Direct-to-Device Service Will Remain a Complement to Terrestrial Wireless: Analyst
Don't count on ubiquitous connectivity from space to replace the need for terrestrial wireless networks anytime soon, given the technical, economic and regulatory challenges, analyst Kim Kyllesbech Larsen wrote Monday. Providing service comparable to terrestrial cellular networks means addressing such…
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hurdles as the difficulty of uplink signals reaching satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) due to cellular devices transmitting at low power, and those uplink signals interfering with one another, he said. There still needs to be development of advanced phased-array antennas for satellites, as well as dynamic beam management, he said. Another challenge is addressing bandwidth limitations and efficiently reusing spectrum while minimizing interference with terrestrial or other satellite networks. He said frequency allocations varying across countries and regions means that scaling globally requires dealing with diverse and complex spectrum licensing agreements, which can slow deployment. The high density of base stations in terrestrial networks lets them handle much greater traffic volumes than LEO, especially for data-intensive applications, he said.