Have the operators wasted billions of pounds on building 3G networks when an easier solution is at hand? The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it is helping to develop satellite technology that could enable mobile video and other content services to be beamed from satellites down to mobile phones on Earth.
The ESA’s Telecommunications Department is helping to fund the development of the technology, which it said would help content providers and mobile operators offer global coverage from satellites and ‘Earth-based repeaters’. It said the satellites would ensure universal coverage, while the repeaters would send signals into buildings, ensuring constant high-speed data coverage.
The benefits of this are obvious — the satellites in a geostationary orbit could broadcast high-speed mobile multimedia content to huge areas and reach huge numbers of subscribers.
The ESA also revealed that two European satellite operators are already jointly investing in the first European satellite infrastructure for S-band broadcasting. S-band is a new satellite frequency optimised specifically for delivering multimedia content like videos and other data services to mobile phones. The first satellite with this technology, Eutelsate’s W2A satellite, is scheduled for launch in early 2009.
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Enabling of mobile video is a greater step taken by ESA