By Denis Sutherland, VP, Business Management, VT iDirect
The 5G future holds enormous potential for satellite. That’s why iDirect has joined the EMEA Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) to help promote the capabilities of satellite in the development of 5G standards. ESOA is a CEO-driven organization with the mission of representing satellite operators around the globe.
While ESOA lobbies on behalf of satellite organizations across a range of industry topics, the group has been working recently to bring together members of the satellite industry around the development of 5G innovations. Just last year, ESOA became a Market Representation Partner in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a collaborative group of players in telecommunications who are working to integrate 5G standards into satellite technology.
ESOA’s work with 5G reflects iDirect’s vision of a 5G future that needs satellite for several use cases. For example, mobile network operators will be able to take advantage of satellite’s inherent multicasting functionality for new use cases, such as the connected car or multi-content streaming to the edge, while preserving high-value wireless spectrum for latency-sensitive services. Or, they will be able to use satellite’s longer range to complement the buildout of 5G in remote areas where building terrestrial networks for enhanced broadband services is simply too cost prohibitive.
Currently, iDirect is serving as an associate member of ESOA, and has joined a 5G working group. We are also leading the way for satellite in several other 5G organizations, such as the EU’s Horizon 2020 SaT5G consortium, ESA Artes’ SATis5 Consortium and OSMOSIS working group. iDirect will also be at Mobile World Congress Barcelona from Feb. 25-28, 2019, where we will be showing a live final proof of concept testing for video content distribution to the edge designed to operate over a satellite network with 4G/5G and MEC integration.
Schedule a meeting at MWC with an iDirect representative to find out more.