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…
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Starlink launched its first batch of 60 satellites in 2019, and by late 2024 the constellation numbered nearly 7,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit. In 2022 Starlink introduced laser inter-satellite links, enabling data to hop between satellites and extending coverage to oceans, polar regions, and remote locales. By mid-2023 Starlink declared global coverage aside from regulatory…
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As of January 2025, Burundi had about 1.78 million internet users, roughly 12.5% of ~14 million people, leaving about 88–90% offline. About 99.6% of internet subscriptions are mobile broadband, while fixed broadband is virtually nonexistent with ~0.3% of homes wired and only about 3,000 fixed broadband subscriptions in 2023. 4G coverage reached about 32% of…
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As of 2023, internet penetration in Burkina Faso is about 20%, with roughly 4.7 million active internet users in a 23 million population. By late 2023 there were about 17 million mobile internet subscriptions, offering ~77% potential coverage though many subscribers are not active. Fixed broadband remains extremely limited, with about 85,000 active fixed internet…
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By 2021, about 65% of fixed broadband subscribers in Bulgaria were on fiber, with gigabit speeds available and Vivacom launching a 10 Gbps fiber service. 5G was launched commercially in 2020, with A1 Bulgaria and Vivacom turning on 5G in 2020 and by the end of 2022 around 70% of the population expected to have…
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Iridium, a LEO network, started service in 1998 and operates 66 active cross-linked satellites, delivering near-global coverage, with the Iridium NEXT second-generation network launched in 2019. Globalstar uses 48 satellites (24 second-generation as of 2013), has no inter-satellite links and relies on ground gateways, and Apple’s Emergency SOS on iPhone 14 uses about 85% of…
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In 2019 Brunei created Unified National Networks (UNN), a wholesale network consolidating fixed, mobile, and submarine infrastructure for DST, imagine, and Progresif. In June 2023 Brunei officially launched nationwide 5G with about 90% of the population covered. A Fixed Broadband Uplift Program raised the baseline fixed broadband speed to 100 Mbps for all subscribers and…
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Starlink is available in over 100 countries as of mid-2025, spanning North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and parts of South America. As of late 2024, Starlink had surpassed 4 million subscribers. Starlink offers five service types: Residential, Roam, Business (Priority), Maritime, and Aviation. Typical speeds range from about 50 Mbps to 150+ Mbps, with…
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Starlink officially launched in Bhutan in December 2024 and was operational by February 2025, with Residential Lite at Nu 3,000 per month (about 23–100 Mbps) and Standard at Nu 4,200 per month (about 25–110 Mbps), plus a one-time Nu 33,000 dish kit. Bhutan began 5G rollout with a soft launch in late 2021, and by…
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A 2,000 km national fiber optic backbone begun in 2016 was completed by mid-2021 and is being extended to all municipalities by 2025 under a CFA207 billion (~$330 million) plan to reach 3,300 km. Benin sits on multiple landing undersea cables such as ACE and MainOne for international bandwidth, but it still has only 1…
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