Page 65 - SAMENA Trends - January 2022

SATELLITE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Google Cloud Inks Satellite Connectivity Deal with SpaceX

Google Cloud and SpaceX recently global satellite internet service, bringing countries and continents, quickly and
announced a new partnership to deliver businesses and consumers seamless securely. Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President,
data, cloud services, and applications to connectivity to the cloud and Internet, and Infrastructure at Google Cloud said that
customers at the network edge, leveraging enabling the delivery of critical enterprise we are delighted to partner with SpaceX to
Starlink's ability to provide high-speed applications to virtually any location. ensure that organizations with distributed
broadband internet around the world and Organizations with broad footprints, like footprints have seamless, secure, and fast
Google Cloud's infrastructure. Under this public sector agencies, businesses with access to the critical applications and
partnership, SpaceX will begin to locate presences at the network edge, or those services they need to keep their teams up
Starlink ground stations within Google operating in rural or remote areas, often and running. SpaceX President and Chief
data center properties, enabling the secure, require access to applications running in Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said
low-latency, and reliable delivery of data the cloud, or to cloud services like analytics, that combining Starlink's high-speed,
from more than 1,500 Starlink satellites artificial intelligence, or machine learning. low-latency broadband with Google's
launched to orbit to-date to locations at Connectivity from Starlink's constellation infrastructure and capabilities provides
the network edge via Google Cloud. Google of low-Earth-orbit satellites provides a path global organizations with the secure and
Cloud's high-capacity private network for these organizations to deliver data and fast connection that modern organizations
will support the delivery of Starlink's applications to teams distributed across expect.

S. Korean Lab, EU Develop Intercontinental 5G-Satellite Network System

Omani Space Communication
Technologies has launched a tender for
the design, manufacture and launch of
its first satellite called "Omansat-1", Al
Arabiya reported citing state television.
The Sultanate intends to launch its first
satellite dedicated to telecommunications
in 2024. The company intends to launch
a high-capacity communications satellite
and its related services, covering the whole
Sultanate, its economic waters and the
foreign markets associated with it, the
company said in a filing. It invited technical
and commercial bids and said the last
date to purchase the tender document is
July 15, while bids are due by September
21. Space Communication Technologies is
one of the Omani Telecom and Information
Technology Group companies.

SpaceX Now Has 1,469 Active Starlink Satellites

In July 2021, Musk said that laser links in “We’re, I think on our way, to having a of satellites. Last year, Musk at the Mobile
orbit can reduce long-distance latency by few hundred thousand users, possibly World Congress (MWC) conference said
as much as 50 per cent, due to the higher over 500,000 users within 12 months,” he Starlink should have roughly 500,000 users
speed of light in vacuum and shorter added. He said Starlink is already running within the next 12 months. Until November
path than undersea fiber. A recent report in 12 countries and expanding. Starlink 2021, SpaceX had added roughly 11,000
said that the satellite internet division shipped 100,000 terminals to customers users per month since beginning service in
of SpaceX now has more than 1,45,000 recently. The project aims to provide global October 2020.
users across 25 countries globally. broadband connectivity via a constellation

65 JANUARY 2022