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SearchEuropean mobile satellite war invites US attention, legal actions
Most people wouldn’t think that their mobile phone could ever be sensitive enough to receive signals from space, specifically from a geostationary satellite some 22,000 miles from the earth, but in a year or two these services will be all the rage in Europe.
And they are so popular that the European Commission has received its first law suit from one of the companies that wants to provide such services, claiming that the process by which the Europe wide licenses will be allocated is not legal, and favours European companies.
Effectively the Mobile Satellite Services idea has come about from improvements in how satellites work, specifically the way they can now unravel huge 25 meter antennas, and move them around for best reception so that tiny internal antennas in handsets using the 2.1 GHz range of radio signals, can pick up the signal from space. It is the radio equivalent of hearing a pin drop on earth from space.
But many of these inventions came out of US companies, and the first two way experience came from a satellite launched in 2000 in the middle east (Thuraya satellite), which proved that two way communication was possible on battery powered devices and this has brought mobile communication to regions of desert and jungle around the world.
However it is not real-time voice that is the main subject of these satellites but mostly one way data, such as broadcasting mobile TV pictures, or delivering less than real time data, things like web pages and texts and time delayed voice messaging
Previous attempts to use satellites in mobiles revolved around a Low Earth Orbit satellite or LEO. This is only 500 miles away and the communication is near instantaneous. However it requires around 40 of these satellite to work together and create a network around the whole planet. They can switch their own traffic between then like a mesh, hopping from satellite to satellite and acting independently of ground systems. One called Iridium was launched costing £billions and went famously bankrupt and the remnants have been bought up and the system is providing services. However new technology means that one big satellite which can see about a third of the earth can provide a huge footprint of services and is more economic.
In the US such satellites are being used to provide satellite radio, in-car mobile TV, and communications for disaster relief efforts.
In Europe the same spectrum is now being bid for and within a year devices could be out which receive a mobile signal and a satellite service such as TV. Alcatel has a deal with SES Astra and Eutelsat to use its technology to deliver broadcast mobile TV, and these two have joined forces to bid last week under the name Solaris Mobile.
Solaris Mobile is based in Dublin, and plans to provide services using a payload on a satellite already due for launch in the first half of 2009.
“Solaris Mobile will be in the unique position of being able to offer mobile satellite services as early as 2009, empowering state-of-the-art mobile networks and enabling innovative services to consumers across Europe,” said Steve Maine, the chief executive of the joint venture, announcing his company’s bid last week
There are two satellite licenses to be given, and once they have services in place they will have to cut deals with mobile operators all over Europe and then arrange for devices to be built, and probably bring them to market through operator partners. So they will appear as cool new services which Vodafone or Orange or 3 or T-Mobile will add to their service line-up. Initially though it is likely that the biggest interest will be in parts of Europe with poor mobile coverage, and well as special services for emergency services which cannot be disrupted by poor weather or terrestrial disturbances like hurricanes.
In the US the inventor of many of the new techniques MSV, and a sister company which has now broken away called Terrestar and ICO Communications, which is already offering seat back, in-car TV services for children. MSV and ICO have just cut a deal with Qualcomm for a system to work on one of its chips – a kind of CDMA in the sky, so these will be able to support two way voice and be cheap enough to build into handsets.
These, plus more traditional satellite operators, such as Inmarsat are now preparing bids for the European contract. Inmarsat is best known for offering satellite based maritime communications. MSV is the only one of the US players that has not made any bid for the European spectrum as yet.
TerreStar Europe has submitted plans for a European satellite that could be launched in 2010. It aims to provide multiple communications applications including video, voice and data services.
ICO Global Communications, a subsidiary of ICO has initiated proceedings in the European Court of First Instance arguing that the decision under which the European Commission proposes to allocate spectrum is illegal. It is calling for the annulment of the decision taken by the European Parliament and Council In June 2008, claiming that it goes against International Telecommunications Union regulations.
These fledgling US operations are mostly cash starved and are start ups and don’t actually have any real revenues as yet, so spreading their wings so aggressively into Europe, before services have begun to generate cash in their back yard is highly aggressive.
The legal move by ICO Global could simply be a delaying tactic until it can raise more money based on success in the US. It is backed by mobile veteran Craig McCaw, which baled it out of bankruptcy a few years ago. In the end partnerships involving all of the satellite players are likely to form to make their bids more realistic, an we would see as few as two license bids in the end.
Whatever the outcome, the more attention the auction brings, the more likely Europe will have some exciting new handset services launched during 2009, unless of course those legal actions create any kind of delay.
