Guinea, a West African nation often overshadowed by its neighbors, is undergoing a quiet digital transformation. Long marked by limited connectivity, the country is now seeing gradual improvements in internet access through mobile network expansion, new fiber-optic infrastructure, and emerging satellite services. This report provides a comprehensive overview of Guinea’s internet landscape – from current…
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Overview: A New Milestone for Plan-S and Satellite IoT Plan-S, a Turkish satellite technology firm founded in 2021, has reached a major milestone in industrial IoT connectivity. The company launched four new satellites in June 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 (Transporter-14) mission, expanding its Connecta IoT Network to a total of 17 satellites in…
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On 13–14 June 2025 Israeli strikes hit Iranian nuclear and missile sites, driving Iran’s internet speeds below 15% of normal per NetBlocks, and within about 24 hours SpaceX activated Starlink in Iran with Elon Musk posting “The beams are on.” Starlink operates 6,300-plus satellites at roughly 550 km altitude, making Iran unable to sever fiber…
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In June 2025, Wu Jian of Peking University of Posts & Telecom and Liu Chao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences directed a 2-watt laser from 36,000 km in geostationary orbit to a ground station, achieving 1 Gbps. The test claimed the 1 Gbps downlink is five times faster than Starlink downlinks, per the South…
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MILNET is a secret Space Force project that will be a government-owned, contractor-operated LEO satcom constellation of about 480 satellites, announced in June 2025. On June 18, 2025, Breaking Defense revealed that Space Force is funding MILNET in partnership with SpaceX, with SpaceX building and flying the satellites while Space Force Delta 8 oversees operations…
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In late 2022, Apple launched Emergency SOS via satellite on the iPhone 14 series, enabling two-way emergency texting via Globalstar satellites. As of iOS 17 and later, iPhone 14/15 users in supported regions can share their location and send basic non-emergency texts via satellite, with two years of free service after activation before a paid…
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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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L-band MSS terminals, such as Inmarsat FleetBroadband and Iridium Certus, provide global coverage with compact antennas but limited data throughput. Ku-band VSAT (12–18 GHz) has been the maritime workhorse, Ka-band HTS (26–40 GHz) offers higher capacity, while C-band deployments are restricted near shore due to interference and large dish requirements. GEO satellites offer broad coverage…
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Starlink uses a direct-to-consumer model with a Starlink kit (dish antenna + WiFi router) and monthly service, priced around $100–$120 per month, with the kit originally costing about $599 (some markets as low as $350). Speeds reach roughly 50–200 Mbps down and 10–20 Mbps up, with latency around 20–40 ms, far lower than geostationary satellites.…
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