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Satellite Mobile Phones to Take Overtake GSM Phones – Aroh

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Mr. Andrew Aroh is the founding President of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) Nigeria. He is a renowned Satellite Communication technology development expertise, and has hosted two satellite industry conference and Exhibitions in Nigeria since 2007. he spoke to chris alu in Abuja on issues in Satellite Communications in the country.

Understanding Satellite footprint
Good, the Footprint provides a picture of the signal that is received at a location in the country with respect to what effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) is from the satellite. This picture gives us a good idea of what areas of the country receive the lowest level signals and what areas receive the highest signals.
SSPI Nigeria in conjunction with its headquarters in New York (USA) creates and promotes programs that provide (General Services Administration Programs) professionals engineering services for all space related government agencies as well as the corporate events sponsors using or, offering satellite-based communications business services. The general services administration programs covers but not limited to the following areas regulations; strategic planning; concept development and requirement analysis; system design, engineering and integration; test and evaluation.
In the case of footprint, to ensure effective communications at all times, the designated side of the satellite that has the antennas attached to it is always pointed toward the area on the earth that a signal covers.
As system planners, it is out task to ensure that any earth station design introduced into a satellite communications system has the necessary virtue of giving reliable, high quality communications.
Whilst modern satellite antenna systems seek to improve the usage of the basic resources, a further requirement is that of re-configurability of the coverage while in orbit.
With this capability the antenna radiation characteristics will be subject to modification so as to change the coverage area to meet different traffic demands, modify the coverage area offer the satellite has been relocated in a different orbital location.
Provide discrimination against interference signals from varying locations.
A major factor in the development of modern communication satellite is the increasingly stringent requirements in terms of beam-pointing accuracy that must be met by the on-board antenna subsystem for some missions the required pointing accuracy cannot be met by the spacecraft attitude orbit control system (AOCS) control  loop to involve an RF sensor, integrated within the antenna to be pointed, which serves to lock the beam onto a ground beacon, positioned within the required coverage zone. More sophisticated RF sensing techniques will become an integrate part of the design of most satellite antennas.
Satellite phones and GSM phones competing
Improvements in handsets have already taken place such that smaller, more streamlined terminals have been introduced to the MSS market. There are now satellite mobile phones that weigh less than 120g. Unlike the GSM handsets, the reliability of satellite takes away any inconvenience or worry of interrupted calls and lack of reception especially in urban areas and remote locations providing the advantages of easy mobility and seamless service beyond land-based telecommunication systems.
Competitively, Satellite Communications has more advanced wireless technology for personal tracking. A typical example is the Globaltracker –sport satellite GPS messenger and personal tracker. This is a small satellite/GPS hand-device that enables you to be in communication with family, friends and employees anywhere, anytime. Spot can communicate pre-programmed messages even where GSM does not work and your location can be tracked on the Globaltracker map.
Generally, market projections have shown that the satellite phones already incorporate GSM phones, so that very soon subscribers will prefer to buy satellite phones instead of GSM phones. The prices of satellite phones are coming down drastically to enhances its market competitiveness with GSM phones.
 Aeronautical Satellite Communication 
Despite an industry- wide downturn, aeronautical satellite communication services are gaining momentum. Offering aeronautical services can be a very sound business for service providers who own and operate a global network of ground earth stations.
Industry observers also are recognizing the value for aeronautical communications and other niche services where satellites hold a technological edge and provide a rare opportunity to turn a profit.
Aeronautical satellite communications service is a market that has been evolving for many years and may finally have come of age. Demand is growing, particularly among business travelers onboard commercial airliners. Roughly 70 to 80 percent of aeronautical services revenues come from commercial business passengers. Such users need to communicate instantly. As a result of this demand, an increasing number of airlines are upgrading their in-flight communications infrastructure. This demand is generating revenue opportunities for Earth stations operators, Equipment manufacturers and Content distributors.
Professionalism in the sector
A few years ago, Nigeria drafted a roadmap for the pursuit of focused space program.
The expert committee considered the preparation of the roadmap under two groups, namely – Satellite Development and Rocket Propulsion to arrive among others at the following:
Space related programs must be encouraged right from the primary to tertiary institutions in terms of space education and capacity building, so as to create a continuous pool of experts.
Space technology research and development of personnel must be encouraged in terms of adequate motivation. The expert committee noted the challenges of the space program but believed that a focused space program with these challenges would in due course position Nigeria among other nations of the world in knowledge-driven economy and leverage Nigeria among the committees of space nations. In support of the above motives, that SSPI Nigeria created SSPI Nigeria Student’s chapters, mentorship forum, and SSPI student’s satellite programs
We encourages start-up of student chapters in Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges and other tertiary institutions of learning all over Nigeria.
Service provision between Vsat and WiMax
The only way to measure efficiency and reliability in the global telecommunications market is the ability to provide world class Vsat and wireless network services to broad subscribers.
For satellite telecommunications, quality of service (QOS) is the same across the board, whether a business is located in the jungles or in the beautiful mega city.
