone service and greater bandwidth for crew applications.The new modem and connectivity solutions are an integralpart of Panasonic’s third-generation network, which usesadvanced satellites to cover all high air traffic areas acrossthe globe with high throughput and extreme throughput spotbeams and wide overlay beams that support Panasonic’sglobal television service.

As part of the contract, Turkish Airlines has the option toequip the A350 aircraft delivering beyond 2022 with its owndirect affiliate’s IFE system, pending line fit offerability. Theconnectivity for those aircraft will still be equipped byPanasonic.

Panasonic also announced a new deal with EGYPTAIRwhich will see six Boeing 787-9 aircraft fitted with Panasonic’seX3 IFE system and its IFEC system. In Business Class,each seat will feature an 18-inch screen, a video touchhandset, a USB jack for high power charging in-seat and anoise cancelling audio jack. In Economy Class, passengerswill each have a 12-inch screen and shared access to poweroutlets. Each aircraft will also be fitted with overhead 16-inchscreens throughout each cabin. EGYPTAIR has also optedfor a range of additional software applications across the fleetthat include passenger surveys, onboard shopping, 3Dmoving map and OneMedia - Panasonic’s advertisingplatform.

Inmarsat – A truly global playerInmarsat is another major player in the global IFC arena withits Global Xpress (GX) network of four Ka-band HTS. GXhas delivered seamless high-speed broadband connectivitythe world over since 2015. GX Aviation is the world’s first IFCsolution with seamless, reliable high-speed global coverageprovided through a single operator. It is reportedly the onlyservice in the market that guarantees minimum data rates,ensuring that airline passengers can browse the Internet,

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. stream videos, check social media and more during flights,with an onboard connectivity experience comparable to themobile broadband services they may receive on the ground.

In April 2018, Inmarsat announced a major milestone forits GX Aviation service after completing the 250th installationworldwide. Within the first year of commercial service, GXAviation has been installed in a variety of aircraft, includingAirbus A320s, Boeing 777s, and Airbus A380s. Customershave included Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, QatarAirways, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Air Astana.

GX Aviation has also won a string of prestigious awardsfor offering state-of-the-art, uninterrupted, global IFC. Theservice enables passengers to browse the Internet, streamvideos, check social media and more during flights, withconnectivity that is comparable to the mobile broadbandservices they may receive on the ground.

“GX Aviation continues to be a major success story, notonly for Inmarsat, but for the global inflight connectivity market.We’re still within our first year of commercial service, so thefact that the service has been installed on 250 aircraft speaksvolumes for its acceptance as the gold standard by airlinesworldwide,” said Philip Balaam, President of Inmarsat Aviation.“Reaching this milestone so early in the launch of GX Aviationis testament to the industry-leading service levels that airlines

and their passengers are experiencing with the service. Wecelebrate this milestone with our world-class value-addedresellers (VARs), Rockwell Collins, SITAONAIR and Thales,and ecosystem partners such as Honeywell and ZodiacInflight Innovations. Together, we are committed to keepdeveloping GX Aviation, keeping us ahead of other aviationconnectivity solutions in the market.”

Delivering GX Aviation to global airlinesIt’s been a busy few months for Inmarsat as its GX Aviationservice goes from strength to strength, surging in popularityacross the world.

In September 2017, Inmarsat was selected by AirAsiaGroup to deliver its GX Aviation service to more than 120aircraft, covering all existing and future Airbus A320 and A330aircraft operated across the group. The agreement also hasthe scope to include any additional aircraft types due fordelivery in the coming years, such as the Airbus A350. Thefirst installations and the launch of commercial service arescheduled to commence in the first half of 2018, withconnectivity enabled by the JetWave terminals produced byHoneywell Aerospace.

In the same month, Air Astana became the first airline inthe world to offer GX Aviation to passengers on board a

Photo courtesy of Pexels

“In April 2018, Inmarsatannounced a major milestone

for its GX Aviation serviceafter completing the 250th

installation worldwide. Withinthe first year of commercial

service, GX Aviation has beeninstalled in a variety of

aircraft.”

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widebody aircraft after the service went live on the airline’sinitial Boeing 767. GX Aviation will eventually be available onall three of Air Astana’s Boeing 767s. Air Astana passengerswill be able to choose from three connectivity packages: TheLight option will cover 15Mb, the Business option will cover50Mb, and the Super option will cover 100Mb. All servicesare estimated to operate at an average speed of between 2-5Mbps..

In November 2017, Emirates announced plans to installInmarsat’s GX Aviation high-speed inflight broadband serviceon its Boeing 777X aircraft fleet. The new agreement is partof Emirates’ and Thales’ plans to develop state-of-the-art IFECon the airline’s new Boeing 777X fleet. Emirates has 150Boeing 777X aircraft on firm order, with deliveries currentlyscheduled from 2020.

Meanwhile, in April 2018, Inmarsat signed a Memorandumof Understanding with Turkish Technic and HAVELSAN onintegrated IFEC solutions. As part of the collaboration, thethree companies will offer a joint solution for emergingmarkets, which integrates Inmarsat’s award-winning GXAviation inflight broadband solution with the Turkish Technic-HAVELSAN IFE system.

Later in April, Inmarsat’s GX Aviation service wasreportedly being rolled out to Qatar Airway’s Boeing 777 andAirbus A350 aircraft. Qatar Airways is the first airline in theMiddle East and North Africa (MENA) region to offer GXAviation. In total, the service will be equipped on more than130 of the airline’s Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 aircraft. Aspart of the service offering, passengers will be offered onehour of free access to GX Aviation, after which full-flightaccess can be purchased.

Jet Connex advancementsIn addition to its GX Aviation service, Inmarsat also offersJet Connex, the only global, high-speed Wi-Fi option availablefor business jets today, delivering the same fast and reliableonboard connectivity experience comparable to the mobilebroadband services they may receive on the ground.

With Jet Connex, business travellers can join a videoconference while flying over the Atlantic, catch the latestmarket reports en route to the next business meeting, ordownload tomorrow’s presentation from the company server.The service reportedly offers passengers the highest speedand most extensive coverage of flight routes available to themarket and is the first worldwide Ka-band network availableto business aviation from a single operator. Operating overInmarsat’s Global Xpress network of Ka-band satellites, JetConnex provides data speeds capable of supporting video-streaming, Voice over IP (VoIP), live TV, file transfer and VPN.

The service has proved incredibly popular; October 2017saw the announcement that Inmarsat and Honeywellcompleted the 100th installation of the JetWave system, whichpowers Jet Connex. Honeywell, Inmarsat and their installationpartners have received more than 25 type certificate andsupplemental type certificate (STC) approvals for JetWavefrom the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and EuropeanAviation Safety Agency (EASA) to date across 24 platforms.The two companies are securing an additional nine STCs forfive other platforms in the coming months, meaning JetConneX will be available for installation on over 29 businessjet platforms. Platforms currently supported by JetWave and

Jet Connex include Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer,Gulfstream, Boeing and Airbus.

In October 2017, Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX business aviationinflight Wi-Fi service received a Supplement Type Certificate(STC) for the popular Gulfstream G550 aircraft. Awarded bythe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the certificateapproves Gulfstream G550 business jets to be equipped withthe exclusive JetWave antenna and terminal, produced byInmarsat partner Honeywell. The system enables seamlessaccess to Jet ConneX high-speed Wi-Fi across major flightroutes and islands off the beaten path, allowing passengersto browse the web, stream live television, video conferenceand more.

Following more than a year of investment in developmentand testing, initial installations on G550 aircraft are nowunderway. Gulfstream, in cooperation with Inmarsat andHoneywell, is currently conducting in-service evaluation andfinal terminal Type Approval activities.

“The Gulfstream G550 community has been eagerlyawaiting this Jet ConneX installation approval and has toldus about their desire to have a powerful global high-speedWi-Fi solution for their principals. Many are heavy users ofInmarsat’s SwiftBroadband solution and are happy with theservice reliability but are now looking to upgrade to a next-generation network that is fast enough to handle the demandsof today’s applications,” said Kurt Weidemeyer, Vice Presidentof Business Aviation at Inmarsat.

In the same month, Inmarsat made additional data plansfor its Jet Connex service available on Dassault businessjets, providing Dassault customers with five-tiered data plansto choose from using their existing non-Ka-band radomes.The highest data plan offers speeds up to 11Mbps. Businessaviation customers are usually required to install theHoneywell JetWave hardware for Jet ConneX with a fullyapproved Ka-band optimised radome. However, thatrequirement has been waived while Dassault Aviation finishesdevelopment of a fully approved Ka-band radome, which isexpected next year. With the installation of an approved Ka-band radome, Dassault customers will become eligible forthe entire Jet ConneX data plan catalogue, which currentlyoffers tiered plans up to 15Mbps.

