Connectivity Technology Blog

(click on image for larger version) I have written couple of posts on 'Internet Para Todos' a.k.a. 'Internet For All' on The 3G4G Blog and 3G4G Small Cells Blog . It was good to hear an update on the programme at TIP Summit 2019 in Amsterdam.  I have embedded the video of the presentation below but here is a quick summary from Justin Springham in Mobile World Live from TIPSummit19: Internet para Todos (IpT), a wholesale operator owned by Telefonica, Facebook, and Latin American banks IDB Invest and CAF Bank, opened talks to bring a second operator on board, after connecting more than 650 sites and covering 800,000 people (450,000 actual customers) with a 4G rollout in rural Peru. The initiative, only up and running since May 2019, is regarded as something of a poster child for OpenRAN technology, with vendor Parallel Wireless supplying compatible kit for more than half of those mobile sites (reports suggest Huawei is the other vendor, supplying more tradi...

While there are many initiatives going on to bring connectivity to rural, remote and other areas with little or no connectivity, none of them are as bold and advances as SpaceX's Starlink satellites. According to SpaceNews  last month: SpaceX has asked the International Telecommunication Union to arrange spectrum for 30,000 additional Starlink satellites.  SpaceX, which is already planning the world’s largest low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation by far, filed paperwork in recent weeks for up to 30,000 additional Starlink satellites on top of the 12,000 already approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The FCC, on SpaceX’s behalf, submitted 20 filings to the ITU for 1,500 satellites apiece in various low Earth orbits, an ITU official confirmed Oct. 15 to SpaceNews.  SpaceX deployed its first 60 Starlink satellites in May and plans to launch hundreds — potentially over a thousand — more in the year ahead.  The ITU, a United Nations enti...