This seamless uninterrupted world class service provision has become the bane of satellite communications; judging by the growing needs of subscribers who would want to enjoy.
Voice, data, video and other available communications services on a single network
Consider the typical satellite-based products such as modem, modem accessories, converters, transceivers, amplifiers and terminals. These products come in the range of equipment some of which range among the most efficient in specific industry areas like: the Low Density Parity Check Coding (LDPC) regarded as the industry’s most bandwidth – efficient forward Error Correction (FEC), among others.
Today, there are satellite companies that have experienced extremely high demand for Vsat connectivity both in the metropolitan and rural areas. Such companies will continue to invest in new satellite capacity solutions, which are targeted at enhancing internet usage in the country at affordable costs.
For Wimax, the service provision is currently in C-band which is dedicated to satellite base stations and needed to provide Wimax technology. We all know the limitations of the current operating base stations in terms of power and quality of service. Wimax uses lien of sight (LOS) as well as near line of sight (NLOS) transmissions.
Unlike Vsat, WiMax lacks a clear edge and does not offer more friendly services as a one-stop shop to develop all needed services to any subscribers on one platform. People have talked about spectral efficiency, throughput (through OFDMA) as the two main advantages of Mobile WiMax. But consider the fact that the intelligent Mobile Gateway design is said to address existing limitations within the mobile network by providing voice and data convergence in terms of capacity, throughput, mobility, high availability through full redundancy, fault tolerant, self-healing capabilities.
Therefore considering the ARPU, Opex as well as Capex, then it becomes clear that the cost effectiveness moves to VSAT. In addition, there are a lot of features and standards that every Wimax provide has to support to be compliant
Position of Vsat in the Next Five Years
Vsat satellite data communications are not only strategic to the United States but to China and Nigeria. The great growth in the U.S. for Vsat broadband is now emerging in China and Nigeria. This is a stable satellite platform for numerous government and business applications that will enhance knowledge, productivity, and profits.
The architecture for a typical Vsat network employs a common hub and star topology. Interactive data communications can be addressed by properly engineered bi-directional satellite links that involve multiple transmitting earth stations.
The Vsat demonstrates that such networks are practical (e.g, easy to install and centrally managed), reliable (e.g, 99.9% availability) and cost effective (e.g., saving users as much as 20% over what an equivalent terrestrial network would cost).
Since 2005, Vsat systems have become attractive to smaller enterprises as well as for big organizations in Nigeria.
In the next five years, the bright spot in the Vsat market is the growth in revenue from applications. The convergence in communications services has provided a new lease of life for the (FSS) segment. Voice transmission is diminishing while data is expanding in a quantum basis. Today you can have one network like the World Wide Web IP that can carry not one application but many more. In a Mesh network you can communicate to any site without first connecting to a central hub site.
Growing Digital Divide
A clear digital divide exists between IT resources in African countries, where state-of-the-art networks, telephone, radio, TV, Internet, satellite are needed.
This divide demonstrates the differences in facilities for people to communicate, based on their geographic location, living standard, and level of education.
Even though access to communications resources increase each year, from a million Internet users worldwide in 1990 to five billion in 2010. This clearly requires a favourable regulatory framework, the creative application of new technologies especially Vsat satellite access solutions, creative content and services focused on local requirements, and the integration that will benefit all the people
The key for satellite service providers is to adjust to the specific end-user applications in fields such as government, education, and business.
The Global Market is changing in two ways; first in broadband via small, low cost terminals at Ku and Ka-band  frequencies, and secondly in the high demand for satellite communications in homeland security and military applications. The trends are very clear; China will soon lead the U.S. with a strong support of broadband Vsat satellite technologies.
The convergence of communications services will convert the African market into the leading economic platform for worldwide economic expansion.
Terrestrial networks based on land transport systems will be seamlessly converged with advanced satellite based telecommunication network technologies.
The rapid introduction of wired line or wireless broadband transmission and the availability of low-cost computer equipment are essential for the success of the Africa region and Nigerian in particular.
About SSPI 
The Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) is an international professional development, member- benefit society serving professionals in the satellite communications industry, throughout their working lives.
Through the establishment of local chapters (such as SSPI Nigeria) SSPI furthers the purposes of the society at the regional level providing members with the opportunities to advance their careers through information sharing, outreach and professional networking, and promoting entry of talented students and new graduates into the profession thereby contributing to the growth and development of the communications industry regionally and the world at large.
SSPI Nigeria vision is to encourage the enhancement of professionalism in the satellite communications industry for members through creation, promotion and support of educational programs as well as the adaptation of the provision of telecom/broadcast services via satellite into the fast growing ICT market in Nigeria.
Challenges of Satellite Communications
For the Satellite Communication Industry, though existing geo-synchronous satellites are able to reach rural and remote areas, they provide slow internet connectivity because of their distance from the earth and they’re expensive and fully subscribed.
SSPI Nigeria is aware that Satellite-based companies will soon deliver fiber like internet backhaul services using a constellation of medium-orbit satellite. This means that data can be quickly transmitted to and from even the most remote locations such as Inland Nigeria and Africa at large.
The satellite constellation will provide high-speed, low-latency backhaul services at speeds reaching into the gigabits per second.