The European Aviation NetworkWe’ve been hearing a lot about the European AviationNetwork (EAN), the world’s first integrated S-band satelliteand complementary LTW-based terrestrial network build forEurope, in the last couple of years. As of 5 February, partnersInmarsat, Deutsche Telekom Nokia have completed a keytechnological step in the development of the EAN, readyingthe network for launch. Some 300 base stations have beenestablished across all 28-member states of the EU, as wellas Switzerland and Norway, marking it as the first everEurope-wide integrated LTE network.

The EAN is a pioneering technological achievement anda truly innovative European project, providing seamlessconnectivity over land and water, and offering a highbandwidth service to passengers – currently over 75Mbit/sconnection speed to the aircraft – as airlines using the servicedo not share network capacity with any non-aviationcustomers. Passengers will be able to use social media, sharepictures and stream high-bandwidth content at speeds they

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. are used to experiencing at home. The EAN is also designedto fulfil not only current but also future passenger demandfor IFC as the integrated LTE ground network is fully scalableto meet increasing connectivity needs in the coming years.

The EAN is expected to be available for airlines to offercommercially from the first half of 2018. The service has beentrialled during several flights to test the integrated satelliteand complementary LTE ground network; the test flights haveconfirmed that the EAN meets its design performance inpractice, providing an unmatched low-latency performanceof less than 100ms. Airlines will be able to install the smalland light-weight EAN equipment quickly and easily, typicallyduring overnight breaks for individual aircraft and turnaroundtimes for entire fleets of just a few months. InternationalAirlines Group (IAG), which includes airlines such as BritishAirways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, is the launchcustomer for the new service, and has already commencedinstallations of EAN equipment on aircraft.

“With the completion of the first ever integrated pan-European LTE ground network component we are now ableto fully support EAN’s satellite connectivity and maximize theperformance of the EAN system,” said Rolf Nafziger, SeniorVice President, International Wholesale Business atDeutsche Telekom. “The network is specifically designed tomeet future capacity demands for connectivity in theEuropean airspace, with passenger volumes expected todouble in the next 15 years.”

But not everyone is happy about the EAN’s impendinglaunch. Shortly after Ofcom granted Inmarsat a licence forits EAN in October 2017, Viasat announced plans to pursuelegal action against the deal. According to reports, therelevant radio spectrum was initially awarded to Inmarsat in2009 to create a mobile satellite system that could be usedby the emergency services. As a result, the change of use ofthe spectrum into a commercial opportunity allegedly createsan unfair competitive advantage and could create a monopolyin the European IFC market. Viasat argues that, ultimately,consumers will be the ones who lose out as they end uprestricted to a good-but-not-great service, at best.

Viasat has frequently opposed this claimed misuse andis looking to pursue legal action against Ofcom as a result ofits decision. Viasat’s President and Chief Operating OfficerRick Baldridge has issued the following statement:

“We are extremely disappointed by Ofcom’s decision togrant Inmarsat authorization to operate its EAN. The factsare clear: Inmarsat is abusing the initial grant of the 2GHzspectrum, as set forth by the European Commission (EC) bychanging the original tender granted to them with their intentto deploy a Pan-European terrestrial wireless network; andadmittedly missing numerous deadlines as related to theoriginal award.

This blatant misuse of spectrum needs to stop now. Itestablishes precedent for any organization to use spectrumwithout following the rules. As we’ve publicly stated: Webelieve the EAN violates the original decision of the EUlegislature that the S-Band be used for mobile satellitesystems - not a terrestrial wireless network (also known asan Air-to-Ground or ATG). We remain diligent in our efforts tohave the EC halt Inmarsat’s ATG deployments in the S-Band;declare Inmarsat’s ATG plans as inconsistent with EU lawand the original S-Band spectrum award; and retender the

spectrum. And we’re not alone. A number of regulators haveshared their own frustration with the EC’s failure to act, despiterequests for the EC to address this critical legal question. Ifthe EC does not do the right thing and make clear thatInmarsat’s ATG deployment is not a permitted use of theoriginal granted spectrum, we will be left with no otheroption: We will fight the decision in each country thatauthorizes an illegal ATG network deployment.

In recent weeks, Viasat has taken a strong stand in fightingthe EAN across Europe. We have advanced our legal actionsagainst Belgium and the European Commission; and filedchallenges with German and Italian regulators, making clearthat we will take further legal action in Germany and Italy ifthey allow Inmarsat to implement EAN as advertised. We nowfully expect to pursue legal action against Ofcom as a resultof their decision this week.”

According to the latest news, Viasat is not backing downover the EAN. In December 2017, the company took legalaction against Ofcom over its decision to approve the network.Since then, Inmarsat has received permission to intervene,and on 24 January, the Honourable Mr Justice Roth, Presidentof the Competition Appeal Tribunal, has made a further orderestablishing an interim confidentiality ring in the proceedings.Inmarsat has commented that it believes Viasat’s claims ‘tobe entirely without merit.’

There are more recent troubles on the horizon as well. InMarch, the Market Court of the Brussels Court of Appealrevoked approval for the EAN in Belgium following Viasat’slegal challenge. Eutelsat, which is also fighting against theEAN in selected countries, has spoken up in support of thedecision. However, Inmarsat has stated that it doesn’t believethe court’s decision will be a significant problem in the roll-out of the EAN, claiming that the decision was made ‘purelyon procedural grounds,’ and that the complementary groundnetwork will be shown to comply with certain conditions inthe EC framework.

Frederik Van Essen, Inmarsat Aviation Vice-President ofStrategy and Business Development, made the followingstatement to Aviation Week: “The European Aviation Networkis on track, and we believe that these claims are intendedsolely to undermine Inmarsat’s legitimate business interestsand strengthen our competitors’ positions in the competitivetender processes currently under way with European airlines.Although at this point it is highly speculative to predict timeframes against Viasat’s legal challenge, we are confident thatthe courts will ultimately reject Viasat’s claims against theregulators, and so we do not expect a knock-on impact onthe commercial deployment of EAN.”

Viasat deploys IFC with EL AL Israel Airlines and UnitedAirlinesGlobal communications company Viasat has long deliveredIFC solutions to aircraft around the world, increasing itsofferings as the mobility market has boomed. The companyhas specialist products and services dedicated to all aspectsof the market; commercial aviation, business aviation andsolutions for helicopters and light aircraft.

In addition to its roles as a very active participant in thechallenge of Inmarsat’s EAN, Viasat has had a pretty busyfew months of deals in the IFC arena. In September 2017,EL AL Israel Airlines selected Viasat’s inflight Internet system

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to power the airlines’ onboard Wi-Fi experience across all itsnew Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Viasat’s technology will deliverKa-band capacity from Viasat-2 to provide coverage acrossNorth America, the Atlantic Ocean and Europe, as well ascapacity from KA-SAT satellite, jointly-owned between Viasatand Eutelsat, for additional European coverage.

Meanwhile, in February 2018, Viasat signed a newcontract with United Airlines to install Viasat’s latest IFECsystem on more than 70 aircraft, including at least 58 of theairline’s new Boeing 737MAX aircraft. Viasat will serve asthe direct inflight Internet service provider to United Airlines,deploying its most advanced IFEC system, in order to provideUnited customers access to fast, reliable Internet connectionsfrom the air, utilising capacity from VaiSat-1, ViaSat-2 andViaSat-3. Passengers will be able to browse the web andconnect with key business applications such as a corporateVPN and secure email. Viasat’s IFEC system will alsopower United Airline’s Private Screening entertainmentoption, which offers customers access to hundreds ofentertainment titles from its onboard library direct to theirown devices.

Yahsat succeeds in 50Mbps inflight testUAE-based Yahsat provides a variety of satellite capacity andservices through its Al Yah 1, Al Yah 2 and Al Yah 3 satellites,as well as a hosted payload on board the IS-32e/SKY-B1satellite. The company serves the Middle East, Africa, Centraland Southwest Asia regions with a range of solutions,including IFC.

In October 2017, Yahsat announced the successful trialof a 50Mbps inflight connection in partnership with du, EtihadAirways Engineering, Hughes Network Systems and CarlisleInterconnect. The high-speed broadband is expected to beavailable for airlines within the next few months. The testutilised Ka-band capacity on Yahsat’s Al Yah 3 satellite incombination with a simulated environment of an Airbus A320aircraft in Abu Dhabi. Yahsat and partners plan to completethe next key steps in the following 12 months to enablecommercial roll-out of the service across the Middle East

and beyond. The new service will deliver the ultimate in IFC– an experience comparable with the service customersreceive in their own homes, including streaming HD content,accessing social media, online shopping and messagingapps.

“We are incredibly proud to have brought together leadingEmirati and global companies to achieve this milestone. Itpaves the way for Yahsat to bring further breakthroughtechnologies to the markets and segments it serves, addinganother key pillar to Yahsat’s portfolio of market leadingservices and solutions,” said Masood M. Sharif Mahmood,Chief Executive Officer of Yahsat.

