Arctic Market for Satellite Broadband Heating Up
Broadband satellite interest in the coldest parts of the Northern Hemisphere is heating up, with a variety of constellations targeting Alaska and other markets north of 55 degrees latitude expected to come online as soon as 2021. Consumer broadband and the digital divide for rural Alaskans is part of what's driving demand but so is a maritime marketplace opening up due to climate change, we were told.
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The FCC granted Space Norway U.S. market access in 2017 for its planned non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellation (see 1711030063), and it plans to launch a pair of satellites in 2022 for Arctic broadband. An application is pending before the commission for U.S. market access by Toronto's Kepler Communications for a 360-satellite Ku- and Ka-band NGSO constellation also providing service north of 55 degrees (see 2005270010). Pacific Dataport plans to launch the first of its two planned high-throughput micro-geostationary orbit Aurora satellites targeting Alaska by Q3 or Q4 next year, said Bruce Kraselsky, co-founder of Space Partnership International (SPI), a founder of PD.
The northern latitudes typically have been unserved or underserved by geostationary satellites because of their highly oblique lines of sight, resulting in more attenuation, coverage and reliability challenges, emailed Northern Sky Research analyst Vivek Suresh Prasad. That's not a problem for low or medium orbit satellites or those with highly elliptical orbits, he said. Mega constellations providing global service, such as SpaceX and OneWeb, will compete with the Arctic-centric constellations, though the mega constellation business model hasn't been proven, he said.
Satellite-delivered connectivity in Alaska today is "not exactly the greatest and fairly expensive," and prone to atmospheric interference, said Anchorage Economic Development Corp. President Bill Popp, who chaired last decade's Statewide Broadband Task Force. But while 200,000 rural Alaskans might be "pretty small potatoes" as a broadband market, the northern latitudes are attracting business interest because of data demands by such industries as mining, oil and gas and fishing, plus by the beginning of a Northwest Passage across the Arctic due to the retreat of the polar ice cap, Popp said. Traffic through the Northwest Passage, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, is expected to ratchet up substantially as the shipping industry gets more confidence that the sea lanes will remain open, he said.
The past five years have seen satellite technology advancements that have brought down costs and increased capacity through spot beams and frequency reuse, said SPI's Kraselsky. PD negotiated an agreement with OneWeb to provide low-latency services with its NGSO constellation, he said.
Even if there's broadband access, price will be an issue affecting adoption by rural Alaskan users, given the high energy and food costs and often the lack of economic opportunity, Popp said. But connectivity could be "a huge game changer" for rural businesses in northern Alaska, he said. State subsidization isn't likely anytime soon, since Alaska has spent billions of dollars of its reserves in recent years due to the collapse of oil markets and an ongoing recession there, he said.