 


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EAIF Commits Additional US$30M to Support Indorama’s Expansion with Third Urea Plant in Nigeria

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The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, has committed a US$30 million senior debt facility to Indorama, a leading producer and exporter of fertiliser.

The investment enables the construction of a new plant, port terminal, handling stations, and storage facilities in Nigeria, providing a major boost for the country’s agricultural sector, which is a crucial driver of the country and region’s economic growth.

EAIF acted as a co-lender within a broader debt financing package arranged by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), mobilising US$1.25 billion from a syndicate of impact investors, development finance solutions, and commercial banks.

EAIF’s investment increases the Fund’s lending to the company to $111 million, reflecting a joint-ambition to accelerate Indorama’s growth strategy and Nigeria’s aspirations for diversification and industrialisation.

The new funding unlocks fresh capital to enable the construction of a dedicated port terminal and state-of-the-art urea fertiliser plant, anticipating an increase in its current capacity from 2.8 million metric tons to 4.2 million metric tons per annum.

The expansion leverages the company’s strategic location as a freight-competitive supplier serving the needs of significant urea markets in the southern Atlantic, including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, as well as West Africa, South Africa and the USA.

The facility bolsters Indorama’s capacity, extending its complex beyond the current two urea fertiliser plants, which is well poised to meet the entire demand of the Nigerian market.

The third urea plant aims to maximise output to meet the food demands of growing populations as disruptions precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis affect food security around the globe.

Global crop production is reliant on the international supply of fertiliser. The landmark project is expected to position Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, as a leading producer of urea among the top 10 producers worldwide.

Contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 9 on Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, EAIF’s loan forms part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) objective for new infrastructure to drive action on climate and nature.

The construction of the port terminal and third plant is set to begin in 2024, with commercial operations expected to commence in 2026. During the construction phase, it is estimated that over 500 jobs will be generated, further contributing to economic development in Nigeria and beyond.

Commenting on the transaction, Olivia Carballo, Managing Director, Emerging Market, Fixed Income at Ninety One, the fund manager of the EAIF, said: “Our continued support for Indorama demonstrates EAIF’s commitment to harnessing the region’s significant economic prospects.

Africa’s potential for industrialisation is tremendous, and this landmark project is a testament to Nigeria’s enhanced ability to produce and export competitively priced, high-quality fertiliser to farmers in regional and international markets, which will remain a priority for years to come.”

Munish Jindal, CEO, Indorama, said: “Indorama will utilise state-of-the-art technology and adhere to stringent environmental standards to ensure optimal efficiency, product quality and sustainability.

We believe that the establishment of this fertiliser will position Nigeria as a key player in the global agricultural market. We are committed to maximising the potential of this project to benefit farmers, communities, and stakeholders across the value chain.

The involvement of esteemed lenders like the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund will not only help Nigeria’s in becoming one of the largest exporter of the fertilisers in the region but will also address the issues of global food security. We extend our sincere appreciation to all our partners, lenders, and stakeholders for their unwavering support and dedication to our shared vision.”

Sérgio Pimenta, IFC Vice President for Africa, said: “Reliable access to high quality fertiliser is essential for food production and food security around the world. IFC’s investment in Indorama, along with African, Asian, European, and American partners, signals our joint commitment to support the agriculture sector, Nigeria’s economy, and the expansion of Indorama, an important supplier in the global food chain.”


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Lifi.net Achieves 500mbps Speed to Rank among Fastest Internet Providers in Nigeria

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Lifi.net, a fast-growing internet service provider, has attained internet speed that is many times faster than the documented average internet speed in Nigeria as at January 2024.

