Sep 16, 2024

Developing Telecoms Newsletter Sign Up Keep up-to-date with the latest telecoms news in emerging markets globally. Subscribe to Developing Telecoms' FREE weekly newsletter. Select Yes / No to receive 3rd party email. Sending occasional e-mail from 3rd parties about industry white papers, online and live events relevant to subscribers helps us fund this website and free weekly newsletter. We never sell your personal data. Click here to view our privacy policy. Chinese LEO satellite contender GalaxySpace has signed a deal with Hong Kong carrier PCCW Global to expand its market reach overseas by integrating its LEOsat connectivity with PCCW’s worldwide network. GalaxySpace designs and manufactures its own LEO satellites. The company currently has a test constellation of seven LEO satellites in orbit, and has said the constellation will eventually comprise up to 1,000 satellites. One of its satellites in orbit is a stackable flat-panel satellite launched in July last year. The satellite – which is designed to support direct-to-mobile 5G communications – sports flexible solar wings and a payload supporting Q-band, V-band and Ka-band communications. According to GalaxySpace, the test constellation – dubbed "Mini Spider" – has completed multiple satellite Internet application verifications, including what it claims is China's first integration test of LEO satellites with 5G private networks. Under a memorandum of understanding signed on Thursday during a Belt and Road summit in Hong Kong, GalaxySpace and PCCW Global will collaborate to deliver LEO satellite connectivity to consumers, enterprises and government customers. The enterprise segment potentially includes mobile operators looking to expand their coverage in remote areas. GalaxySpace co-founder and VP Isabel Liu said that while the collaboration will initially focus on Hong Kong, “[we] will continue to expand our services and partnerships in Belt and Road countries.” Over 145 countries have signed MoUs joining China’s Belt and Road initiative, most of them developing markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia, among others. The deal gives GalaxySpace access to PCCW Global’s international network that connects more than 3,000 cities across the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In turn, PCCW Global gets to add LEO satellite connectivity to its portfolio, said PCCW Global’s co-CEO Frederick Chui. “This collaboration combines fixed network and next-generation satellite technologies to deliver more flexible connectivity solutions,” he said in a statement. “By integrating GalaxySpace’s cutting-edge LEO satellite technologies with our platforms, we are enhancing our capabilities to support new applications, which require high speed, low latency and ubiquitous satellite connectivity.” Just when PCCW Global will be able to offer GalaxySpace’s LEOsat connectivity remains an open question, as the company hasn’t released a timeline for when it will launch commercial services. “Looking ahead, we are accelerating direct-to-sell satellite research and technical verification,” Liu said in a statement. GalaxySpace is one of several emerging contenders from China in the LEO satellite gold rush. Geespace – a subsidiary of Chinese carmaker Geely – plans to deploy 72 LEO satellites by 2025 for the first phase of its constellation, and currently has 30 in orbit . Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) plans to build its G60 Starlink constellation of 15,000 LEO satellites by 2030, although the  launch of its first batch of satellites  last month reportedly ended badly when the Long March 6A carrying the payload  broke apart . Meanwhile, state-owned China Satellite Network Group has been planning to build a constellation of 13,000 LEO satellites under the “Guowang” project since 2021, although no satellites for Guowang have been launched yet. According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, China’s race to catch up with Starlink and similar services appears to be motivated in part by the potential military advantages of owning its own LEO networks, and partly by its potential as a tool for geopolitical influence. Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, noted in a blog post last week that China’s Digital Silk Road initiative already uses technology as an instrument of influence as the country scores partnerships in developing markets to build mobile networks, upgrade digital infrastructure, and provide high-tech surveillance equipment. “Satellite internet also offers a clear market opportunity: The CCP can grow its 'sharp power' by exchanging technology for influence, and its firms can derive lucrative profits to boot,” he writes. MORE ARTICLES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN...