UAE-based Space42 announced that its next-gen Thuraya-4 satellite is now globally available for customers in Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, with new markets including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia.
Operating on the L-band spectrum, Thuraya-4 – which was launched into orbit at the start of this year – is built on the Airbus Eurostar Neo platform, with a 12-meter reflector antenna, onboard processing and a software-defined architecture.
The software-defined platform allows Space42 to allocate Thuraya-4’s bandwidth dynamically and reconfigure coverage in orbit with remote software updates.
The satellite is also designed to integrate seamlessly with terrestrial networks, which fits into Space42’s plans for offering IoT and direct-to-device (D2D) satellite services based on the 3GPP’s Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) standard via its satellite mobility unit Thuraya.
Earlier this year at Mobile World Congress 2025, Thuraya launched a new hybrid 5G-satellite smartphone, Thuraya One, aimed at the D2D satellite market.
Thuraya said it’s offering 16 new products via Thuraya-4 in areas such as broadband mobility, offshore operations, mobile gateway and aircraft connectivity (including UAVs), as well as a tactical transceiver system that extends UHF/VHF communications across land, sea, and air environments in non-line of sight scenarios.
Space42 also said it has already booked a 15-year contract for Thuraya-4 with the UAE government valued at US$708 million, which serves as the driving platform for its mobile satellite services business.
Ali Al Hashemi, CEO of Space Services at Space42, said Thuraya-4’s commercial readiness is a major milestone for the company. “It strengthens our non-terrestrial network leadership, showing how we translate long-term vision into global scale and commercial growth.”
