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Connectivity News 3 June 2025 - 7 June 2025

No Signal: The Shocking Digital Divide in the DRC and the Race to Connect Millions

No Signal: The Shocking Digital Divide in the DRC and the Race to Connect Millions

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a population of over 100 million, but only about 27% were using the internet in early 2024, leaving roughly 75 million offline. <li Internet users rose from 1.4 million in 2013 to 28.9 million in 2023, with mobile internet subscribers jumping about 40% over three years. <li As of 2025, only 9,361 km of fiber has been laid, far short of the 50,000 km target in Horizon 2025, covering about 19% of the plan. <li The DRC’s four major mobile operators—Vodacom, Airtel, Orange, and Africell—dominate the market, with 3G/4G in major cities and
7 June 2025
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Satellite Phones: Comprehensive Global FAQ

Iridium operates about 66 LEO satellites at roughly 780 km, offering truly global coverage including the poles with a one-way latency around 0.1–0.2 seconds. Inmarsat uses 3–4 GEO satellites at about 35,786 km, delivering near-global coverage (roughly ±70° latitude) with about 0.5 second latency, and IsatPhone 2 offers up to 8 hours of talk and 160 hours of standby. Thuraya, based in the UAE, operates 2 GEO satellites covering roughly 160 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, with XT-LITE priced around $650. Globalstar currently operates a Gen2 constellation of 24 LEO satellites at about 1,414 km,
7 June 2025
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Starlink Satellite Internet FAQ

Starlink Satellite Internet FAQ

Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite-based broadband internet service, and by 2025 the constellation has launched over 7,500 satellites with about 6,750 active in orbit. The satellites orbit in low Earth orbit at roughly 550 km altitude, delivering typical download speeds of 50–200+ Mbps and latency around 20–40 ms. SpaceX began launching Starlink in 2019, and by early 2025 it served more than 5 million customers in 125+ countries. The residential Starlink kit costs about $599 in many regions, with US promotions as low as $349, and monthly service typically $90–$120, with occasional $0 hardware deals tied to multi-month commitments. There are
7 June 2025
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Satellite Internet FAQ

Satellite Internet FAQ

Traditional GEO satellite internet sends data roughly 22,000 miles to a satellite and back, yielding a round-trip latency of about 600–800 ms. Satellite internet can reach virtually anywhere with a clear view of the sky, including most of the continental United States. HughesNet uses geostationary satellites and advertises speeds up to 25 Mbps download and about 3 Mbps upload on all plans. Viasat offers downloads from roughly 12 Mbps up to 100 Mbps with uploads around 3 Mbps. Starlink uses a low-Earth orbit constellation and typically provides 50–200 Mbps download and 20–40 Mbps upload with latency around 20–40 ms. Amazon’s
6 June 2025
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Connecting Colombia: Bridging the Digital Divide from Cities to the Amazon

Connecting Colombia: Bridging the Digital Divide from Cities to the Amazon

As of early 2025, 41.1 million Colombians were internet users, representing about 77% of the population. By 2025 Colombia had 78.3 million cellular mobile connections in service, roughly 147% of the population. The urban–rural gap remains wide: 63.9% of households had internet in 2023, 28.8% of the rural population were online, and fewer than 13% of rural households had fixed internet subscriptions. Claro dominates the market with about 37% of fixed broadband subscriptions and around 45% of mobile subscribers; Movistar has ~17% fixed and ~25% mobile; Tigo ~17% fixed and ~18% mobile; WOM ~7% mobile. Starlink entered Colombia and went
6 June 2025
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Internet Access in Cape Verde: Current Status and Outlook

Internet Access in Cape Verde: Current Status and Outlook

As of early 2025, about 73.5% of Cape Verde’s population were internet users, roughly 387,000 people out of ~526,000. Fixed broadband subscriptions totaled about 38,000 in 2023, approximately 7 per 100 people. Cape Verde Telecom (CVTelecom) reported passing over 22,000 FTTH homes by the end of 2021, primarily in urban areas. There were over 600,000 mobile cellular connections active in early 2025, about 115% of the population, with 91% of connections broadband-capable (3G/4G). Total internet subscription density reached about 90 per 100 inhabitants in mid-2023, while around 73% of people were online. In early 2024, the median fixed broadband download
6 June 2025
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Mega-Constellations Exposed: How Swarms of Tiny Satellites Are Taking Over Low Earth Orbit

