Telecom
Satellite Spending Soars to $12Bn
Satellite operators Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Inmarsat are spending billions of dollars on high throughput space assets to deliver faster broadband for shipping
The top four operators of satellites for the maritime sector are investing around US$8.5 billion in new satellites, which will provide huge gains in broadband capacity for VSAT applications.
It is probable that the rest are investing, combined, at least another US$4 billion, if this includes a new constellation of L-band satellites by Iridium Communications.
Intelsat is spending up to US$2 billion on satellites over the next three years, peaking this year at up to US$800 million on high throughput and media satellites.
In the second half of this year Intelsat intends to launch three satellites. This could be followed by another three in 2017 and three in 2018.
Some of these will be used to replace existing satellites, while others are forming the new EpicNG constellation of high throughput Ku-band satellites.
The first of these, Intelsat 29e was brought into operation in the second quarter of this year. It delivers high throughput VSAT for ships operating in the Caribbean and over the North Atlantic.
According to Intelsat director of mobility product management Mark Richman, Intelsat 33e will be launched in August this year, and then Intelsat 32e early in 2017 to boost the EpicNG coverage.
Intelsat 33e arrived at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana in late July in preparation for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket. There are also plans to launch Intelsat 35e in the second quarter of 2017, and Intelsat 37e in the second half of 2017.
“EpicNG is moving forward as scheduled,” Mr Richman said. “The next main event will be bringing Intelsat 33e into service. Then it is building and launching the rest of the EpicNG constellation. Intelsat 29e has coverage over Latin America, the Caribbean, North America’s East Coast and the North Atlantic to Europe. Intelsat 33e will provide coverage over Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.”
The company also plans to launch Horizon 3e to provide spot beam coverage over the Pacific from 2018. “We will then add multiple layers of coverage and redundancy over critical areas of maritime traffic,” said Mr Richman. “The IS-32e satellite is planned to provide more coverage over the Caribbean and the North Atlantic. We will be increasing the coverage in key areas to address the expected growth in ship broadband.”
He continued: “We expect a 60 per cent increase in ship-to-shore traffic in the coming years. This is pretty significant for operations. And crew are bringing more mobile devices on board as they have high expectations for crew welfare services. They are deciding where they want to work according to the crew welfare that is on offer.”
Inmarsat has spent US$1.6 billion on its fifth generation constellation and Global Xpress Ka-band platform.
It has also announced it will proceed with a sixth generation of satellites with Ka-band and L-band transponders, which is likely to need similar amounts of investment as the Inmarsat-5 constellation.
In July, Inmarsat extended its long-term strategic partnership with VT iDirect to develop the next generation of satellite communications technologies.
This expands on the development of the Global Xpress technology. Research and development will create new solutions to support the growing integration of satellite and terrestrial networks.
They will also develop smaller, more powerful terminals, and study the boosting of waveform performance. This is part of the Inmarsat Communications Evolution initiative, which is a public-private partnership between Inmarsat and the European Space Agency.
SES plans to invest €2.8 billion (US$3 billion) over five years on new satellites. This is on top of the €900 million it spent on acquiring rival satellite operator O3b Networks and the €1.2 billion in debt it took on, according to a recent presentation it gave to investors. The capital investment includes five satellites, of which three will have high throughput spot beams over maritime areas.
Growth in satellite capacity is in response to rising demand for broadband VSAT on commercial ships, offshore vessels and cruise ships. SES expects the number of ships with broadband connectivity to double from 13,200 in 2015 to more than 32,000 in 2020. SES sales director Giovanni Auciello said these ships will be able to connect to a multi-layer of satellite coverage. “Our next generation satellites are Ku-band, SES-14, SES-12 and SES-15, which are under construction and should be launched by the end of 2017 and operating in 2018.” The O3b satellites provide Ka-band to maritime from at least 45 degrees north and south of the Equator. Cruise ships sailing in the Caribbean are already using O3b coverage.
Eutelsat intends to invest €1.3 billion in satellites and ground infrastructure over the next three years, which could result in the addition of six satellites. Not all of these will service the maritime broadband market, though.
Eutelsat is considering very high throughput satellites that could be launched after 2020. Others have invested in new satellites. Telenor has invested around NKr1.6 billion (US$187 million) in its Thor 7 regional Ka-band service. ViaSat Inc and Telesat are investing in new high power satellites. All this is estimated to be at least US$1 billion in total.
The investment will help to double, to 240, the amount of demand for wide beam satellite transponders that provide broadband in C-band and Ku-band.
