The Galician Research and Technology Center in Advanced Telecommunications (Gradiant) hosted the seminar “The Satellite Role in the Mobile Communications Arena” on 15 June. This event has provided an industrial insight analyzed the future of satellite communications in the context of upcoming mobility services.
The seminar was organized at Gradiant’s premises in CITEXVI and was attended by many representatives of ICT companies. Over 50 attendees from companies such as Telefónica, Itelsis, R or Egatel could benefit from the insights and business perspectives of relevant industrial stakeholders from the satellite communications sector such as Hispasat, Alcatel-Lucent , Abertis Telecom and Thales Alenia Space Spain.
The speakers were Jorge Rodríguez López, Innovation Director at Hispasat; Jean-Marc Hanriot, CTO Broadcast Solutions at Alcatel Lucent; Phil Skeffington, Principal Consultant at Mott MacDonald; Lorenzo Guzmán, Transmission Service Director at Abertis Telecom and Juan Manuel Rodríguez Bejarano, responsible for Satellite Systems at Thales Alenia Space Spain.
Conclusions One of the main outcomes of the seminar is the confirmation of an increasing extension of connectivity to high speed trains thanks to satellite connections. For example, Hispasat is already delivering this service in Italy and France, and it is likely that the Spanish high speed train (AVE) will offer this service at a more competitive price than 3G technology. The Automobile sector represents another market segment of high business potential, as well as the integration among satellite, WiFi and new generation terrestrial mobile networks as a way to improve coverage and quality of service for customers.
The lack of a harmonized European legal framework introduces some hurdles preventing a faster deployment of satellite services. Yet Europe has already produced produces success cases such as the digital terrestrial TV broadcast, which is based on European technology and is being adopted worldwide.Finally, it has been made clear that the Spanish space sector industry, and in particular the satellite communications subsector, is gaining international relevance thanks to its R&D involvement in next generation developments for modern satellites, in some cases in cooperation with research and innovation centers such as Gradiant.
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