Communications Satellites
Satellite Design
2018 – Swarm/FCC – Snapshot
January 2018 marked the first time a U.S. communications satellite operator deployed satellites without the…
2018 – Communications Satellites Breakdown – Snapshot
The top three operators of the overall number of communications satellites deployed in 2018 are headquartered in . . .
2018 – Communications Satellites Breakdown by Payload Type – Snapshot
Of the 128 communications satellites deployed in 2018, 28% of them (36) involved communications for maritime tracking;
2018 – Communications Satellites Mission Segment Breakdown – Snapshot
The majority of communications satellites deployed in 2018, 66% (85), were for commercial purposes. Civil government missions ranked . . .
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… This article is for subscribers. Please sign up for a subscription or login below.…
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… This article is for subscribers. Please sign up for a subscription or…
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… This article is for subscribers. Please sign up for a subscription or…
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.
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.
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.1&nb… This article is for subscribers. Please sign up for a subscription or…