Lifi.net Image

Latest disclosure by LIfi.net shows that the company now delivers up to 500 megabits per seconds (mbps) internet speed in unlimited services provided to homes and offices. This is higher than the country’s average internet speed of 26.74mbps.

As internet subscriber base increases in Nigeria and hit 161.68 million in January, the quality of internet service provided by operators to their users still constitutes concerns as 2G network which has limited speed dominates the space by covering 57.78%.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed through its latest data that while 3G is responsible for 9.36% of internet users in the country, 4G covers 31.75% of internet access and 5G internet only serves 1.11% of internet users in the country.

This combination explains why Nigeria ranked 93rd on the global mobile internet speed test out of 144 countries tested by Ookla, a U.S-based internet speed analysis firm, in January, putting the country’s median internet speed at 26.74 megabits per second (mbps).

However, Lifi.net (NT/007/22), a licensee of NCC, is among few Internet service providers (ISPs) that deliver fastest internet speed in Nigeria with up 350mbps for homes and 2500mbps for offices while assisting new ISPs with speeds over 5000mbps at the data centre and delivering the capacity to their various hubs at no extra cost.

“For over five years Lifi.net has been a leading network company, providing quality internet solutions at the speed of light and at affordable rates. We have highly technical and hard-working personnel and partners. We are very skilled at managing Cisco and Mikrotik Routers’ deployment, configurations, and integrations, fibre laying, and splicing,” says Abraham Oluwambe, Chief Operating Officer of Lifi.net.

He added that as operators attract more subscribers to their respective networks, they should equally place a premium on upgrading the quality of services to deliver broadband at the fastest internet speed possible.

“Our services are not only widespread but also affordable. We believe in making quality connectivity accessible to all. We understand the importance of budget-friendly solutions. Our cost-effective broadband plans ensure you get the best value for your investment without compromising on quality.

“While providing high-speed and reliable broadband connectivity, operators may choose the floor or the peak performance of its service. At Lifi.net, we always go for the latter,” he said.


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Our 2023 Ads Safety Report

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By Duncan Lennox, VP & GM of Ads Privacy and Safety

Billions of people around the world rely on Google products to provide relevant and trustworthy information, including ads. That’s why we have thousands of people working around the clock to safeguard the digital advertising ecosystem. Today, we are releasing our annual Ads Safety Report to share the progress we’ve made in enforcing our advertiser and publisher policies and to hold ourselves accountable in our work of maintaining a healthy ad-supported internet.

The key trend in 2023 was the impact of generative AI. This new technology introduced significant and exciting changes to the digital advertising industry, from performance optimization to image editing. Of course, generative AI also presents new challenges. We take these challenges seriously and will outline the work we are doing to address them head-on.

Just as importantly, generative AI presents a unique opportunity to improve our enforcement efforts significantly. Our teams are embracing this transformative technology, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), so that we can better keep people safe online.

Gen AI Bolsters Enforcement 

Our safety teams have long used AI-driven machine learning systems to enforce our policies at scale. It’s how, for years, we’ve been able to detect and block billions of bad ads before a person ever sees them. But, while still highly sophisticated, these machine learning models have historically needed to be trained extensively – they often rely on hundreds of thousands, if not millions of examples of violative content.

LLMs, on the other hand, are able to rapidly review and interpret content at a high volume, while also capturing important nuances within that content. These advanced reasoning capabilities have already resulted in larger-scale and more precise enforcement decisions on some of our more complex policies. Take, for example, our policy against Unreliable Financial Claims which includes ads promoting get-rich-quick schemes. The bad actors behind these types of ads have grown more sophisticated. They  adjust their tactics and tailor ads around new financial services or products, such as investment advice or digital currencies, to scam users.

To be sure, traditional machine learning models are trained to detect these policy violations. Yet, the fast-paced and ever-changing nature of financial trends make it, at times, harder to differentiate between legitimate and fake services and quickly scale our automated enforcement systems to combat scams. LLMs are more capable of quickly recognizing new trends in financial services, identifying the patterns of bad actors who are abusing those trends and distinguishing a legitimate business from a get-rich-quick scam. This has helped our teams become even more nimble in confronting emerging threats of all kinds.

We’ve only just begun to leverage the power of LLMs for ads safety. Gemini, launched publicly last year, is Google’s most capable AI modeI. We’re excited to have started bringing its sophisticated reasoning capabilities into our ads safety and enforcement efforts.

Our Work to Prevent Fraud and Scams

In 2023, scams and fraud across all online platforms were on the rise. Bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics to manipulate digital advertising in order to scam people and legitimate businesses alike. To counter these ever-shifting threats, we quickly updated policies, deployed rapid-response enforcement teams and sharpened our detection techniques.