“No Signal? No Problem!” – Next‑Gen Satellite Phones Set to Change Everything

In 2022, Apple’s iPhone 14 introduced Emergency SOS via satellite, later expanded in the iPhone 15 to support satellite texting via Globalstar. In April 2023, AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 demonstrated a two-way 4G call using a standard smartphone on Earth with a 64 m² satellite antenna. Lynk Global demonstrated the first direct satellite text to an unmodified phone in 2022 and is partnering with mobile operators in over 40 countries to fill coverage dead zones. SpaceX’s Starlink Direct to Cell uses 2023-generation satellites with advanced antennas to connect to ordinary phones via terrestrial bands, with a plan to offer basic
5 June 2025
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Connected Canada: A Comprehensive Look at Internet Access in 2025

Connected Canada: A Comprehensive Look at Internet Access in 2025

By early 2025, about 93.5% of Canadian households have access to high‑speed internet (50 Mbps down/10 Mbps up), up from 79% in 2014. The Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) started in 2020 with a $3.225 billion budget and targets 98% of households with 50/10 by 2026 and 100% by 2030. Bell Canada had fiber passed to about 7.3 million premises by mid‑2023, while Telus passed more than 3.1 million premises with fiber in British Columbia and Alberta. Rogers Communications became Canada’s largest broadband provider after acquiring Shaw in 2023, serving roughly 7 million internet customers, with the combined Rogers/Shaw passing about
5 June 2025
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Aviation Satellite Services: Benefits, Providers, and New Technologies

Aviation Satellite Services: Benefits, Providers, and New Technologies

By late 2022, more than 10,000 aircraft worldwide were equipped with in-flight connectivity, and about 65% of airlines planned further IFC investments in the next few years. Aireon’s space-based ADS-B payloads on Iridium NEXT have been operational since 2019, enabling global real-time tracking and supporting ICAO’s 15-minute GADSS position reporting standard. COSPAS-SARSAT, a global satellite distress system, relays 406 MHz ELT signals from aircraft to ground stations to coordinate search and rescue and has saved thousands of lives. Global Navigation Satellite Systems—GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU), BeiDou (China)—provide precise positioning, while SBAS like WAAS and EGNOS offer 1–2 meter
4 June 2025
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Internet Access in Cameroon: The Race to Connect a Nation

Internet Access in Cameroon: The Race to Connect a Nation

As of early 2025, about 12.4 million Cameroonians were internet users, representing 41.9% of the population. As of 2024, roughly 60% of Cameroonians live in urban areas, with internet access heavily concentrated in cities and rural areas almost inaccessible. Cameroon’s fiber backbone extends over 12,000 kilometers and is connected to five landfall cables: SAT-3, WACS, ACE, SAIL, and NCSCS, with SAIL linking Kribi to Brazil. Plans are underway to add more than 4,000 kilometers of fiber, expanding the backbone to about 17,000–22,000 km and improving regional redundancy. The mobile market is dominated by Orange Cameroon (about 11.7 million subscribers, 39.6%
4 June 2025
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When the Grid Goes Dark: How Satellite Phones Keep Us Connected in Emergencies

When the Grid Goes Dark: How Satellite Phones Keep Us Connected in Emergencies

Iridium operates 66 active LEO satellites in a cross-linked constellation, providing truly global coverage including the poles. Inmarsat uses 3–4 GEO satellites at about 36,000 km altitude to cover most of the globe from roughly 70°N to 70°S, and its IsatPhone 2 offers 8 hours of talk time. Globalstar runs about 48 LEO satellites to provide regional coverage (roughly 50°N to 50°S) with the Globalstar GSP-1700 handset. Thuraya uses two GEO satellites, with Thuraya 4-NGS launched in 2025 to expand service across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia, while it does not cover the Americas. Geostationary satellite networks
4 June 2025
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No Signal? No Problem – Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell Satellites Are Eliminating Dead Zones

No Signal? No Problem – Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell Satellites Are Eliminating Dead Zones

August 2022: SpaceX and T-Mobile announced a partnership to provide direct-to-cell connectivity via Starlink satellites, with texting expected in 2023–24 and voice/data thereafter. January 2024: SpaceX achieved the first SMS directly via satellite, enabling a two-way text conversation between ordinary smartphones relayed entirely through space after the first batch of D2C-equipped satellites launched. Gen2 Starlink satellites carry the Direct-to-Cell payload, and the smaller V2 Mini satellites launched on Falcon 9 in 2023–24 were equipped to support these tests. By late 2024, more than 400 Starlink satellites had Direct-to-Cell capability, enabling voice calls, video calls, and IoT tests such as Cat-1
3 June 2025
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