Communications Satellites

Orbits

2010 – Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) Space Activities – Snapshot

Mobile satellite services (MSS) providers enable users to connect phones and other handheld devices directly to a satellite to provide near-constant coverage, even in places underserved by terrestrial facilities, such as ships at sea, isolated rural villages, polar settlements, or other remote sites. Although they also provide a wide range of routing services to major users such as the U.S. Navy fleet, MSS is particularly useful in the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters when regular forms of communication are often unavailable.

2009 – Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) – Snapshot

Mobile satellite services (MSS) providers connect phones and other handheld devices directly to satellites to provide near-constant coverage, even in African villages, Antarctic bases, offshore oil rigs, and other remote places not served by terrestrial facilities. The services themselves can include telephone calls, internet access, or mobile television and radio. The satellite fleets can use different orbits ranging from LEO all the way up to GEO.

2009 – Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) Space Activities – Snapshot

GEO satellites provide a wide fixed coverage area, making them ideal for reaching a community of stationary antennas that do not need to track a moving object in space. The dominant providers of international fixed satellite services (FSS) are Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat, and Telesat. These four companies collectively own slightly more than half of all GEO commercial communications satellites, and represented ##% of total FSS market revenues in 2008.

2008 – Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) Space Activities – Snapshot

While FSS systems all operate in GEO, mobile satellite service (MSS) systems operate in a range of orbits. Some MSS operators have built their networks using a limited number of GEO satellites. In August 2008, the oldest and largest of these, Inmarsat, launched its ## Inmarsat-4 satellite, establishing global availability of its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service, and bringing the fleet total to ## spacecraft. Another GEO MSS operator, ICO Global, launched its G-1 satellite in April 2008 to provide voice, data, video, and Internet service throughout the United States on mobile and portable devices.

2008 – Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) Space Activities – Snapshot

GEO satellites provide coverage of a wide area from a relatively fixed position, making them ideal for broadcast applications to multiple downlink sites, as well as for networking services to widely dispersed corporate and government facilities. Video distribution, point-to-point video feeds, also known as “backhauls,” and Direct-To-Home (DTH) television services represented three-quarters of total satellite services revenues in 2007.

2005 – Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) Space Activities

Satellites also provide mobile telephony services. Satellite mobile telephony enables regional to near-global coverage depending on the satellite or constellation, using handsets that communicate directly with a satellite. Mobile satellite telephone service is provided by satellite constellations in LEO, such as Iridium and Globalstar, and by satellites in GEO, such as Inmarsat, Thuraya, and ACeS. These services are provided by satellites primarily using the L-band. Satellites providing mobile phone and data services often are referred to as mobile satellite service (MSS) satellites.

2005 – Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) Space Activities

Satellites have provided trunking for long-distance telephone service for decades. Most long-distance traffic is now routed over cable, avoiding the lag and other reductions in quality (such as echo) associated with satellite telephone calls. Areas or countries lacking terrestrial backbone still rely on satellite connectivity to the publicly-switched telephone network. Telephone companies or nations lease C-band or Ku-band transponders on GEO satellites. Telephony, along with broadcast television, discussed above, and data services are common FSS applications.