Opening an email while logging into a Zoom session with your favourite social network open in the background seems quite natural for us, but it is still a dream for 20% of the world’s population.

The reality is that not everyone has access to an internet connection – especially a broadband connection. In France, only 25% of the French population is connected, mostly in urban areas. In rural and sparsely populated areas, zero signal zones are still a common occurrence.

Facing this sad situation, here comes the solution: satellite internet, which allows high-speed internet access for everyone and everywhere will soon become a reality.

How does the satellite connection work?

 Broadband internet via satellite is based on 3 elements:

• a satellite antenna located on the roof of the building to be connected, coupled with a modem which transmits data packets to the satellites;
• a low altitude (LEO) or geostationary satellite, which receives the data sent by the antenna and retransmits the beam to the terrestrial reception centre;
• a terrestrial reception centre which sends the signal from the satellites back to a fibre optic line.

So, for each web request, the data packets will make four 36,000 km round trips – a distance of 144,000 km in total.

Satellite broadband internet, the key to the internet revolution’s forgotten people

The satellite network solves a fundamental problem of the digital revolution: connecting the “forgottens” of the internet and reducing the digital divide.

For conventional internet service providers, the installation of network equipment is  profitable proportional to the number of potential subscribers. Installing relay antennas or fibre optic cables in sparsely populated areas is therefore economically unrealistic for these operators.

The consequence for companies located in these areas is that they cannot fully exploit the power of IoT, Web 4.0 or connected industry.

This means that they lose competitiveness to their rivals who have internet access.

And it is for these people and companies that  satellite internet connection is primarily intended.

Thanks to the two-way VSAT technology, satellites offer higher speeds than VDSL. For example, the maximum upload speed provided by VDSL is 8 Mb/s, compared to 22 Mb/s for VSAT.

But  internet via the satellite network is not just for businesses in zero signal areas: it also improves connectivity for businesses in areas connected to fibre.

For example, IT managers frequently include it in their BCP/ERP plans to provide immediate backup in case of disaster.

Satellite internet and conventional telecom operators: a synergistic relationship

As mentioned previously, traditional ISPs and telephone operators cannot serve a whole territory because of profitability problems.

This is why they have a complementary relationship – without competition – with satellite internet providers. The agreement between Orange and Eutelsat is proof.

GAFAM, aeronautics companies, ISPs … all in the space race

The new space race is attracting companies with a variety of profiles, including:

• satellite operators who place satellite constellations in low orbit;
• internet service providers who lease the bandwidth to the satellite operators;
• distributors specialising solely in internet subscriptions via the satellite network;
• GAMAMs, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Meta’s Athena whose missions are varied.

Besides these, we can also add the public authorities. Indeed, since the Yellow Vests protests in France – partly linked to the digital divide – the States have been doing everything they can to reduce digital deserts.

The satellite internet market, an unstoppable expansion

In 2021, the satellite internet market was valued at USD 3,985 million. By 2030, it is expected to grow to USD 17.431 million, according to the “Satellite Internet Market Share, Analysis Report and Region Forecast 2022-2030”.

Proof of this exponential future growth is that increasing the size of their space constellations is the most common wish of satellite internet operators.

Whether it is SpaceX’s Starlink and its 12,000 satellites in orbit by 2027 or Amazon’s Kuiper and its 3,236 LEO satellites, the Earth’s orbit is set to host more and more satellites.

Latency, the Achilles heel of satellite internet

As a reminder, each request via a satellite network travels a distance of 144,000 km.

This atmospheric travel results in high latency and ping making it difficult to use low-latency services.

The most optimistic satellite internet operators predict a latency of 20 milliseconds via the use of Ku-band frequencies, compared to almost 0 milliseconds for fibre optics at the moment.

Reduce satellite connection latency with China Telecom Europe

For companies whose business depends on responsiveness, high latency is fatal. Without it, by the time you see the opportunity, it may have already been stolen by a competitor.

This is especially true in the financial sector, where the most profitable stocks are traded in fractions of a millisecond thanks to specialised algorithms.

Fortunately, we have a solution: China Telecom Europe’s low latency infrastructure.

Spread over 200 PoPs (Points of Presence), it provides a submarine cable link to all the nerve centres of the modern economy: London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore, New York, Moscow, etc.

For companies wishing to set up in China, it links them directly to the three Chinese trading centres: Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai.