Page 77 - SAMENA Trends - Oct-Nov 2023

SATELLITE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Mira Aerospace Delivers World’s First 5G Connectivity from Stratosphere

Abu Dhabi-based Mira Aerospace said its ApusDuo solar aircraft nications payload enabled a 5G Zoom video call, the first in the
has successfully conducted a 5G connectivity test, marking the world. The test system was composed of a service link from the
world’s first successful delivery of 5G connectivity from a fixed- communications payload installed on ApusDuo in the stratosphere
wing HAPS (high altitude pseudo satellite) autonomous aircraft in and a feeder link from a terrestrial 5G base station. Since the radio
the stratosphere. The demonstration was conducted in Rwandan waves transmitted and received operated on the same frequencies
airspace in collaboration with its partners – Bayanat, a provider of as existing smartphones and devices, a regular 5G smartphone
world-class AI-powered geospatial solutions, and Uavos, an expert was used in the test.
in developing unmanned solutions. The 5G connectivity demon-
stration follows a previous stratospheric flight test conducted in
Rwanda in June 2023, during which Mira Aerospace’s ApusDuo
carried a dummy version of the payload. The stratosphere-ready
communications payload continuously delivered 5G connectivity
for approximately 73 minutes in the stratosphere during ApusDuo’s
stratospheric flight, during which it reached a maximum altitude
of 16.9 km. During the test, the stratosphere-ready 5G commu-

Kazakhstan to Permit Starlink for General Users Next Year

Bagdat Musin, head of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital speed satellite broadband service in the country, reports Profit.kz.
Development, Innovation & Aerospace Industry (MDAI), has said at Currently, Kazakh individuals are known to be illegally connecting
a government briefing that legislation will be amended sometime user terminals to the Starlink service, with MDAI spokesperson
in 2024 to permit the general usage of SpaceX’s Starlink high Dias Tolegenov quoted as saying that authorities are pursuing
users and sellers of such terminals to issue warnings and impose
fines, whilst the MDAI is conducting negotiations with SpaceX to
prevent the activation of Starlink terminals in Kazakhstan until
appropriate changes can be made to the legislation. However,
Minister Musin was vague on the timeframe for achieving legal
permission, saying: ‘I can’t say in the first half of the year or in the
second, because everything depends on the Mazhilis [lower house
of parliament]. That is, first from our development of the model,
then we will come to the Mazhilis and continue to discuss. If the
Mazhilis supports it, it will be accepted. By the end of next year we
will definitely resolve the issue.’ The Kazakh government recently
launched a pilot project for connecting schools with Starlink, with
ten rural schools so far connected and 2,000 set to be linked up to
the Low Earth Orbit (LEO)-based service within six months.

Starlink Satellite Internet Has Become Available in Georgia

SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet has launched in Georgia, SpaceX
founder Elon Musk wrote on his page on the social network X
(formerly Twitter), APA reports. Starlink Georgia was registered at
the end of June 2022. In mid-July, the Georgian Communications
Commission granted the company authorization to begin operating
in the republic. Starlink is a global satellite communications
system project. It was developed by SpaceX, and founded by Musk
in 2002. The Starlink system is designed to provide Internet access
to users around the world by deploying a large number of small
devices weighing up to 500 kg in low-Earth orbit.

77 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2023