Global Connectivity

Cable Cuts, Crackdowns & Satellite Surges: Global Internet Access Upheavals (7–8 Sept 2025)

Key Facts In-Depth Report Undersea Cable Outage Shakes Asia & Mideast A sudden severing of multiple undersea internet cables in the Red Sea over the weekend sent shockwaves through global connectivity. On September 7, monitoring groups reported that two major subsea fiber systems (the SEA-ME-WE 4 and IMEWE cables) were cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, dramatically slowing or disrupting internet service in countries including India, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE beaumontenterprise.com beaumontenterprise.com. NetBlocks called it “a series of subsea cable outages” that degraded connectivity across the region beaumontenterprise.com. Technology giant Microsoft alerted Azure cloud customers to expect increased latency

8 September 2025

Global Internet Access Shake-Up: Outages, Crackdowns, and a Race to Connect the Unconnected

Key Facts Infrastructure and Satellite Internet Developments Major investments in physical internet infrastructure were unveiled over the past 48 hours, spanning undersea cables and satellites. SpaceX completed its fourth Starlink launch from California in a month, lofting 24 satellites on August 29 to enhance coverage in polar regions. This bolsters SpaceX’s constellation of over 8,000 active satellites, which is already delivering broadband to dozens of countries. Rival project Kuiper – Amazon’s satellite internet network – is also accelerating: Amazon announced it expects to begin beta service by late 2025, after deploying its first 27 satellites in April and scheduling another launch

3 September 2025

Connectivity · Digital Divide · Global Issues · Internet · NASDAQ:AMZN · NASDAQ:META · NYSE:VZ · Technology

Cosmic IoT Revolution: How Optimized Satellite Constellations Are Connecting Every Corner of Earth

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 at about 1,200 km, delivering ~70 ms latency and enterprise backhaul IoT capability, with global coverage achieved in early 2023 and a merger with Eutelsat. Iridium operates 66 active cross‑linked LEO satellites at around 780 km, uses Ka-band inter-satellite links, provides truly global 100% coverage,

25 June 2025

Connectivity · Global Networks · IoT · NASDAQ:IRDM · NASDAQ:TMUS · Satellite Technology · Space Innovation

5G From Space: How Satellite Internet is Revolutionizing Global Connectivity

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 reliance on ground gateways. SpaceX began testing Direct-to-Cell satellites in 2023–2024 to text ordinary phones using T-Mobile spectrum, with voice and data services planned for 2025. OneWeb’s first-generation constellation targets 648 satellites, with about 632 operational by late 2024, and it merged with Eutelsat to

13 June 2025

5G · Global Connectivity · Innovation · NASDAQ:AMZN · NASDAQ:ASTS · NYSE:VZ · Satellite Internet · Technology

Inside OneWeb’s Global Internet Play: How This Satellite Network Is Quietly Disrupting Starlink’s Orbit

OneWeb’s first-generation constellation comprises 648 LEO satellites at about 1,200 km altitude, each ~150 kg, using Ku-band for user links and Ka-band for gateways, with 16 spot beams and no inter-satellite laser links, delivering up to 7.2 Gbps per satellite. By late 2021, OneWeb achieved partial service in high-latitude regions, focusing on the Arctic, Northern Europe, Greenland, and Alaska. On March 25, 2023, the first-generation constellation reached 614 operational satellites, exceeding the minimum ~588 satellites required for global coverage, with 648 planned total. In September 2023, OneWeb merged with France’s Eutelsat to form Eutelsat OneWeb, making Eutelsat the 100% owner

29 May 2025

Competition · Internet · OneWeb · Satellite · Starlink