Page 87 - SAMENA Trends - January-February 2023

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Ontario Firm Signs $67M Deal to Provide Satellite Internet to Nunavut Businesses

Galaxy Broadband Communications Inc. has struck a $67-million to people in remote areas, similar to Starlink. But Galaxy
deal to provide satellite internet service to businesses in the Broadband will focus on internet for businesses, organizations
territory. The Ontario-based communications company announced and governments in Nunavut. That service is expected in Iqaluit by
the deal. It’s a partnership with OneWeb, which provides the March, said Doug Harvey, vice-president of business development,
satellites. OneWeb uses low-orbit satellites to provide internet sales and marketing for Galaxy Broadband, in an interview with
Nunatsiaq News. “It just made sense for us to be able to lock up
that bandwidth and deliver this service,” he said. The company aims
to have all 25 Nunavut communities in service by the end of the
year. Galaxy Broadband already offers satellite internet to mining
companies, such as Agnico Eagle, so expanding further North
was the next step, said Harvey. He said low-orbit satellites provide
connections less latency, which is the amount of time an internet
connection lag. OneWeb satellites have a 140 millisecond latency,
while before low-orbit satellite internet was available in Nunavut,
latencies were closer to a 650-millisecond range. This will be better
for work features, such as virtual meetings, according to Harvey.
“That’s going to make a big difference,” he said. Galaxy Broadband
has reached out to federal, territorial and municipal governments,
Harvey said, however he declined comment on those discussions.

Inmarsat-6 F2 Satellite Arrives in Florida Aboard an Airbus Beluga

The second Airbus-built Inmarsat-6 geostationary for customers into the 2030s and beyond. Investments made
telecommunications satellite (I-6 F2) has arrived on board an Airbus by Airbus in platform and payload technologies used on I-6 are
Beluga at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida ready for its launch supported by the European Space Agency and national agencies,
in February. The second satellite of the Inmarsat-6 generation in particular the UK Space Agency and CNES, France’s National
is based on Airbus’ ultra-reliable Eurostar E3000 spacecraft and Centre for Space Studies. I-6 F2 has a launch mass of 5.5 tonnes,
will be the 58th Eurostar E3000 built by Airbus. It will be the ninth spacecraft power of 21kW and a design life of more than 15 years.
Eurostar in orbit that is equipped with electric propulsion for orbit The first Airbus-built Inmarsat-6 (I-6 F1) satellite was successfully
raising, reinforcing Airbus’ position as a ‘world leader’ in electric launched in December 2021. It reached its geostationary testing
propulsion. François Gaullier, head of telecommunications and location in summer 2022 and is scheduled to enter service in early
navigation systems at Airbus, said: “I-6 F2, with its sophisticated 2023. I-6 F2 is set to follow after its successful launch and enter
digitally processed payload, will join Inmarsat-6 F1 (I-6 F1) in orbit service in early 2024. Airbus’ geostationary telecommunications
giving Inmarsat even more flexibility, capability and capacity. This satellites have clocked up more than 1,300 years of successful
is the 10th geo-telecommunications satellite we have built for our operation and are in service or being built for all of the world’s
long-term customer Inmarsat, a leading provider of global mobile leading geostationary satellite operators.
satellite communication services, and with I-6 F1 the satellites will
enable a step change in the capabilities and capacity for their Elera
services, and deliver significant additional capacity for their Global
Xpress network.” I-6 F1 and I-6 F2 each feature a large 9m aperture
L-band antenna and six multi-beam Ka-band antennas, giving a high
level of flexibility and connectivity. They also carry new generation
modular digital processors to provide full routing flexibility with
more than 8,000 channels and dynamic power allocation to over
200 spot beams in L-band, per spacecraft. The Ka-band spot beams
are steerable over the full Earth disk, with flexible channel to beam
allocation. The satellites will enable Inmarsat to further enhance
its ‘world-leading’ Elera (L-band) and Global Xpress (Ka-band)
networks respectively, for customers across land, sea and air. They
are also the next step in the company’s plans for the world’s first
multi-dimensional network, Inmarsat Orchestra. The ‘network of
networks’ will build on Inmarsat’s existing space-based capabilities
to provide a transformational growth in capacity and new features

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