  • In November, we launched our Limited Ads Serving policy, which is designed to protect users by limiting the reach of advertisers with whom we are less familiar. Under this policy, we’ve implemented a “get-to-know-you” period for advertisers who don’t yet have an established track record of good behavior, during which impressions for their ads might be limited in certain circumstances–for example, when there is an unclear relationship between the advertiser and a brand they are referencing. Ultimately, Limited Ads Serving, which is still in its early stages, will help ensure well-intentioned advertisers are able to build up trust with users, while limiting the reach of bad actors and reducing the risk of scams and misleading ads.

  • A critical part of protecting people from online harm hinges on our ability to respond to new abuse trends quickly. Toward the end of 2023 and into 2024, we faced a targeted campaign of ads featuring the likeness of public figures to scam users, often through the use of deepfakes. When we detected this threat, we created a dedicated team to respond immediately. We pinpointed patterns in the bad actors’ behavior, trained our automated enforcement models to detect similar ads and began removing them at scale. We also updated our misrepresentation policy to better enable us to rapidly suspend the accounts of bad actors.

Overall, we blocked or removed 206.5 million advertisements for violating our misrepresentation policy, which includes many scam tactics and 273.4 million advertisements for violating our financial services policy. We also blocked or removed over 1 billion advertisements for violating our policy against abusing the ad network, which includes promoting malware.

The fight against scam ads is an ongoing effort, as we see bad actors operating with more sophistication, at a greater scale, using new tactics such as deepfakes to deceive people. We’ll continue to dedicate extensive resources, making significant investments in detection technology and partnering with organizations like the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Stop Scams UK to facilitate information sharing and protect consumers worldwide.

Investing in Election Integrity

Political ads are an important part of democratic elections. Candidates and parties use ads to raise awareness, share information and engage potential voters. In a year with several major elections around the world, we want to make sure voters continue to trust the election ads they may see on our platforms. That’s why we have long-standing identity verification and transparency requirements for election advertisers, as well as restrictions on how these advertisers can target their election ads. All election ads must also include a “paid for by” disclosure and are compiled in our publicly available transparency report. In 2023, we verified more than 5,000 new election advertisers and removed more than 7.3M election ads that came from advertisers who did not complete verification.

Last year, we were the first tech company to launch a new disclosure requirement for election ads containing synthetic content. As more advertisers leverage the power and opportunity of AI, we want to make sure we continue to provide people with the greater transparency and the information they need to make informed decisions.

Additionally, we’ve continued to enforce our policies against ads that promote demonstrably false election claims that could undermine trust or participation in democratic processes.

Overall 2023 Numbers

Our goal is to catch bad ads and suspend fraudulent accounts before they make it onto our platforms or remove them immediately once detected. AI is improving our enforcement on all these fronts. In 2023, we blocked or removed over 5.5 billion ads, slightly up from the prior year, and 12.7 million advertiser accounts, nearly double from the previous year. Similarly, we work to protect advertisers and people by removing our ads from publisher pages and sites that violate our policies, such as sexually explicit content or dangerous products. In 2023, we blocked or restricted ads from serving on more than 2.1 billion publisher pages, up slightly from 2022. We are also getting better at tackling pervasive or egregious violations. We took broader site-level enforcement action on more than 395,000 publisher sites, up markedly from 2022.

To put the impact of AI on this work into perspective: last year more than 90% of our publisher page level enforcement started with the use of machine learning models, including our latest LLMs. Of course, any advertiser or publisher can still appeal an enforcement action if they think we got it wrong. Our teams will review it and, in the cases where we find errors, use it to improve our systems.

Staying Nimble and Looking Ahead

When it comes to ads safety, a lot can change over the course of a year: the introduction of new technology such as generative AI to novel abuse trends and global conflicts. And the digital advertising space has to be nimble and ready to react. That’s why we are continuously developing new policies, strengthening our enforcement systems, deepening cross-industry collaboration and offering more control to people, publishers and advertisers.

In 2023, for example, we launched the Ads Transparency Center, a searchable hub of all ads from verified advertisers, which helps people quickly and easily learn more about the ads they see on Search, YouTube and Display. We also updated our suitability controls to make it simpler and quicker for advertisers to exclude topics that they wish to avoid across YouTube and Display inventory. Overall, we made 31 updates to our Ads and Publisher policies.

Though we don’t yet know what the rest of 2024 has in store for us, we are confident that our investments in policy, detection and enforcement will prepare us for any challenges ahead.


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