The first ever voice call using 3 Diamonds nano-satellite technology has been successfully conducted, announced Sky and Space Global yesterday - a world first for the aerospace, satellite and telecommunications industries.
Nano-satellites have been been steadily taking over the satellite industry since their first launch in 2003 and are set to be the main provider of payload masses into space in the next decade.
Aside from the weight benefit - a lightweight 10 kilograms compared with 6000 kilograms for a satellite such as those utilised by Inmarsat – the miniaturisation of technology allows nano-satellites to be used for diverse commercial uses.
Their predominant use so far has been for earth observation, but yesterday marked a turning point in how sophisticated the technology has become in recent years as Sky and Space Global became the first company to successfully use narrowband connectivity provided by the tiny technological marvels to deliver a voice call.
Talking of the achievement yesterday, Sky and Space Global’s CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Meir Moalem said; “we fulfil our promise to our shareholders, made 18 months ago. This is a great achievement for Sky and Space Global and we are very pleased to be announcing this news and setting a precedent in the satellite communications industry. After months of hard work we are starting to put our vision into practice. Our technology works. Demonstrating that our nano-satellites are capable of facilitating services such as sending a text message and conducting a voice call at a very low cost is an important step forward on our route to providing affordable communication services to Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime. Now we have passed this critical technical milestone we can turn our full attention to our constellation, to be fully deployed by 2020.”
The Company’s vision is to provide affordable nano-satellite communication coverage to anyone, anywhere whilst keeping the costs low. It started its endeavour with the launch of its first three nano-satellites, the ‘3 Diamonds’, into space in June 2017 and is now preparing for the launch of a constellation of 200 more nano-satellites by 2020.
Once carefully placed in selected orbits the nano-satellites will give equatorial coverage of the Earth, creating a global communication network for voice, data and instant messaging.