SES Networks announces major deal with STECCOMGlobal satellite operator SES has, in recent years, becomemore actively involved in service provisions, utilising capacityfrom its GEO and relatively new MEO satellite network. Fromsecure cockpit communications to cabin applications suchas inflight HD entertainment or virtual office connectivity, SESNetworks provides the next-generation, satellite-enabledmobility solutions trusted by industry-leading serviceproviders such as Global Eagle Entertainment, Gogo, Thalesand Panasonic Avionics.

In April 2018, Sputnik Telecommunications EntertainmentCompany (STECCOM) announced plans to elevate thepassenger and crew IFC experience across theCommonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region andEurope by utilizing SES satellite capacity and associatedservices via SES Networks.

Under the agreement, STECCOM will leverage a high-capacity, global managed services platform built on an openarchitecture. SES Networks’ global mobility solution willenable the service provider to customise and efficientlydistribute bandwidth, adapting their offerings according tothe needs of commercial passenger aircraft and businessjets operating on their network. Additionally, STECCOM’scustomers will benefit from high-speed, high-throughputconnectivity. SES Networks and STECCOM will use eachother’s ground facilities, opening up opportunities for

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THE MAKING OF GOGO’S HIGH-SPEED 2KU IFC NETWORKGogo’s 2Ku IFC service performance was significantly enhanced by upgradingfrom the existing platform to Gilat’s aero modem and satellite ground segment,according to Timor Blau, Director Commercial Aviation, Gilat Satellite Networks.With this new technology, Gogo now has the best-performing IFC systemdelivering seamless high-speed connectivity from take-off to landing. DrivingGogo’s demonstrated achievements in the areas of user experience andperformance is Gilat’s SkyEdge II-c satellite system and its aero modem –known as the ‘Taurus’ modem manager (MODMAN).

The high-speed IFC challengeToday, airline passengers want more than simply staying connected to theInternet during their flights. Recent surveys show that passengers expect theironline experience at 30,000 feet to be the same as what they have on theground. This has put the pressure on airlines to improve the performance oftheir IFC systems in order to offer passengers a flawless gate-to-gate onlineexperience.

The main challenge for IFC service providers such as Gogo is to enable abest in class broadband Internet service to passengers on global commercialflights who seek uninterrupted connectivity on international, trans-oceanic flights.Modem performance was the key to enabling an outstanding passengerexperience for global passengers.

Gilat’s high-performance IFC solution selected by GogoTo enhance the 2Ku service experience for hundreds of concurrent passengers,Gogo decided to replace its existing iDirect Evolution platform with Gilat’s IFCsolution. The components of this solution include a high-performance aero modem (MODMAN) and the SkyEdge II-cmulti-service hub platform, which was deployed in 15 locations worldwide and utilizes bandwidth capacity from over 25satellites.

Reflecting the success of its new service, the majority of Gogo’s fleet was already upgraded to Gilat’s modem duringthe past year, with the remainder expected to be completed by the end of 2018. Gogo announced that the modem iscapable of delivering more than 16 times the throughput of its previous modem, thus easily supporting the increasedcapacity of next generation HTS as they come online.

Speed, coverage and availabilityGogo advertises three numbers that define its high-quality standard for inflight Internet: 15/98/98. These numberscorrespond to three essential elements of IFC - speed, coverage and availability. With respect to speed, Gilat’s solutionenables delivery of minimum throughput of 15Mbps per passenger device on the airplane. The 98 percent coverage offlight routes means virtually nonstop Internet service across the globe. The other 98 percent relates to constantuninterrupted service availability. Gilat’s newest satellite technology, featuring seamless satellite and beam switching,ensures the continuous service operation under complex and changing conditions.

Key differentiators of Gilat’s IFC solutionWith support for HTS and wide beam satellites, Gilat’s next-generation modem has enabled it to optimize the performanceand efficiency of Gogo’s 2Ku service while maintaining full interoperability with existing avionic IFE systems. The datasignal to and from the aircraft is received and transmitted via a flat panel satellite antenna, processed by Gilat’s modemand the data traffic is then distributed via Wi-Fi inside the cabin, allowing passengers to connect via their personaldevices such as laptops, tablets and phones. The speeds supported allow for a diverse variety of applications, such as

live TV and special services for the flight crew.Particularly on long flights, streaming video (e.g,Netflix) is a favourite passenger pastime, now madeavailable with high quality broadband.

As the plane travels along its route, Gilat’s IFCsolution uses advanced algorithms to perform beamload balancing and beam prioritization, thus ensuringtransparent switchover between beams, satellites andgateways while maintaining user application sessions.This provides a seamless coverage regardless of theplane’s location, enabling passengers to enjoy the

“With the upgraded modem, we’re able totake advantage of the new generation HTSsatellites, increase the connection speedbetween the aircraft and the satellite, and

open up additional bandwidth for newservices like Gogo TV,” said Gogo

spokesperson.

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highest quality experience throughout their journey.Gilat’s IFC solution ensures the excellent proven user experience from gate-to-gate, providing passengers with

connectivity as soon as they board and until arrival at the gate of their destination.

More improvements on the wayAs Gilat’s R&D labs continue to develop new features and technologies for its airborne VSAT equipment; new capabilitiesand functionality will become available.

For example, via a simple software upgrade the forward and return waveforms can be optimized to improve spectralefficiency and dynamic allocation of carriers, making the network the most advanced global DVB-S2X network. Gilat’smodem can further be enhanced to process passenger traffic in concurrence with live TV broadcast via a dual-demodulatorcapability, enabling the modem to process two carriers at the same time. These industry leading technologies andcapabilities will enable to achieve the highest efficiency and space segment utilization.

Today, Gogo operates the largest of its kind global satellite network for IFC, built with Gilat’s ground system and aeromodems. The network’s open architecture allows working with any satellite network operator, while a central globalmanagement system and QoS features enable it to provision and manage bandwidth across multiple teleports, satellitesand user beams.

Looking ahead, with current backlog for 2Ku installations, over 2,000 aircrafts are expected to fly with Gilat’s aeromodem.

Gogo IFC Network Powered by Gilat Satellite Networks. Image courtesy- Gogo

enhanced connectivity across Europe, Russia and CentralAsia. This ground infrastructure is key in ensuring efficientdelivery of bandwidth to meet the rising demand for high-quality IFC services.

“Passengers today expect to have quality connectivitywhen they are up in the air, just like they do when they are athome,” said Elias Zaccack, Executive Vice President, GlobalSales, at SES Networks. “SES Networks is delighted to besupporting STECCOM in its ambition to reliably deliver the

highest quality of connectivity and elevate the travelexperience for air passengers in Russia and adjoiningmarkets, and to help airlines in the region expand theirnumber of connected aircraft.”

Gilat readies new IFC terminalsEnd-to-end solutions provider Gilat Satellite Networks is alsoramping up its presence in the IFC market as demand boomsthe world over.

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. In February 2018, Gilat’s dual-band Ku/Ka aero terminalachieved unprecedented performance during a livedemonstration in China. The terminal reached speeds of130Mbps with dozens of concurrent users browsing, videostreaming, video and voice calls as well as various chatapplications. The demonstration took place in a cabin userenvironment together with Air Esurfing, operating with Gilat’sfully integrated dual-band antenna terminal as well as theTaurus Modman. Gilat’s high-performance Modman as wellas the high-gain antenna panel in Ka-band were key factorsin the outstanding results of the demonstration.

Gilat’s fully deployed mobility baseband is alreadyoperational and in use on China’s first domestic HTS Ka-band satellite. The deployed network not only improved end-to-end results, but also significantly reduced the completeIFC system deployment time. Gilat’s Ku/Ka antenna will beundergoing supplemental type certificate (STC) in the comingmonths.

Meanwhile, March 2018 saw Gilat launch AeroEdge 6000,a highly efficient, high-performance terminal for commercialIFC. The dual-band terminal includes Gilat’s Ku/Ka bandantenna, MODMAN, and Wavestream transceivers. TheAeroEdge 6000 high performance terminal operates in bothKa and Ku-band, providing aeronautical broadband satellitecommunication for high-speed Internet and multimediaapplications. The terminal includes Gilat’s ER 6000-A Ku/Kaantenna, SkyEdge II-c Taurus MODMAN, Ku/Ka AntennaNetworking Data Unit (KANDU) and Wavestream’s Ku/KaRadio Frequency Unit (KRFU).

