Page 126 - SAMENA Trends - July-August 2022
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ARTICLE  SAMENA TRENDS

        O3b  mPOWER’s  real  superpower  is  its   initial constellation of 11 satellites in the   unprecedented  levels  of  automation,
        software that  is  spanning  the satellites,   medium-earth orbit (MEO), that will cover   revolutionary for the industry.
        ground stations,  modems, antennas  and   96  percent of the population  and areas   You’ve already announced  a number  of
        even through to the cloud. Our vision for the   where connectivity is needed most. It will   O3b mPOWER customers – what are
        future of satellite-based connectivity is that   have significantly more capacity than the   some of the early applications the market
        customers  are  able to  simply  order what   previous generation of MEO.  expects to see?
        they need depending on locations, capacity                               As more new customers  turn towards
        and  other  service  parameters  –  and  the   What about the ground segment?   satellite  connectivity,  the overall  market
        software-driven orchestration implements   This  is  another  fundamental part  of   trend is  that  they  are also  looking for
        the service automatically in real-time.  the  equation,  and  specifically  the  new   resiliency  and  ability  to  benefit  from  the
        There are many different elements coming   ground  stations we are building,  modem   multi-orbit technology.  Today,  we  are the
        together in the O3b mPOWER ecosystem.   technologies,  new  edge  compute  only provider of multi-orbit solutions, and
                                             capabilities  and  the  ability  to  land  traffic   our customers value the performance  of
           As  more new customers            at a managed or private gateway or even   MEO, including  its  ideal balance between

           turn     towards      satellite   directly into Azure or another  cloud  data   reach as  well  as  low  latency and high
           connectivity, the  overall        center.                             throughput.
           market      trend    is    that   For ground, the key area of focus has been   In terms of uses, we see a lot of interest
           they are also  looking  for       on working on next-gen customer terminals   from government customers,  including
                                                                                 those looking to set up sovereign networks,
                                             and antennas – from flat panels to multi-
           resiliency  and  ability to       beam antennas – to suit a wide range of   or use it  to bolster  ISR capabilities,
           benefit  from  the  multi-        market segments and customer business   bringing them to a new level. For fixed data
                                                                                 customers,  there is  strong demand for
                                             requirements. We’ve been actively testing
           orbit  technology. Today,         antennas  for the various segments from   using it for cellular backhaul – like Orange
           we are the  only  provider        multiple  providers,  such  as Isotropic   plans  to  –  as  well  as  expanding  cloud
           of  multi-orbit  solutions,       Systems, Intellian, Comtech,  Gilat, ST   domains to new locations. And, of course,
                                             Engineering iDirect, Orbit, among others.
                                                                                 maritime  where  our cruise clients like
           and  our  customers  value                                            Carnival will use added capacity to create
           the  performance  of  MEO,        You  mentioned  that  software is the real   new customer experiences on ships, bring
                                                                                 better connectivity on more routes. We’re
                                             superpower of O3b mPOWER, what does it
           including its ideal balance       mean in practice?                   also seeing connectivity increasingly added
           between  reach  as well           Software is implemented across all the key   to different classes of maritime vessels.
           as low  latency  and  high        elements of O3b mPOWER. In fact, we are   What can we  expect  next in the O3b
                                             holistically integrating a range of cutting-
           throughput.                       edge software that forms a system – to give   mPOWER journey?
                                             us the flexible, real-time control, supporting   It’s an exciting time for us as our satellites
        To start with space, what can you tell us   our fully  automated vision.  We worked   are undergoing a  series of testing, just
        about the satellites?                with partners like Microsoft for instance,   months away  from launch  time. From
        The ecosystem vision was the driving force   but also with many others, leaders in their   an  ecosystem  perspective, we  continue
        behind the design of O3b mPOWER, and we   specific domain.               expanding  our  partnerships  around
        knew from day one that it was something                                  new antennas  and adding  more ground
        that would  require the  collaboration,   A great example  of this is the Adaptive   stations, these  developments  create an
        engineering  expertise and insights of a   Resource  Control (ARC) that we are   impressive momentum. Most importantly,
        wide range of partners to make it a reality.  developing with Kythera Space Solutions.   we’ll continue to invest and collaborate on
        So, space is indeed one of the fundamental   ARC  enables  control and optimisation of   new software capabilities as O3b mPOWER
        parts of this ecosystem. To build  the   power,  throughput, beams and frequency   is the first system that will not have static
        satellites, we worked closely with  Boeing   allocation across  O3b  mPOWER’s  space   features locked in at launch - but systems
        to  create  the  first  fully  digitised  and   and ground assets – as well as our next-  that can evolve, adapt and change through
        beam-forming  aircraft,  including  an  generation  GEO  satellites.  This  allows   software to address new customer needs.















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