Page 100 - SAMENA Trends - June-July 2025

SATELLITE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Dominican Republic and Spain to Bring Satcoms to Rural Areas

Regulator the Dominican Telecommunica- tel, explains: “Allowing the most vulnerable the signing of this agreement, six Latin
tions Institute (Indotel), the government of to have access to the internet is a decision American countries have already joined
Spain and Spanish company Hispasat have that seeks to generate equal opportunities; the preliminary studies to implement this
signed a collaboration agreement to ex- the satellite component will also be crucial project: Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Cos-
plore the participation of the Dominican Re- in border areas." The project has the tech- ta Rica, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic,
public in the development of a joint project nical and financial support of the Spanish along with the twenty-one countries – fif-
to share space-based telecommunications government. It also incorporates the expe- teen member states and six associate
infrastructures. The objective, the partners rience of Hispasat as a leading operator in members – of the Caribbean Community
say, is to provide the Dominican Republic satellite solutions in Latin America. With (CARICOM).
with a sovereign digital infrastructure that
allows it to improve connectivity in regions
that are difficult to access. It’s not entire-
ly clear yet how the project will enable the
deployment and use of satellite infrastruc-
ture, but Indotel says this agreement lays
the foundations for the creation of a sort of
two-nation round table that will identify the
current and future needs for satellite con-
nectivity in the Dominican Republic, espe-
cially in rural areas. The aim is that, through
this cooperative initiative, concrete projects
that integrate space technology into the
strengthening of essential public services
will be evaluated. Guido Gómez Mazara,
president of the Board of Directors of Indo-

US FCC Licences Next-Gen AST Satellite Test

The US Federal Communications Commis- earnings call in May the company planned by the FCC on 11 July strictly prohibits AST
sion (FCC) issued an experimental license to launch its first Block2 Bluebird known as SpaceMobile from “conducting any com-
for AST SpaceMobile to launch its first FM1 this month, but the plans fell through. mercial operations” from FM1. AST Spac-
Block2 Bluebird low Earth orbit (LEO) sat- In a filing to the FCC on 1 July FCC, AST eMobile’s second-generation birds are key
ellite, which has ten-times the capacity of SpaceMobile sought permission to trans- to its plan to deliver ubiquitous voice, video
its current first-generation birds. CEO Abel port the satellite to India for a launch in and data services to smartphones in dead
Avellan stated on AST SpaceMobile’s Q2 August. The experimental license granted zones through partnerships with mobile
operators including AT&T and Verizon. The
Block2 Bluebirds feature up to 2,400 square
foot communications arrays with beams
designed to support a capacity of 40MHz,
enabling peak data transmission rates of
120Mb/s. AST SpaceMobile plans to build
40 second-generation satellites this year
with a long-term goal of 90 to enable glob-
al service. On its Q1 earnings call, an AST
SpaceMobile executive stated it estimated
average capital costs including direct ma-
terials and launch expenditure for the con-
stellation would fall in the range of $21 mil-
lion to $23 million per satellite. It previously
estimated the cost would be $19 million to
$21 million. AST SpaceMobile is seeking to
raise $500 million over the next three years
to broaden its constellation.

100 JUNE-JULY 2025