The terminal allows seamless transition between Ka-bandand Ku-band coverage, thus utilizing the best availablesatellite resources for cost-efficiency and performance. Insupport of a high-quality passenger experience, the TaurusMODMAN is equipped with a full set of embedded protocoloptimization and application acceleration features. Highspectral efficiency is delivered via wideband DVB-S2Xcarriers in the forward direction and fast adaptive and spread-spectrum LDPC transmission in the return direction. Operatedover Gilat’s SkyEdge II-c multi-service platform, AeroEdge6000 is a new addition to the family of SkyEdge terminals.

Gogo amps up its service offeringsGogo specializes, quite simply, in delivering IFC servicesacross the world. The company designs and sourcesinnovative network solutions that connect aircraft to theInternet and develops software and platforms that enablecustomizable solutions for and by its aviation partners.

Gogo’s 2Ku solution, which utilises two Ku-band antennasto deliver high-speed IFC, has proven effective in the yearssince its launch. As of December 2017, more than 500 aircraftare flying with its 2Ku technology, while total awards for 2Kuinflight connectivity solution have now surpassed 2,000aircraft. Gogo added more than 550 aircraft awards in 2017alone. Meanwhile, install times have been reduced down to30 hours, less than half the time it typically takes to install abroadband satellite connectivity solution.

By February, more than 200 aircraft were equipped withGogo’s 2Ku solution utilising HTS capacity delivered by SES-15. Due to SES-15’s high-powered HTS beams, all Gogoaircraft outfitted with its next generation modem willexperience an even better customer experience with

improved economics. All new 2Ku installations enter servicewith the upgraded modem, and all 2Ku equipped aircraft areexpected to have the new modem by the end of this year.

“Gogo’s 2Ku technology is delivering industry leadingperformance today, but we designed the technology with anopen architecture, so it could take advantage of numerousenhancements over time,” said Anand Chari, Gogo’s ChiefTechnology Officer. “As we layer in more HTS capacity fromsatellites like SES-15, 2Ku’s performance will get evenstronger without having to touch the aircraft.”

Indeed, the 2Ku service has proven popular across theworld: Cathay Group selected Gogo’s 2Ku solution for itswide-body fleet of Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 aircraft inNovember 2017. 2Ku will give Cathay Pacific and CathayDragon’s customers a seamless experience across theirexisting fleet of aircraft once it goes live in mid-2018. Later inFebruary, Aeromexico opted to install 2Ku on an additionalnine Boeing 737-800NGs, on top of its 20 Boeing 737-800NGs the solution is already installed on. Air Canada,meanwhile, has more than 170 narrow and widebody aircraftcommitted to the 2Ku technology, and in April, the airlineselected Gogo’s 2Ku solution for its Bombardier CS300aircraft. The technology will be installed as a line-fit option atBombardier. Air Canada has 45 CS300 aircraft on order withan option for an additional 30 aircraft.

Developing new solutionsAlways developing the next generation of services, October2017 saw Gogo successfully complete its first test flight andbegin nationwide rollout of its new regional air-to-ground(ATG) inflight network.

The next-generation ATG network combined with Gogo’sproprietary aero antenna, in-cabin network and softwareplatform will bring up to 30 times more bandwidth to an aircraftthan its original ATG solution. Once the network upgradesare complete, Gogo will have a North American ATG solutionthat will deliver performance on the aircraft that is comparableto Gogo’s 2Ku global satellite solution. Gogo’s ATG networkwill have peak network capacity of more than 100Gbps. Whencombined with Gogo’s global satellite network, Gogo willreportedly have the highest capacity network ever built that’sdedicated to serving aviation.

The ATG network utilizes unlicensed spectrum in the2.4GHz band as well as the licensed spectrum from Gogo’soriginal ATG network to provide greater bandwidth andreliability. It also leverages Gogo’s existing ATG networkbackhaul and infrastructure of more than 250 cell towers. Onthe aircraft, Gogo has developed a proprietary new antennaand modem that will produce peak speeds of more than100Mbps per aircraft.

Gogo advances AVANCEIn January, Gogo unveiled Gogo AVANCE L3, an innovativenew IFC system that delivers the benefits of the GogoAVANCE platform to passengers in a small, lightweight formfactor, with (reportedly) the most affordable pricing optionsin business aviation. Gogo’s breakthrough technologyplatform lets users customize their inflight experience basedon their unique needs and can be installed on businessaircraft of all types and sizes but is an ideal solution for smalleraircraft including turboprops and light jets. Later in February,

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AVANCE L3 received Supplemental Type Certification (STC)and Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) from the FAA.

The Gogo AVANCE platform integrates a full range ofsmart cabin features, allowing passengers to simply andreliably access and use all available data, voice, maps,entertainment and cabin management system (CMS)services. The new system includes a built-in smart routerand allows for a variety of service offerings to best fit acustomer’s needs. It’s a new level of flexibility not seen beforein business aviation that allows operators to tailor theirpassengers’ experience. With AVANCE L3, they can controland manage the number of devices they allow to connectand can scale their configuration up or down seamlessly asneeds change.

Using AVANCE L3, anyone onboard the aircraft can stayconnected to email; send text messages and make voice callswith Gogo Text & Talk (service plan required); access theirfavourite flight apps such as moving maps, weather and flightinformation; or watch movies and TV shows using Gogo Vision(service plan required). For customers looking for full Internetconnectivity, AVANCE L3 can be enabled to connect to theGogo Biz data network delivering a 3G experience.

Global Eagle Entertainment augments HTS capacityGlobal Eagle Entertainment (GEE) is a leading provider ofmedia, content, connectivity and data analytics to marketsacross air, sea and land with a fully integrated suite of richmedia content and seamless connectivity solutions to airlines,

cruise lines, commercial ships, high-end yachts, ferries andland locations worldwide.

In January, GEE tripled the amount of HTS capacitysecured with SES Networks via its SES-15 satellite toenhance IFC for airline passengers travelling across NorthAmerica. The major increase in Ku-band capacity will enableGEE to deliver high-speed broadband to passengers on boardcommercial flights throughout the USA, including theincreasingly important US mainland to Hawaii routes. Themulti-year agreement is the latest contract to be signed byGlobal Eagle: In the past several years, Global Eagle hasdoubled its capacity with SES Networks on an average ofevery eight months to meet the rising demand for high-qualityinflight connectivity around the world.

Later in March, GEE agreed to a significant investmentfrom funds managed by global investment firm SearchlightCapital Partners, L.P. Searchlight will invest $150 million ofnew capital into GEE and receive $150 million aggregateprincipal amount of the company’s new second-lien notesdue 30 June 2023. Global Eagle expects the net proceedsfrom the transaction to be approximately $142 million afterpayment of fees and expenses, which will significantlystrengthen the company’s balance sheet and liquidity. Itintends to use a portion of the proceeds to repay the full $78million principal balance on its revolving credit facility,following which the full $85 million facility will remain available,potentially for growth initiatives and other general corporatepurposes.

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5G Telecom Networks

LeoSat constellation

The new opportunities for satellitein 5G telecom networks5G is one of the hottest topics around right now, with people from all sectors getting in on theaction. How will it be rolled out to best effect? What role will satellite play? What about the groundsector? All these key questions and more are addressed by Alex Holvoet, SVP ProgramManagement at LeoSat.

Traditionally satellite services have been used in telecomnetworks to extend coverage into the more remote areas –where connectivity with local or international carriers withthe required capacity was not available. This way satelliteoperators provide critical services to terrestrial telecomoperators for them to meet their customer’s demand. However,as bandwidth demand increases and technology in the areasof microwave solutions, optical fibre and satellites furtherdevelops, it starts to make sense for telecom operators toevaluate these newly-developed options and potentially lookfor alternative solutions.

With the ever-increasing demand for data, from enterprise,

end-users and now increasingly by devices, it’s not justbandwidth that is required, but there is a new element – thedemand for density. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) havebeen at the forefront of these developments in the pastdecade and their requirements have grown significantly as aresult, with low latency rapidly advancing to the forefront,eloquently captured in the simple catchphrase: Latencymatters!

In the last two decades, we have seen a steady evolutionin the mobile industry: 2G – 3G – 4G and now soon 5G. Thefirst steps toward 4G have predominantly been driven by theneed for data applications and video services on mobile

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Image courtesy of LeoSat

devices. The last step in the evolution towards 5G is largelydriven by a requirement to connect more devices in supportof the Internet of Things (IoT), and with these devices as partof mission critical networks, new requirements in terms ofcommand and control for remote sites, fuelling the need forthe earlier mentioned low latency.

With these new requirements now clearly developing, onecan argue that the move towards 5G signifies a trend thatmobile networks are becoming more and more an extensionof the wide area and local area networks that are in use today.After all, it is not only about adding more users and supportingmore bandwidth for (data!) applications on more devices, itis increasingly about developing enterprise grade servicesand an expectation that its performance will be driven byseamless integration of different networks, provided byterrestrial telecom operators, mobile and fixed, and satelliteoperators.

Who is doing what on the road to 5GMNOs are preparing to upgrade their networks to the new5G standards, including the set-up of pilot sites with suppliersto test the capabilities and promote them to their customers;all very similar to what they have done for 4G. New featuresin the 5G standard however make this a larger endeavor thanbefore. More use cases and more service types need to bedeveloped and tested in support of high speed, fast movingcustomers as well as servicing dense footprints with manyIoT devices. Equipment manufacturers are also planningroadmaps for new features and are working together withoperators to prepare more pilot environments and arepreparing business cases to upgrade to the new standardswhile staying profitable.

For satellite operators, ideally positioned as a ‘network ofnetworks’ service provider, these developments provide aclear opportunity to expand their backhaul services and adoptthe technology to seamlessly integrate these mobile networksinto terrestrial the network configurations. All this supportsthe business case to proceed with expanding HTS capacityin space.

LEO operators are in a more unique position when itcomes to 5G. First of all, it provides them with a unique

opportunity to position their services characterized by verylow latency. Their lower orbits put them in a unique positionwithin the mobile 5G developments, where low latency is atthe very heart of the new standards development. Secondly,in leveraging these unique low latency capabilities, thereseem to be different go-to-market approaches among LEOoperators. Some are looking to provide 5G services directlyto end customers in a business model to ‘Connect theUnconnected.’ Others envision a reseller model, supportingterrestrial and mobile telecom operators in expanding theirinfrastructure into maritime or more remote areas.

On the technical side, there are a number of initiatives tobring players closer together in developing the satelliteinfrastructure aspect of 5G. In Europe, the European SpaceAgency (ESA) has set up a satellite industry working groupto develop a stronger integration of 5G between terrestrialand satellite telecom operators. Through the ‘Satellite for 5GInitiative,’ ESA and the European space industry are joiningforces to develop and showcase the added value that satellitebrings in the context of 5G. They will collaborate on 5G servicetrials using satellite, with a focus on those vertical sectors forwhich 5G will be highly relevant, such as transport, mediaand entertainment, and public safety. While focusing on thesemarkets, there are activities in the areas of applicationdevelopment, standardization, resource management,interoperability and other supporting technologies.

As such, the ESA led initiative supports a seamlessintegration of satellite and terrestrial networks as an integralpart of the 5G system.

What are the relevant 5G use cases for satelliteoperators?Backhaul for telecom operatorsExpanding MNOs’ service area into territories whereterrestrial services are not available will continue to be animportant use case in the 5G area. These requirements formobile backhauling will continue to increase as the 5Gplatform is expected to carry a lot more traffic than 3G and4G. Current satellite technology focusing on higher throughput(HTS) and/or lower latency (MEO/LEO constellations) arebetter suited to address this requirement than the traditionalsatellites.

Public safetyPublic safety or red and blue light service operators have

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traditionally operated with voice-based communicationsystems and narrowband data services. However, it hasbecome evident that these operators are able to provide amuch improved service level and are able to respond fasterusing high-speed broadband data services and applications.These requirements are starting to come to the forefront andwe’re already seeing national procurement/implementationprojects active in this area. This use case also requires itsservices to be expanded into remote areas which makes itan ideal application for satellite services to be fully integratedinto terrestrial networks to provide the best solution.

Communications on the moveCruise vessels, aircraft and trains offer WiFi services to theircustomers to satisfy their requirement for connectivity. Forremote, maritime or scarcely populated areas, satelliteservices are looked upon as one of few, if not the only, platformthat can provide these services. 5G will not only bring therequired additional bandwidth, using low latency features itcan now also support more applications and allow all devicesto be operated as part of a network with similar performancecharacteristics as its wired equivalent.

CarsCars have their own specific use case. On boardentertainment, remote monitoring and control and remoteupdates for maintenance purposes are similar whencompared other transportation use cases. What is verydifferent though is the advent of the driverless car in an effortto optimize traffic and increase safety. Those applicationswill come with requirements of a higher priority, possiblyrequiring the use of a much larger seamless network beyondthe size of traditional 5G network. For satellite as a ‘Networkof Networks’ this may create a unique opportunity to combineits global reach with its technical attributes regardingthroughput and in the case of LEO, latency.

What are the requirements for satellite services in the5G environment?5G is promising ubiquity, high throughput, high density (whereneeded) and low latency. Not all aspects can be offered

through existing infrastructure, and therefore a network ofnetworks is not merely an option to facilitate the roll-out of5G, it will become a requirement.

As such, satellite operators can support the roll out of 5Gin many ways. The one that always has been at the forefrontis the ability of satellites to cover large territories and water.In being able to do that, satellite is recognized for supportingMNOs to expand their footprint. With the advent of 5G andnew satellite systems at the same time, there is now both therequirement and the option to bring more value to the MNO:More capacity and, in the case of LEO, much lower latency,both desperately required by 5G.

As much as these developments are underway via theexpansion of HTS satellites and the new capabilities offeredthrough LEO constellations, there is an additional aspect thatis worth a closer look: The integration of all space elementswith terrestrial infrastructure. A critical component of thatintegration is the satellite ground segment. To be able to bringthe services to the customers, there is a need to continue todevelop that equipment, particularly in the area of antennasystems. Flat panel, phased array antennas (FPAs) are widelyrecognized as the preferred solution. Lacking any movingparts and the software-based installation process are bothhelping to bring down the operational costs, and the industryis working very hard to also bring down the price of theseFPAs such that the total cost of ownership of these systemsis competitive with traditional antenna systems. An addedadvantage in using these FPAs is the ability to integrate a lotof hardware and software into these systems, facilitating ‘self-installation,’ but also allowing it to be much better integratedwith terrestrial infrastructure.

Based on these advantages and due to their more elegantform factor and improved performance capabilities presentedby some manufacturers, the terrestrial telecom providers arelooking to use these systems to increase the capacity to endusers and cut down significantly on implementation time,relative to a roll-out of terrestrial infrastructure. In thetransportation use case, the FPA form factor allows for a muchbetter integration with the car, train, cruise ship andparticularly airplane. Lastly, from a LEO/MEO perspective,FPAs provide a robust platform that is easier to install andmaintain and is expected to be economically much more

Photo courtesy of LeoSat

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5G Telecom Networks

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

attractive than the traditional dual steerable antenna systems.

ConclusionThere is an increasing number of opportunities for satelliteoperators to find ways to integrate and provide connectivityto their customers.

With data traffic predicted to increase almost four-fold by2020 to 4ZB per year, one of the key challenges for themobility sector in the 5G environment is achieving scalable,

flexible solutions for their expanding networks.5G will bring a next generation of standardization for

telecom services and the end customers will benefit fromhigher throughput and access to more services in moreplaces. Not all of that can be provided by terrestrial networkingand a single network type. Satellite has the opportunity toplay a key role in the development of 5G, provided it does abetter job in seamlessly integrating its satellite services intothese developments focusing on protocols, latency andcapacity. Successfully doing so will allow satellites to vastlyexpand the number of locations where 5G can be offered.For that to happen, satellite operators need to understandthe needs of their customers and develop solutions to satisfythat demand. Backhaul for mobile networks is crucial toensure speed and capacity for data transportation fromdistributed network sites to the network core.

With the new developments in satellite constellations, nextgeneration low earth orbit systems such as LeoSat are seenas key for 5G development. By providing a guaranteed levelof connectivity, resilience and security required by 5G forsignificant sectors of industry, LeoSat can offer a clear pathfor telecom operators in search of growth.

And finally, with further innovation and development onground segment equipment and more specifically antennasystems, we can look forward to a next generationcommunication network that harnesses all the componentsfor success and will ultimately enable a fully connected digitalsociety.

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Connectivity 2018


Connectivity comes with challengesThe world is becoming an ever-more connected place to live. From phones, homes, cars andplanes, people are even connecting to their pets with smart collars. All that connectivity comeswith a lot of challenges; financial, technical, and regulatory. Amy Saunders reports from theGlobal VSAT Forum’s (GVF) Connectivity 2018 event.

Maria Kalama, Lead Satellite Communications at Innovate UK,described the results of market research coordinated by SatelliteApplications Catapult and sponsored by Innovate UK. “Connectivityis a vast subject, and the market can be looked at in many ways,”said Kalama.

Kalama went on to discuss the ‘new’ verticals for satcom.“Broadband to aircraft and air traffic management are seeing grow-ing demand, but the key in this market is to be customer-focusedand offer an integrated communications solution,” she said. “Thereare still opportunities to offer specialised content to this market.Maritime opportunities include operations, crew welfare, IoT,eNavigation and secure broadband.” Meanwhile, the rail market isvery segmented from one country to another, and it’s difficult for anSME to enter this market, according to Kalama – “They would bebetter to partner with a larger company, and the focus is on securityrather than customer solutions.”

