SES in talks to bring satellite telco coverage to rural areas

SATELLITE communications provider SES said it is in talks with telecommunications firms in the Philippines to bring direct-to-device services to close the connectivity gaps in rural areas.

“We’re now understanding where we could deploy this service, maybe in the Mindanao region where there are internet connectivity gaps,” Harsh Verma, vice-president of sales for the Asia-Pacific, said at a virtual media briefing on Thursday.

Mr. Verma said that the company is in talks with PLDT Inc.’s Smart Communications, Inc. unit; Globe, Inc.; and DITO Telecommunity Corp.

“We’re trying to get into the mainstream of 4G and 5G deployments in rural areas, bring direct-to-device capability into Philippines,” he said.

Instead of carriers putting up infrastructure, Mr. Verma said SES can use satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), a region of space that allows sufficiently high enough data transmission rates.

“So they basically send the traffic to our O3b mPower satellite, and we just have one O3b mPower Gateway doing not only Medium Earth Orbit but also bringing the direct-to-device capability using the same infrastructure,” he said.

SES recently launched its ninth and tenth O3b mPower satellites using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

In 2023, SES conducted a test of its MEO satellite system with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), which delivered connectivity speeds of 500 Mbps (download) and 80 Mbps (upload).

“We have deployed this commercially for six months and now we’re looking with working with DICT for a long-term deployment,” Mr. Verma said. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera