Various direct satellite-to-device services have now emerged based on technologies that have attracted a lot of attention. Early direct satellite-to-device services typically only offered SOS-type alerts and text messaging, but these early-stage services have transitioned, developing into more widely attractive offerings of internet access and video. This panel will examine what the different technologies have in common and ask if we are witnessing moves towards some form of standardisation, or a countervailing movement that is off-trend and favouring proprietary solutions.

• Is advancing standardisation in satcoms now just a question of time and an inevitability?
• How does the direct satellite-to-device environment build upon 3GPP Release 17?
• To what extent does the direct satellite-to-device environment mean that satcoms is now centre-stage in telecoms?

Crews and passengers on aeroplanes, ships, and railways, and in cars, all share the expectation that, no matter their location, there should be no limitations to broadband access to the internet, with uninterrupted service capable of supporting streaming, social media, and bandwidth hungry work applications. This session will undertake a detailed exploration the future of these mobility markets for a technologically fast-evolving satellite sector, both space and ground segment.

• How are airlines leveraging new satcoms technologies to serve passenger and commercial operational needs?
• Shipping lines need satcoms for developing their use of operational technologies. Why is this so vital?
• Satcoms, cellular, and the private car. What is the prognosis for this market segment?

Today’s connectivity revolution and digital transformation brings ever-increasing demands and opportunities. With billions of new devices coming online, transforming what we expect from our satellite and wireless networks, we take a look at how one LEO network will enable the new connectivity of the future.

• How can the potential of LEO be unlocked for data networks and services and what are new opportunities for new business models and end-user services
• An ultra-secure network is the holy grail for global enterprise and government communications. Are the dynamic powers of laser communications the key?
• Partnering with LEO enables ME satellite and telecom operators in search of growth to complement and expand services that cannot be supported by GEO alone

This session will be an exploration of the advantages of incorporating the Cloud – plus its logical extensions of virtualisation and edge-computing – into satellite businesses to fulfil the full potential of satellite’s full interoperability with telcos and MNOs, with satellites as switches in the greater telecommunications ‘network of networks’. There is an increasingly widespread adoption of cloud-native platforms and methodologies but the question is whether this is adoption of something monolithic or manifest as fragmented, siloed, and differentiated Cloud infrastructures that don’t readily scale.

• Is the Cloud monolithic or fragmented?
• How important are virtualisation and edge-computing in relation to the Cloud?
• What does full interoperability with telcos and MNOs actually mean?

“Serving the underserved” encompasses both the digital divide between developed nations and countries with a poorly developed capacity to secure reliable internet broadband access; and, the digital divide between well-served urban and suburban areas and underserved rural and remote regions. What are the principal barriers to serving the underserved – Is it connectivity? Or, is it affordability? Or, is it regulatory? What is the role of Universal Service Funds? This panel will attempt to answer these and other questions vexing providers, governments, and those on the other side of the divide.

• How is our understanding of the digital divide changing and driving the initiatives to effectively, and finally, reach a solution?
• Will NGSO platforms make a real difference?
• How important will be the role of direct satellite-to-cellular device services in resolving the needs of the underserved?

• Preparing the ground segment for digital transformation
• Providing a simple, open, interoperable Digital IF/RF standard
• What innovations have already happened and what are the biggest considerations for the industry?

• Overcoming interference between orbits
• De-orbiting guidelines to reduce end-of-life debris
• Best tools available for space situational awareness

• Innovation in place to meet demands of various networks
• Ensuring quality and seamless connectivity with the development of new technologies
• How can the operators best work together?

• What is the potential for AI in satcoms?
• Industry cooperation for operations optimization
• Lessons learnt from projects and research executed

• How do we encourage the younger generation of satcoms engineers?
• How do we address the gender imbalance?
• What projects already exist and what more is needed?

• What impact does 5G have?
• What technology is in place to resolve that?
• What is the role of regulation and governments?
• How will 6G rollout impact this?
• What more do we need to ensure we continue to remain interference free?