City needs aren’t evolving that much, according to Kalama. “Lo-cal authorities will always be interested in improving accessibilityand accessibility, and in the future that will be possible with inte-grated systems and services. Air pollution management and urbanplanning will also be important,” said Kalama. Mobility will be thebiggest revenue in the near future, followed by healthy cities andurban planning. “Connectivity from constellations is expected to boomin demand.”

It’s been difficult for satellite players to break into the 5G backhaulmarket, and there a lot of barriers in place: “Technology, cost, lackof awareness, launch, lack of standardisation, skills shortage, andthe need to reinforce IT solutions. The market for secure communi-cations is growing by around half a billion dollars each year,” addedKalama.

Space and the ground segmentThe space and ground segment markets are moving on rapidly asmobility applications become increasingly advanced and 5G edgescloser to roll-out; it’s vital that the satellite sector stay relevant.

“In the next 10 years, the market is going to almost double, withmobility, especially aero, being the biggest driver,” statedDeepukrishnan Pillai, Senior Analyst - Strategy & Market Intelligenceat SES. “We need to increase our capabilities to increase our shareof the global telecom market. Right now, they’re at US$2 trillion, andwe’re only seeing around 0.5 percent of that.” Flexibility is also key:“We don’t know what demand will be in the next 10 years in geo-graphical terms, so we need systems with dynamic capacity alloca-tions,” added Pillai.

“Mobile applications are driven by throughput,” opined Bart VanPoucke, Vice President Products at Newtec. “The more throughputwe can get to planes, boats, etc., the better.” But, according to VanPoucke, it’s not always about high throughput satellite (HTS) capac-

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ity: “Bandwidth intensity is important, as is antenna type; we havemassive antennas, small antennas, flat panel antennas, and theyall have to work together in the same network.”

Van Poucke identified service differentiation as key to continu-ing operations. “We need to service our most demanding customerswhile not allowing our smaller clients to make things difficult, espe-cially when it comes to beam hopping.”

People expect speed, reliability, and home-like performance whilethey’re on the move. “Users don’t care that satellite is different, andnor should they have to. It’s all about user perception, and responsetime to web pages is everything,” said Andy Lucas, Senior Vice Presi-dent (Satellite Operators) at Comtech EF Data.

According to Mark Lambert, Vice President Business Develop-ment at Kratos Communications Ltd, the dramatic growth in satel-lites, including 129 launches of HTS in the next 10 years, is going tobring problems as well as opportunities. “We need a different way ofdoing things… Things are going to get obsolete more and morequickly, it’s a vicious circle,” said Lambert. “We need an equilibriumwhere satellite operators can make money out of the systems andhave the end users benefit as well. We need to be more efficient inthe ways we’re building gateways and antennas: IP has a major roleto play.”

5G, too, is going to bring a great deal of change to the satellitecommunity on many fronts. Greg Quiggle, Vice President EmergingProducts at VT iDirect, sees 5G as an opportunity for satellite com-panies to come together with other technologies, for example, toprovide the connectivity required for the connected car. “Latency-tolerant services such as software updates can be performed withhigher latency connectivity options, while latency-intolerant serv-ices can be achieved with LEO constellations or terrestrial serv-ices,” Quiggle observed.

Anver Anderson, Director at Anver Ltd, outlined how new appli-cations would open up new opportunities within the satellite sector.“There’s always going to be a place for satellite, whether it’s GEO,MEO or LEO,” said Anderson. He introduced QuadSat, a Denmark-based start-up company which plans to use a drone as a satellitesimulator for antenna evaluation on maritime vessels in port. “Satel-lite operators, antenna manufacturers, maritime VSAT service op-erators and others can all make good use of the equipment,” hesaid.

The varied connectivity ecosystemThe connectivity ecosystem is hugely varied right now as new tech-nologies make new applications possible that were difficult to pre-

dict even 10 years ago. As Robert Novak, Expert for Cellular BackhaulSolutions at ND SatCom, put it: “Why should we limit ourselves witha topology restriction?”

John Finney, Founder of Isotropic Systems, emphasised theimportance of bridging the digital divide in aeromobility applications.“If we’re not careful, we’ll either be too slow to respond to somemarket forces, or the predicted growth won’t happen.”

Finney envisages a pyramid with high value segments (airlines,superyachts, business jets, etc.) at the top, traditional segments(mobility, enterprise broadband, government, etc.) in the middle,followed by lower value/higher volume segments (connected car,5G), and finally, mass market (consumer broadband, IoT) at thebottom. “There are a few areas of this pyramid that are very digital.Within land transport, there’s a very large predicted growth with theconnected car – but we don’t believe we’ll see that growth in thenext 5-7 years. The aero area, meanwhile, we’ve trimmed back inthe belief that there needs to be a lot more progress in innovationacross the board before we see the growth figures that have beenprojected,” said Finney. “There’s a very real digital divide. The serv-ice providers are focusing on the more lucrative routes, which meansthere are many countries with no inflight connectivity. Only 67 of anestimated 5,000 airlines offer broadband connectivity.”

Hispasat’s Manager of Products and Services, Luisa Fernandez,approached the digital divide topic on a geographic rather than ver-tical level, focusing on Latin America. “Around 3.9 billion people areunconnected, 69 percent in rural areas. More than half of house-holds in Latin America have no Internet access,” Fernandez told thedelegates. “Connectivity brings equal opportunities and enhanceseducation. It’s not only a question of quality of life, it’s also to im-prove development in these areas. Satellite is the economic solu-tion compared with terrestrial options.”

But regulations make delivering high-speed global connectivitya major challenge. Vadim Doronin, Senior Consultant at AccessPartnership, stated: “Global connectivity is very important. But wenever ask how it’s regulated. Frequencies are a scarce resource, sothey’re regulated all over the world. During aviation, you fly throughvarious jurisdictions, so how do we make it simple for operators tocomply with each jurisdiction? ECC Decision 12(01) has made freecirculation and exemption from individual licensing of ESIMS, whichallows for gate-to-gate services.”

Of course, as we frequently highlight in Satellite Evolution, sat-ellite isn’t only limited to delivering services and solutions for es-sential day-to-day services and innovative new applications; it’s alsoabout responding to disaster situations. Javier Santos, BusinessDevelopment Engineer at Inster, outlined a case study from whenNepal was struck by an earthquake which killed almost 9,000 peo-ple and injured around 22,000 in 2015. “After the earthquake, peo-ple were left under the debris. Communications were damaged andinoperable,” said Santos. “Reliable satellite communications equip-ment was required on ground for search and rescue, prepared foroff-road conditions and severe climatology. The Spanish UME (Mili-tary Emergency Unit) was sent to Nepal after the Earthquake tocollaborate in rescue activities. Hundreds of lives were saved, andareas were made safe.”

Mobile connectivity, the Cloud and the IoTAs people, we often like to look at one topic, such as the Cloud, asa standalone element to be considered separately from everythingelse. For most of us, it’s just how we’re wired. However, as we moveinto the future, different elements are becoming increasingly inter-connected. It’s impossible, for example, to speak about 5G withoutalso speaking about both terrestrial and satellite connectivity op-tions.

Jack Buechler, VP Business & Product Development at TaliaGroup, presented Talia’s Quika service, which aims to connect theunconnected for free to overcome digital inequality and create abetter world to everyone. “We’ve found there are plenty of places

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that have 2G or even 3G, and that’s today: Never mind 5G!” saidBuechler. There’s major issue of investment, and operators are keento expand 5G to gain new subscribers. “It’s all about affordability –that means something very different here in the UK than in the coun-tries we’re targeting first with Quika, in the Middle East and Africa,”explained Buechler. “When we go from 4G to 5G, the number ofbase stations required are an order of magnitude higher. It’s a prob-lem, especially because voice is no longer a cash cow. Telecomsneeds data to stay in the game, while voice is a penny business forthem now, and they’re not keen to invest.”

So much of the innovation going on right now is down to start-ups rather than the established industry giants. As such, there arevery real problems hindering innovation beyond finance and experi-ence, as Velipekka Kuoppala, Vice President, Sales and BusinessDevelopment at Soracom, outlined: “It’s important to be easily-ac-cessible for start-ups as well as big companies, because that’s wherethe innovation is. For the IoT to succeed, we need secure and swiftservice which is affordable and available to all.” He continued: “98percent of our clients are IoT start-ups. Those start-ups approachmobile network operators (MNOs) for services, but they’re not gearedup to serve the IoT market; they can’t help start-ups who need avery small number of sim cards to test their service, since they’reused to selling in the thousands.” What is needed to enable thosestart-ups are; no contracts or commitment; publicly-available serv-ices; pay-as-you-go pricing; self-service capability.

