With Elon Musk’s Starlink, satellite internet gains new momentum in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The dispute for the space economy market, which in recent months has sparked a race among billionaires for the debut of off-Earth tourism, also fuels another lucrative business: the Internet via satellite market.

A Morgan Stanley report estimates that the global space industry is already worth about US$350 billion and could exceed US$1 trillion by 2040. Internet via satellite, which until 2016 was not present in this economy, will be responsible for at least 40% of the market expansion.

Read also: Opinion – Elon Musk and the specter of global control over the Internet

And there is room for Brazil. While the telephone companies are fighting for 5G in the country, the satellite operators have increased their investments to increase the supply of Internet via satellite, seeking to accelerate the speed of the service.

The bets in the Brazilian satellite internet market are open both for the use of recently developed technologies, such as low orbit constellations – whose satellites orbit at an altitude of up to 2,000 kilometers – and for the improvement of existing technologies, such as geostationary satellites, which are fixed at an average altitude of 35,000 kilometers.

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Starlink, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, was authorized yesterday by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to operate in the country. The businessman was considered the most ahead of the dispute.

The Starlink project foresees taking 42,000 satellites to the Earth’s orbit, of which 1,800 have already been sent. The goal is to offer high-speed Internet to regions where fiber optics, even with the advent of 5G, should not be reached due to the cost of infrastructure.

Pedro Pallota, a science writer for the Space Orbit channel, recalls that Musk’s company already has contracts with the U.S. government through the Starlink project for military data transfer.

He believes that the entry of companies like Musk’s should improve the supply of Internet in remote areas since the company uses low orbit satellites, capable of reducing latency (response time) in data transmission.

– Brazil is a continental country, and many regions do not have internet access. It is an attractive market for the company – says Pallota.

Julian Portillo, telecommunications engineer, and researcher at Mackenzie, sees room for growth in the supply of Internet via satellite even with the arrival of 5G:

– You don’t have to go very far, just go after Recreio [Rio’s West Zone]. Peripheral regions can use satellite internet. If the person lives in this region, they can buy a cell phone with 5G and use it downtown, but they won’t get it when they get home. You can use satellite internet.

Companies that already work with satellite internet in the country are increasing their investments.

Via Sat, which has been operating in the country since 2017, providing infrastructure and terrestrial network for Telebras, in 2020 began commercial operations for residential customers and small and medium-sized companies. The company has invested in a new constellation of geostationary satellites, the ViaSat-3.

The constellation is expected to gain three new satellites, each with a capacity of 1Tbps (Terabit per second) and speeds over 100 Mbps (megabits per second).

– The first satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2022, covering all of the Americas, including Brazil. We have noticed a robust demand from places without connectivity options, which is a reality in several areas of the country – says Leandro Gaunszer, general director of Viasat Brazil.

Hughes do Brasil, a satellite broadband provider, saw demand grow during the most critical period of the pandemic. Now, the multinational is focusing on two plans. The Jupiter 3 satellite will be launched in the second half of 2022 will be the fourth geostationary satellite with data transmission capacity over Brazil, besides illuminating Canada, the USA, Mexico, and others.

We think the future is a mix of geostationary and low-orbit satellites. That is why we are investing in a model, still in the laboratory, in which a single terminal in the client’s home will access both systems (geostationary and low orbit) – says Rafael Guimarães, president of Hughes do Brasil.

With information from Globo

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