According to Northern Sky Research (NSR) the high throughput satellite capacity demand within maritime will rise from just 2 Gbps in 2015 to a huge 46 Gbps in 2025.
“There is a strong focus on new launches of high throughput satellites for the mobility broadband market for maritime and aviation,” said NSR senior analyst Brad Grady. “There is a tremendous amount of bandwidth coming over the next few years. It will be more competitive for the service providers for streaming data and providing value-adding services.”
He expects more market demand for roaming on Ku-band and Ka-band, a small but stable market for C-band, and the need for L-band for safety or machine-to-machine communications. “Satellite operators are developing a capacity ecosystem, investing in new high throughput satellites to capture that mobility market. We expect to see a number of new geostationary high throughput satellite launches coming over the next few years, which will help to increase capacity demand to 46 Gbps in 2025.”
Aside from VSAT, Iridium is preparing to launch the first group of new L-band satellites that will form its Next constellation. It estimated that total capital expenditure in Next would be around US$3 billion, including more than US$600 million this year. This will be the platform for the new Iridium Certus maritime communications service, which is due to begin in 2017.
The first shipment of Thales Alenia Space-built satellites is due to be launched in September. Other launches will follow over the next 12 months. A total of 81 satellites are scheduled to roll off the assembly line, with 66 serving as operational satellites to replace the existing Iridium network, and the remainder serving as ground and in-orbit spares, said Iridium director of product management Brian Pemberton.
When these satellites are launched and commissioned, this will allow Iridium to start its Certus maritime broadband service. “We are working with value-adding resellers, and recruiting more providers across the maritime market by the end of this year,” said Mr Pemberton. “We will start testing the terminals in the first quarter of 2017. We should have commercial services in the second quarter.”
Iridium director of maritime business Kyle Hurst said the initial service will deliver 350 Kbps of bandwidth, which could be doubled through a software update. But the new constellation will ultimately be able to deliver data streams of up to 1.4 Mbps. To achieve this, Iridium is working with suppliers, principally Cobham Satcom and Thales, to offer Certus terminals for a variety of bandwidth capabilities. “We are working with terminal providers and on commercial models for our partners,” said Mr Hurst. “Our new terminals will be up to 1.4 Mbps. We are looking at applications to further enable what we can do with Certus.”
Thuraya Telecommunications Co has started planning for a new constellation to replace its existing satellites. Thuraya-2 has an operating life to 2020 and Thuraya-3 to 2025. “We need next generation plans and expect to share this strategy by the end of this year,” said Thuraya marketing vice-president Christian Cull. “We will also have new products coming later this year. We are expecting tremendous growth in data for improving operations through real-time information and data analytics. These are good reasons for ship operators to look at changing satellite communications and investing in technology.”
Marlink was one of the first to use EpicNG for a maritime customer. An MSC Cruises vessel MSC Divina is using the Ku-band spot beams from the Intelsat 29e satellite for passengers’ broadband requirements. According to Marlink maritime president Tore Morten Olsen, there will be strong growth in passenger broadband demand. This can be met through EpicNG spot beams. “The infrastructure is already on board so ship operators do not need to make any changes,” he said. “And they do not notice the change-over as this is an overlay of the Ku-band fabric through IntelsatOne Flex.”
He also expects that Inmarsat’s Ka-band Fleet Xpress services will be integrated into Marlink’s solutions. “Ku-band and Ka-band can work together in our portfolio. There does not need to be a single solution. The focus is to provide peace of mind to our clients as we see more growth in VSAT. We are now offering a global 60cm antenna network for maritime as more capacity is available.”
KVH Industries has seen increasing use of its mini VSAT Broadband for transmission of operations data. KVH vice president of marketing Mike Mitsock said owners are able to reduce fuel costs and reduce risk by using this data. “A 10 per cent reduction in fuel costs can be achieved,” he said. “Route plans can be optimised by using weather routeing, and the risk of machinery damage can be mitigated.”
Mr Mitsock said KVH was looking at how to provide data analysis and fault diagnostics for owners. “We would proactively help owners by telling them that something needs to be fixed, so they can plan for the next port call or drydocking.” The challenges are how to get the data off the ship to a data centre and to analyse it. “The size of the files would be huge to upload, as ships could generate terabytes of data over a year. So we need to find a better way, to optimise the uplink,” he explained.
A solution would be to do the initial data analytics on the ships. “Not all of the data needs to go off the ship.” Mr Mitsock added: “More analytics should happen on board. Some manufacturers are embedding analytics into the sensors so they can identify issues. We are working with software agents to develop local processing and analytics, so less data is sent to shore.”
Network service devices are a vital element for optimised broadband. Marpoint has developed the EVO² device as an enterprise-grade router for controlling a multi-person vessel network on all satellite broadband installations. This can include VSAT, FleetBroadband, Iridium, 3G, and WiFi. Business development director Anastasis Kyrkos said EVO² uses bandwidth allocation policies and network management to allow the running of multiple applications for crew internet, business email, file transfers, and video streaming. “All vessels will require innovative hardware and software network solutions to handle all their ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship communications needs,” he said.
Navarino has included full redundancy in its network service platform Infinity Cube. “It can switch between nodes and will allow several applications simultaneously,” said communications vice-president Christian Vakarelis. “It can automatically select the satellite network, maintaining connectivity, including continuous voice over IP and data transmissions.” It can operate GTMaritime’s email application, online training and chart applications. Navarino recently agreed to host C-Map’s digital navigation solutions on Infinity.
Airtel Nigeria has strengthened its nationwide retail and distribution network as part of its continued investment in enhancing service delivery and making telecommunications and digital services more accessible to millions of Nigerians.
The company’s retail ecosystem comprises more than 4,000 exclusive Airtel shops and over 200,000 retail touch-points nationwide, including partner stores, channel partners and neighborhood agents. This network ensures that subscribers can conveniently easily access SIM registration, device purchases, airtime and data recharge, customer support and other digital solutions.
Commenting on the company’s retail distribution strategy, Dinesh Balsingh, CEO, Airtel Nigeria, said,
“Telecommunications goes beyond the physical infrastructure, it is important that we are able to reach people where they live and work. That is why we continue to invest in a strong retail and distribution ecosystem that enables us to bring Airtel closer to our customers while delivering a consistent, high-quality experience wherever they are.”
According to Joypratip Sengupta, Director, Sales and Distribution, Airtel Nigeria, the company’s distribution network plays a vital role in ensuring seamless service delivery.
“Our retail network is designed to ensure that our services reach customers efficiently. It is a combination of efficient logistic systems, strong partnerships and local engagement that enables us to consistently meet the needs of our customers across the country,” he said.
The strengthened distribution strategy complements the company’s ongoing investments in network infrastructure and digital innovation, recognising that customer proximity remains a critical driver of service excellence and digital inclusion.
In addition to improving customer access, Airtel’s extensive retail ecosystem continues to create economic opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs, distributors, retailers and small business owners who form an integral part of the company’s value chain.
As demand for accessible, interconnected digital services continues to grow across Nigeria, Airtel remains committed to investing in improving its service delivery and ensuring that every subscriber enjoys quality service.
Kaspersky’s latest global survey shows a change in how people go online: 60% of survey participants from the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) region now claim their smartphone is the main device they use to access the Internet, pushing the PC into a secondary role.
But as the amount and sensitivity of data stored on these phones keep growing, cybersecurity experts warn that users’ security habits aren’t keeping up.
According to the survey* 60% of respondents from the META region consider a smartphone their primary device for accessing the Internet. The most active smartphone users are representatives of Gen Z, with 67% of all global respondents aged 18-28 choosing a mobile phone as their main device.
With mobiles as the full-fledged rivals of computers in accessing the Internet, the amount of important data stored on them has also increased significantly. Personal photos and videos are leading the pack. 60% of users in the META region store visual memories on their devices. Close behind are contact details (51%), text messages and chats history (45%) and important personal documents such as IDs and passports (43%).
At the same time, a substantial portion of users in the META region keep work‑related data on their smartphones (37% emails, 22% calendars and 17% even store access to corporate systems), blurring the line between personal and professional realms.
Financial credentials and login details appear on 40% of devices, while emerging categories like AI chat histories (30%) and gaming accounts (26%) signal new types of personal data stored on personal devices.
“Now our smartphones serve as full‑featured assistants that touch every aspect of our lives. The data we entrust to them goes far beyond photos, phone numbers or text messages. Consequently, the main question is no longer “what we store,” but “how we protect it,” requiring security to become as integral to the device as the data it carries,” comments Anton Kivva, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky.
Three keys to mobile data security
To help users navigate this new digital reality safely, Kaspersky experts have issued a three-step security plan:
- No data should live on your phone only
A smartphone should never be the sole repository for any type of information. While having everything at your fingertips is convenient, accidental deletions, loss or hardware failure can make recovery impossible without reliable backups or cloud sync.
