Communications Satellites

Satellite Design


Mobile Satellite Service Satellite Design

MSS providers offer satellite-based communications directly to consumers through devices such as mobile phones. Traditionally, MSS has provided basic voice and data services to ships and locations underserved by terrestrial facilities. MSS is also particularly valuable in the aftermath of natur… Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity,…

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Fixed Satellite Service Satellite Design

International rights to geostationary orbital slots are vital to FSS operators that need to reach the most promising markets. The orbital arc is becoming congested with more satellites utilizing the traditional C- and Ku-band frequencies, which raises the importance of careful coordination amon… Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide to Global…

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Satellite Design

The FSS and MSS industries had served their discrete markets using unique capabilities, but advancing technologies and evolving market conditions have eroded much of the contrast between these two services. Terrestrial mobile telephony has expanded greatly around the world, reducing the MSS adv… Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide to Global…

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2014 – Military Communications

Global, dedicated, and secure communications networks are vital to governments, militaries, and agencies around the world. Increased demand for capacity—particularly secure connectivity using non-commercial frequency bands—continued to drive deployment of dedicated military communications satellite systems. The U.S. military bought significant capacity from commercial operators such as Intelsat and SES in 2014. However, the way the military buys the bandwidth has been criticized by commercial satellite communications services as expensive and outdated.

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2013 – Military Communications

Dedicated and secure communications links are vital to defense agencies around the world. Increasing demand for capacity—particularly secure connectivity using non-commercial frequency bands—has driven the deployment of dedicated military communications satellites. The U.S. military buys a significant portion of its capacity from commercial operators such as Intelsat and SES. However, the United States also relies on military-specific systems such as the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) program, supplying dedicated communications to U.S. and allied military forces around the globe.

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2013 – MSS Satellite Design Activities

The original and still-dominant MSS operator, Inmarsat, uses a fleet of nine GEO satellites to provide mobile services to land, maritime, and aviation customers. Since its founding in 1979, Inmarsat’s core business had always been voice and low-rate data transmissions to maritime customers.[efn… Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide to Global…

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