A 2-watt laser on a geostationary satellite delivered a 1 Gbps downlink to Earth from 36,000 km away. The AO-MDR system combines Adaptive Optics and Mode Diversity Reception to overcome atmospheric turbulence. The ground receiver used an 1.8-meter telescope with a 357-actuator deformable mirror to correct wavefront distortions. After AO correction, the beam was split…
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Starlink has over 7,500 active LEO satellites as of 2025 at about 550 km altitude, with plans to up to 42,000, uses Ku/Ka bands and laser inter-satellite links, and is piloting Direct-to-Cell IoT connectivity with latency around 20–50 ms. OneWeb has approximately 600 active satellites out of 648 in its first-generation network in near-polar orbits…
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In mid-June 2025, India’s Department of Telecommunications granted Starlink a Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) license, publicly confirmed by Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. Starlink becomes the third GMPCS licensee in India after Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio’s satellite venture. Starlink operates a Low-Earth Orbit constellation at about 550 km altitude, and globally has…
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Starlink has over 6,700 satellites in orbit as of early 2025 and surpassed 4 million subscribers by late 2024 across 100+ countries. Starlink satellites orbit at about 550 km altitude and deliver typical download speeds of 50–200 Mbps with latency around 20–40 ms. Starlink Gen2 introduces inter-satellite laser links to route data between satellites, reducing…
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As of early 2024, about 26% of Eritrea’s 3.7 million people were internet users. Eritrea is the only coastal African nation with zero submarine fiber-optic cable landings. The telecom sector is entirely state-owned and monopolized by Eritrean Telecommunication Services Corporation (EriTel), with no private ISPs or competing mobile operators. Public mobile data is essentially unavailable;…
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In 2024 the global space economy reached $415 billion, with commercial satellite activities totaling about $293 billion (71%). The number of active satellites rose from about 3,300 in 2020 to over 11,500 by end-2024 due to mega-constellations. SpaceX and OneWeb have joined traditional players like Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Thales Alenia, Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat, and…
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As of mid-2025, Starlink is available in over 110 countries and territories. In the United States, Starlink began with limited trials in August 2020 and the public beta “Better Than Nothing Beta” in November 2020, and now has nationwide commercial coverage including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with over 2.5 million subscribers as…
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As of mid-2025, Starlink operates about 7,500 active satellites, the largest fleet in history, accounting for more than 60% of all active satellites. Starlink’s next-generation satellites (v2) weigh about 800 kg each, vs 260 kg for v1, and use inter-satellite laser links to route data across continents. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans 3,236 LEO satellites at…
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The iPhone 14 introduced Emergency SOS via satellite in September 2022 using the Globalstar network, with a US/Canada launch in November 2022 and expansion to 17 countries by mid-2024. The Huawei Mate 60 Pro, released in August 2023, became the world’s first smartphone to support direct satellite voice calls via China’s Tiantong-1 GEO constellation. Iridium…
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