Start-up companies such as Phasor, Kymeta and Isotropic areall making significant progress in antenna and terminal innovationalongside the well-established companies, despite the well-docu-mented challenges in bringing brand new and unique technologiesto market. Striving for this goal is a must, as: “New terminals arenecessary to address these new markets, with new constellationsand new capabilities,” said David Garood, Senior Vice PresidentBusiness Development at PHASOR Inc.

John Chambers, Regional Director OEM Partner Sales, EMEA-India at Thingworx, stated: “The intersection between the physicaland digital world is key. IoT and augmented reality are wedded toeach other as the bridge between digital and physical.” The powerof partnerships in the IoT Ecosystem is invaluable, and somethingwe all need to be thinking about more. “When we speak to our cus-tomers about their journey into IoT, they typically have a lot of prob-lems, questions, or are lacking confidence. There are lots of differ-ent elements in the IoT support chain,” said Chambers. It’s vital thatthe industry continues to collaborate, so we can continue to ad-vance.

Automation is becoming increasingly important for everythingfrom the connected car to in-orbit satellite servicing; some believethat automation is key in our next digital transformation. However,“machine learning isn’t accurate enough yet; it can’t distinguish be-tween a Chihuahua and a muffin,” commented Alvaro Sanchez, Di-rector Sales & Marketing at Integrasys. “But I believe it’ll get therein the future…”

Cybersecurity is, of course, key to enabling secure and safe IoTapplications, especially when it comes to automated cities and trans-portation. “There’s no one solution that fits all,” said Robert Brown,Executive Chairman at RazorSecure. “Cybersecurity is all about lay-ers, and what’s happening at the moment is that the hackers are

finding new ways to fight and gain access to our networks that we’venever thought of before. Secure today is not secure tomorrow.”

Building user-vertical applications - Development anddeployment environmentsThe connectivity market is undergoing a radical change: “We’re try-ing to sell connectivity, which is pointless, because they don’t wantconnectivity, they want services,” observed Kieran Arnold, Head ofNetworks & Systems at Satellite Applications Catapult.

Alessandro Caranci, Senior Vice President Satellite Communi-cation at Telespazio, agrees: “More and more, mobility means sat-ellite connectivity… The highest level of value creation is when youhave a customer that is able to plan what they’re doing.”

Shipping is one of the biggest sectors right now entering thedigital age. “The shipping industry is just emerging from the largestdownturn in living memory. There are too many ships, chasing toofew cargos… Overcapacity is a big issue at the moment,” said RogerAdamson, CEO at Futurenautics. “It’s difficult to look at long-termdigital transformation when you’re concentrating on the next quarterresults. The maritime sector is talking about digitalisation anddigitisation. It’s about cost-saving. What they should be looking at isdigital transformation, or digital reimagination.”

According to Adamson, it’s all leading to radical transparency, afirst for the maritime sector. “Data is being collected, aggregated,and we can move to a position where we can regulate in real-time.We can check how a vessel is operated, whether its compliant, andthat benefits shop operators, insurers, lenders, etc. We can assessrisk better,” said Adamson. “For the ship operator, that results inlower premiums. It also brings hyper-rationality. We can now makeevidence-based decisions. This all requires heavy data lifting. Themaritime sector has been pretty adept at trying not to send dataover satellite for 30 years, but that’s beginning to change. It’s aboutthe opportunity for satellite operators and getting on board with theecosystems forming around those platforms and becoming a partof that intelligent digital mesh.”

“One of the most disruptive meta trends is autonomous vehi-cles, and maritime won’t escape that. We’re going to redesign howships work and what they look like. They’ll be simplified, becomeautonomous, and finally unmanned. The Yara Birkeland, the world’sfirst fully electric and autonomous container ship, is starting thatnext year,” said Adamson. “75 percent of all maritime data traffic iscreated by crew, so with unmanned ships, that data usage is goingto disappear. The IoT, an intelligent digital mesh, is where it’s impor-tant for satellite operators to concentrate down the line.”


John Chambers, Regional Director OEMPartner Sales, EMEA-India at Thingworx,

stated: “The intersection between thephysical and digital world is key. IoT andaugmented reality are wedded to eachother as the bridge between digital and

physical.”

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UK Space Industry

Picture (from left to right): John Whalley, Richard Peckham, Rt Hon the Lord McNally, Christopher Newman, Farhana Amin

Priorities for the UK space industryThe UK space sector is in a period of upheaval. Policy is changing, which effects everything fromlaunch capabilities to manufacturing methods and applications. With Brexit on the horizon, it’simperative that the UK remains at the forefront of space industry in an uncertain future. AmySaunders reports from the Westminster Business Forum Keynote Seminar: Priorities for the UKspace industry - Investment, infrastructure and international competitiveness.

There’s been a lot of news out of the UK space sector inrecent months, but one thing is for sure; we’re in a time ofgreat change, and no one is sure what’s coming next.

“From a space agency perspective in growing the sector,we’re very conscious that we have to focus not just oneconomy, but also on space and science,” said CatherineMealing-Jones, Director of Growth at the UK Space Agency.“But what is the space sector? It’s hard to pin down; it’s anenabling infrastructure, and also about the services andapplications. As policy makers, finding that easy explanationof what it is can be quite difficult.”

It’s been estimated that the space sector is worth £250billion to the wider UK economy. “But, there are clouds onthe horizon. The sector is changing dramatically in all areas,from telecoms to Earth observation,” observed Mealing-Jones. “The era of sector deals is upon us. We’re wrestlingwith Brexit and the drive for an ever more global Britain. We’relooking at new partnerships, and a new way of working.There’s a feeling of opportunity for some, and challenge forothers.”

Disruptive innovation including new manufacturingmethods, services and applications, along with the low Earthorbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO) constellations,are changing the way we see space. “There’s a narrative ofcommercial space, the feeling that the private sector is takingover. But is that real? Could, for example, Elon Musk have

succeeded with government support?” asked Mealing-Jones.Indeed, the space sector of the future is going to look

very different to what we’ve seen up to this point, and it’svital that the UK stays in the game. “Growing the UK£250billion to the whole UK economy is essential; we’ve got towork out how space solutions can get in there earlier. Weneed to be making common platforms instead of bespokesolutions,” observed Mealing-Jones. “The government has agreat role to play. We’re working on the next version of theCivil Space Strategy, and we want to lead this new spaceage. Investment is important, as are partnerships. UK-friendlystandards at the start of process are crucial. Governmentcould also be doing more of its own research.”

Mealing-Jones concluded: “There are a lot more ideasout there, and we need to go after them as a nation. Theinspiration and impact of this sector flow into every home inthe UK.”

Policy priorities for the UK space sector - Infrastructure,regulation and the Industrial StrategyThe Space Industry Act 2018, part of the UK Government’sIndustrial Strategy, received royal assent on 15 March 2018.The Act aims to develop the UK’s satellite industry into aglobal hub for satellite operations, with developments in smallsatellite manufacturing capabilities and investment into theUK’s first spaceport. It also includes legislation that will include

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Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director of Growth at theUK Space Agency

the deployment of drones that will battle marine waste.Commenting on the Act, Christopher Newman, Professor

of Space Law and Policy at Northumbria University, stated:“There’s always that little bit of fear that it might not goingaccording to plan.”

Launch capabilities are growing worldwide; there were91 attempts in 2017, and 170 attempts are expected in 2018.“There’s this new imperative for a sovereign launch capacity.The new framework is designed to embolden the smallsatellite market. The market is becoming ever morecompetitive,” observed Newman.

“A good regulatory framework ensures certainty forinvestors. The Outer Space Treaty requires the UK to regulatespace activity and provides for the operation of spaceportsin the UK. The Outer Space Act 1986 will continue to applyfor activities outside the UK,” said Newman. “The new Actintends to be future-proof; outer space law is where Internetlaw was 25 years ago, where there were difficulties that werenever anticipated.”

Richard Peckham, Strategy and Business DevelopmentDirector at Airbus Defence & Space and Chairman atUKspace, commented: “Space applications are drivinggrowth. We’ve had impressive growth since 2000, and the2010 Innovation and Growth Strategy (ISG) has beenfantastically successful, but it was getting a little bit long inthe tooth.” He continued: “Now, you can really feel the buzz.There’s more private investment. But we can’t stand still: Wehave to get back on the front foot and be thought leaders. It’snot just about money, we must be smart. The size and cost ofsatellites has come down, barriers to entry are falling, andconstellations are being enabled.”

The EU is a big customer in its own right, but, accordingto Peckham, we’re already being pushed out, and feeling theimpact of Brexit. “Space for many remains a strategic thing,”observed Peckham. “It’s not an open market. There areopportunities, including the government’s establishment of anational space programme. One of the big things we think isnecessary is to fund a national space programme, a long-

term plan which would stimulate inwards investment and helpgrow international partnerships.”