The most sensitive data like passwords, ID or financial details requires special attention and preferably be kept in a protected format. Use a dedicated security solution like Kaspersky Password Manager, which apart from securely keeping credentials and bank cards, has a special secret vault functionality aimed at storing important documents, for example, scanned Passports/IDs and PDF files, addresses and notes. Thanks to the cross-device synchronisation it allows access to the data from any gadget.
- Create a guard against digital threats
In Q1 2026 only, more than 2.67 million attacks utilising malware, adware or unwanted mobile software were prevented and more than 306,000 malicious installation packages were discovered.
Mobile devices require the same cyber protection as PCs. Kaspersky experts recommend cybersecurity solutions such as Kaspersky Premium that provide comprehensive protection – starting with scanning apps for potential threats upon installation, and using AI‑driven features to block malicious and phishing links in real time and prevent data or money losses, among many other security layers.
- The “what if” scenario planning
Phone loss always occurs unexpectedly, but a few proactive steps can dramatically reduce its impact:
Turn on location services. Both Android and iOS include built-in tools that can locate a lost phone and, if needed, wipe its data remotely. Kaspersky for Android app activates this capability through the Where Is My Device feature.
- Enable automatic backups.Regular backups ensure that photos, videos, documents, contacts and other vital data can be restored even if the device is lost or stolen.
- Configure instant auto‑lock.Setting the phone to lock immediately after the screen turns off keeps it inaccessible to thieves or cyber‑criminals when you’re not using it.
- Keep the device physically safe.In public spaces, never leave your phone unattended or within easy reach, avoid placing it on tables, in back pockets or any other vulnerable spot.
“We often underestimate how much valuable information we keep on our mobile devices and how vulnerable that data truly is. Ask yourself: When was the last time I backed up my photos or notes? What’s my plan if my phone goes missing? Do I verify links before I click them? While most users automatically think of security software for their computers, phones lag behind. It’s time to give your everyday digital companion the same robust cyber‑protection it deserves,” adds Anton Kivva, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky.
Nigeria will host telecommunications, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and digital economy ministers from across Africa for the 7th Ordinary Session of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) Conference of Plenipotentiaries (CPL-26), scheduled for July 23 to July 24 in Abuja.
The conference, the highest decision-making body of the ATU, is expected to bring together ministers, regulators, industry leaders, development partners and other stakeholders from the Union’s 52 member states to deliberate on Africa’s digital and telecommunications agenda for the next four years.
A statement by the organisers said delegates would adopt the Union’s strategic direction, approve its 2027–2031 budget and work programme, elect a new Secretary-General and determine the composition of the Administrative Council.
The conference will also harmonise Africa’s common positions ahead of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference scheduled to hold later this year in Doha, Qatar.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, described the conference as a significant milestone for Africa’s digital future.
“Nigeria is honoured to host the 7th Ordinary Session of the ATU Conference of Plenipotentiaries at a defining moment for Africa’s digital future.
“As countries across the continent accelerate digital transformation, it is increasingly important to strengthen regional cooperation, develop common positions on emerging technologies, and create enabling environments that attract investment, build digital talent and expand meaningful connectivity.
“Our role as host reflects the commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to building an innovation-driven economy while strengthening African cooperation on digital infrastructure, technology governance, skills development and investment,” he said.
One of the major highlights of the conference will be a ministerial dialogue on “Achieving Africa’s Meaningful Connectivity,” jointly organised by the ATU and the GSMA.
The dialogue will explore practical strategies for expanding affordable, reliable and quality connectivity across the continent, with emphasis on infrastructure investment, service quality, affordability and ensuring that digital access delivers tangible economic and social benefits.
Also speaking ahead of the conference, the Secretary-General of the ATU, Mr John Omo, said the meeting would provide member states with an opportunity to strengthen the Union’s capacity to drive Africa’s digital ambitions.
He said the decisions to be taken in Abuja would shape the ATU’s ability to support national priorities, sustain Africa’s participation in global telecommunications forums and respond effectively to emerging technological developments over the next four years.
The conference is expected to conclude with the adoption of the Abuja Declaration, which will provide governments, regulators, industry stakeholders and development partners with a common framework for advancing Africa’s digital transformation agenda.
According to the organisers, hosting the conference underscores Nigeria’s commitment to regional collaboration and reinforces the country’s growing leadership in digital policy, technology governance and investment promotion across Africa.
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