Page 82 - SAMENA Trends - January-February 2025

SATELLITE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Ofcom Grant UK Licence for Amazon’s Project Kuiper Broadband Satellites

Ofcom has grant Amazon’s Project Kuiper a UK Earth Station Amazon’s satellites are fairly small, but like Starlink they make up
Network Licence (ESNL), which will support their effort to launch a for that in quantity, and this approach typically delivers lots of data
global mega-constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to capacity (100-400Mbps broadband speeds), as well as relatively
deliver affordable ultrafast broadband and mobile (4G, 5G) services. fast latency times (often c.20-40ms) and wide global coverage.
The UK telecoms regulator also made more spectrum available in But only provided it’s all matched by plenty of Ground Stations
the 28GHz and 32GHz bands. Currently, Amazon are still in the and regulatory approvals in supporting countries, which is where
progress of developing their service, which means that they’re Ofcom comes in for the United Kingdom. The announcement today
trailing well behind established rivals like OneWeb (Eutelsat) and essentially authorises Kuiper to operate user terminals in the Ka
Starlink (SpaceX). Nevertheless, Amazon has approval to deploy band in the UK and connect it to their satellites, which will be able
their own constellation of 3,232 LEO satellites as part of Project to serve local homes, businesses and public sector sites. Amazon
Kuiper, which will sit at an altitude of between 590km and 630km. have already launched a couple of test satellites and their first
The system can process up to 1Tbps (Terabits per second) of data production satellites are due to be carried into orbit during early
traffic on each satellite, albeit shared between many users. Each of 2025. The first commercial beta testing is thus likely to follow
during the latter half of 2025 (later than originally planned, although
delays are not uncommon with space projects). But it will then
take another 6 years to fully manufacture and launch their planned
constellation, which takes us to around 2030. Project Kuiper has
so far secured 83 future launches on rockets from Arianespace,
Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance, and they have
options for additional launches with Blue Origin, providing enough
capacity to deploy the majority of their satellite constellation. The
project has yet to announced what sort of prices and packages
consumers can expect from the service, but they’ll probably aim to
be competitive with Starlink.

Vodafone Sets Up Space Research Hub to Develop 4G/5G Satellite

Connectivity

Vodafone is taking mobile connectivity to new heights—literally. at sea, or in remote rural areas where traditional networks struggle.
The company isto open Europe’s first dedicated research hub in The research centre will be housed within Vodafone’s European
Malaga for integrating low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite and land-based Innovation Centre in Málaga and will be backed by a grant from
mobile broadband services. This initiative will enable seamless the Spanish Space Agency. Key collaborations include AST
switching between 4G/5G networks and satellite connections using SpaceMobile and the University of Málaga (UMA) . Vodafone is
standard smartphones. The Málaga hub will focus on designing, also inviting tech innovators, developers, and industry partners to
testing, and validating open-source hardware, software, and next- help build a new European ecosystem for hybrid space-terrestrial
generation processing chips capable of operating seamlessly communications.
across both space and terrestrial networks. A dedicated *space-
to-land gateway* will allow operators and technology partners to
test and refine their services using AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird
satellites before commercial deployment. Currently, satellite
services require dishes, terminals, or satellite phones for direct
connections. Vodafone’s vision is to make satellite connectivity as
seamless as switching between WiFi and mobile networks. Earlier
this month, T-Mobile US announced it was beta-testing direct
connections between regular devices and Starlink satellites. Last
month, Vodafone made the world’s first space-powered mobile
video call using this technology, connecting a phone directly
to AST SpaceMobile’s satellites. The new hub will accelerate
Vodafone’s mission to eliminate coverage gaps for its 340 million
customers across 15 countries, as well as for network partners in
45 additional markets. Vodafone is promising an era where users
can stay connected anywhere—whether deep in the mountains, out

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