John Whalley, Chief Executive at Aerospace Wales,stated: “In Wales, we need to up our game. We have anexisting space industry, and with five percent of the UK’spopulation, we account for 10 percent of the UK’s aerospaceindustry. We have a lot of relevant strengths, but in space,we’re not punching above our weight.” He continued: “Weestablished a space strategy back in 2015 which mirrors theUK space strategy, and we are now established in the spacegame. We have the Arc of Innovation, which emphasises theneed for collaboration, especially with the UK Space Agency.Wales can make a significant contribution in test andevaluation, rural economy opportunities, and exposure toopportunities.”

Dr Farhana Amin, Innovation Program Lead of EarthObservation at Defra, the Department for Environment, Foodand Rural Affairs, wants to make Earth observation data asopen as possible for everyone in the future. “In the past threeyears, Defra has been under pressure to reduce budgets forevidence and deliver efficiency. We’ve been increasinglyreliant on Earth observation data to deliver that. We’ve madean effective effort to join us with policy and delivery bodies,but every one of us in under pressure to do with resources,”said Amin. “We want to deliver effective policy.”

Driving innovation in UK space“Commercialising research is one of Innovate UK’s keypriorities. The entity has designed the Innovation ChallengeFund (ICF) as a rolling programme of a UK£2 billion annualfund, which is applied in three waves. There are competitionsand forums which can be applied for to promote disruptiveinnovation in the UK’s space sector,” said Tim Just, Head ofSpace at Innovate UK.

With a combined budget of more than US$6 billion, UKResearch and Innovation (UK RI) brings together the sevenresearch councils, Innovate UK, and a new organisationcalled Research England. UK RI intends to ensure the UKmaintains its world-leading position in research andinnovation by creating a system that creates the bestenvironment for research and innovation to flourish.

“The creation of UK RI gives us the opportunity to bringmore visibility to research councils,” said Just. “We canconsider how to bring things to market much earlier in theR&D process now. We talk about the cliff of commercialisation;we quite often take a product to market, and as soon as theR&D is complete, it drops off the radar because we haven’tmarketed it right or the price isn’t right.”

Opining on the commercialisation of the space sector,Just commented: “We’ve heard several definitions regardingNewSpace right now, so I’ll give you mine: NewSpace is aboutnew money. It’s about bringing other money into the spacesector, and ultimately, it’s about creating a product that peoplewant to buy.” He added: “A lot of Earth observation data isavailable for free, but there’s a bit of quandary with free data– generally, if you’re using free data or a free service, thenthe product is you. You will be exploited for the benefit of thecompany. If Earth observation data is free, someone has topay.”

Skills are key to expanding the UK space industry. “In thespace sector, we immediately go the STEM objectives in

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schools because it’s easy, particularly since we have TimPeake now,” said Just. “Our skills agenda at Innovate UK ismuch broader; it’s about lifelong learning, graduate hiring,further education and personal development. We’re launchingacademic fellowships for early stage careers to launch R&Dprojects.”

“We also need to talk about regional clusters,” said Just.“The UK isn’t that big, and you don’t have to be in a spacecluster to be in the space sector. We need to recognise thevalue of a space cluster. It’s about a critical mass of peopleengaging in a specific location, to discuss ideas.”

Just also opined on international investment. “About 20percent of our time is spent supporting inward investment. Inthe UK, the regulatory environment, support, skills, workforce,is all extremely attractive, and we’re seeing a lot ofinternational companies coming in and investing. The time isright for a sector deal.”

Ensuring the competitiveness of UK space in aninternational market - Funding, skills and collaborationin the post-Brexit landscapeWith Brexit looming, questions are arising throughout thesector about the UK’s place in the global space arena, andits continued involvement with European projects. “We’re stillgoing to be part of the European Space Agency (ESA),”confirmed Professor Martin Barstow, Pro-Vice-Chancellor ofStrategic Science Projects at the University of Leicester.“People do tend to equate the ESA with the EU, and it’s notthe case.”

“I was very pleased to see the industrial strategy emergein November 2017, and space is a part of it,” said Barstow.“We’ve also heard about the significant growth opportunitiesavailable. We’ve heard about upstream and downstream, butspace-enabled is also important. I think there’s going to bemore upstream activity as a response of the positivedownstream results.”

Retaining the UK’s position of leadership post-Brexit isgoing to be important. “We need to build on the things that

are there. We’ve lost a little momentum in the last year. Weneed to invest in skills, create new networks across the EU,and bring in people from outside the space industry,” opinedBarstow. “We are moving too slowly and must accelerate thepace.”

In agreement with other speakers, Barstow considers theskills shortage to be a significant challenge. “We need tothink about the skills needs. How do we take people fromother sectors and re-skill them for the space industry? Wecan’t produce enough STEM graduates for our country, sowe need to reskill non-STEM graduates,” said Barstow.

“Political changes and changes of market createopportunities, and we need to exploit this,” said Mike Lawton,Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Oxford SpaceSystems. “Getting into space is expensive, anything from 30k/kg to get into orbit today. As a result, we’re obsessed withmaking things as light and cheap as possible.”

Oxford Space Systems is designing and generating a newgeneration of deployable structures using a new generationof materials, because: “You don’t get a new generation ofdownstream data unless someone is working on upstreamhardware.”

“There are huge opportunities to unlock the technologywe can generate in the UK,” said Lawton. “We have a uniqueclimate here that doesn’t exist anywhere else, because of allthe support we have from entities like Innovate UK, andfunding mechanisms that can come alongside the venturecapital community.”

Claire Pidancet, Chief Executive Officer at Actrea Capitaland former Managing Director, Space Net Ventures, asked:“How do we finance the innovation ecosystem? TheNewSpace economy presents a lot of opportunities, and thereare a range of industry verticals that could benefit fromfinancing.”

She continued: “Right now, we’re financing downstreamspace applications with grants, business angels, EIS funds,Seraphim Capital, and larger venture capitals. There’s a lackof specialist organised capital, and we lack capacity in thebridge rounds. Setting up funds makes things easier. Most ofthe pipeline is at early stage funding.”

Steven Austin, Propulsion Product Manager at ThalesAlenia Space UK, holds similar views: “The markets arechanging very fast, and growth in traditional markets haschanged.”

With a changing market, expectations and future actionsneed to evolve. “The new constellations are characterisedby diversity: There’s no standardisation,” asserted Austin. “Weneed to get industrial about it. It’s about volume manufacturingand faster throughout. My concern is the UK isn’t ready forthis. Rapid transition for R&D to production is key. We needacademia, government, SMEs and industrial players comingtogether.”

Time to market is absolutely critical. “We need to bringcheaper technologies to market faster. We need funding, skillsand focus. How do we make this happen as a group? Howdo we install the infrastructure to match the new market? Itneeds to be in place soon, not in 10-15 years. If the UK isn’tat the forefront of what’s going in Europe we will find that ourposition gets eroded,” said Austin.

“Thales Alenia Space really struggles with skills. We can’tfind people in the UK to bring into the space industry. But if

Nick Appleyard, Head of Downstream BusinessApplications at the ESA

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manufacturing and infrastructure is going to grow, so mustpeople and skills,” Austin concluded.

The future for European space policy - Challenges aheadfor collaboration and fundingNo one knows yet how the UK is going to maintain its positionin the global space economy, or how EU and ESA spaceprogrammes will be affected by Brexit. Almost half of the ESA

Tim Just, Head of Space at Innovate UK

downstream budget is financed from the UK; telecoms andEarth observation are the most commercial parts of the spaceeconomy right now.

“The money in the space industry is downstream, inapplications and services. One of the reasons for that is thatthe accessible market is pretty much the entire economy. It’shard to point to a sector which can’t benefit from satellites,”said Nick Appleyard, Head of Downstream BusinessApplications at the ESA. “Because these are digital services,barriers to entrance are low, so it’s more open and vibrant.”

“When we leave the EU, does that mean we have to partcompany? No. The ESA is not the EU, and the UK is notleaving the ESA. Were optimistic the UK will renew itscommitment to the ESA at the end of next year,” assertedAppleyard. “However, the biggest problem is the ability totransfer personnel and skil ls and to make workingrelationships between the EU and the UK. It could be a greatsetback for both sides. If right to remain and access to publicservices are affected, our people are going to be affected.We need to protect that.”

“There are questions about our contractual relationships,and we’re seeing people write escape clauses fromcollaboration contracts now ahead of Brexit. That’s riskmanagement, and maybe those clauses will never be invoked.But if they are, it could be difficult to rebuild,” stated Appleyard.“Supply chains are complex, and criss-cross betweencountries. Components and subsystems are going in and outof the country all the time and could be subject to delays ortariffs. The real risk and concern is the uncertainty, and wehave to live with that for the next few years.”

Picture (from left to right): Martin Barstow, Mike Lawton, Lord Hunt of Chesterton, Claire Pidancet, Steven Austin

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