Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) and Satellite Communication Business

Satellite Communication Service providers

The conventional satellite business has been "satellite communications," "satellite broadcasting," and "meteorological satellites" provided mainly by geostationary satellites (GEO) and "satellite positioning systems" offered mainly by medium orbit satellites (MEO). While these services have been developed in the form of governmental initiatives, the private-sector services via satellite constellations that consist of a group of  low-earth orbit satellites are attracting attention. This greatly owes to decreased costs for launching and manufacturing artificial satellites due to improved technologies for semiconductors, energy, and IT. This is represented by Starlink by the US company SPACE-X which has launched more than 5,000 low-earth orbit satellites as of summer 2023, offering commercial services to more than 60 countries worldwide. Services through satellite constellations can be largely categorized into two: 1) satellite broadband service and 2) remote sensing (for ground surface measurement, meteorological observation, resource exploration, etc.)

The satellite communication service is ideal in laying out communication environment in rural areas without mobile communication infrastructure and is expected to be the complement for legacy global systems for mobile communications (GSM). Furthermore, Japan has enabled to use backbone circuit from base station and has made some communication services available at mountains, remote islands, within airplane or on ship where no base stations are established. In the future, the satellite communication service is expected as new infrastructure that supports availability of Beyond5G and 6G services, in addition to existing mobile phone service.  

Japanese companies have proactively involved in development and operation of satellite communication services, of which their efforts on development and commercialization of telecomunication technologies currently lead the market. On the other hand, the US has been the forerunner in the space industry, while the EU, Russia, China, and India have ambitions for the sucess in the market, too. 

The report compiles the survey on the efforts by the businesses providing satellite services, satellite communication services, trend of applications that can expect expanding demand, trends of standardization and technological development, upon considering the 6G applications after 2030. 

I    Entire Picture of Space Business

1. Entire Picture of Space Business
2. Space Business Market Size in Japan
3. Space Business Market Size Worldwide
4. Efforts on Space Industry by Major Countries
   1) Japan
   2) United States
   3) European Union
   4) Russia
   5) China
   6) India
   7) Transition in Number of Launches by Major Countries

II    Satellite Communications Market

1. Definition of Satellite Communication Service
2. Satellite Communication Market Size in Japan
   1) Satellite Communication Service Market Structure
   2) Satellite Communication Service (Satellite Phone +
       Satellite Communication) Market Size
   3) Satellite Communication Equipment/Device Market
       Size
   4) Satellite Phone Market Size in Japan
   5) Satellite Communication Service Market in Japan
   6) Domestic Telecommunication Businesses (Sales
       Performance, Forecast)
       - SKY Perfect JSAT
       - NTT Group
       - KDDI
       - SoftBank
       - Other Businesses
3. Geostationary Satellites (GEO)
   1) Outline
   2) Initiatives in Japan Market
       - SKY Perfect JSAT
       - SkyloTechnologies (US)
   3) Trends of Overseas Businesses
       - Viasat
       - Inmarsat (Viasat's affiliated company since 2023)
       - EchoStarMobile
       - Hughes Network Systems
       - Eutelsat
       - SES
       - Intelsat
       - Telenor Satellite Broadcasting
       - Thuraya Telecommunications
       - SkyloTechnologies
4. Medium Orbit Satellites MEO
   1) Outline
   2) Major MEOs
   3) Satellite Positioning Systems
   4) Initiatives in Japan Market
       - the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) "Michibiki"
   5) Initiatives in Overseas Markets
       - Iridium
       - O3b
       - One Point
5. Low-Earth Orbit Satellites (LEO)
   1) Outline
   2) Initiatives in Japan Market
       - NTT
       - KDDI
       - SoftBank
       - Rakuten Mobile
       - SKY Perfect JSAT
   3) Initiatives in Overseas Markets
       - SpaceX
       - EutelsatOneWeb
       - Amazon "Project Kuiper"
       - Kepler Communications
       - Telesat LightSpeed
       - IRIS²
       - China Satellite Network Group "Guowang"
       - Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology "G60"
       - Geespace "Geely Future Mobility Constellation"
       - Shanghai Lanjian Hongqing Technology Company
          (Hongqing Technology) "Honghu-3"
       - AST SpaceMobile
       - Apple "Globalstar"
6. High-altitude platform station (HAPS)
   1) Outline
   2) HAPS Initiatives
       - Space Compass
       - SoftBank (HAPSMobile)
       - HAPS alliance
       - Airbus Defence and Space/Aalto HAPS (ALLTO)
   3) Perspectives of HAPS Market in Japan

III    Satellite Communication Service Market Trends by Major Application

1. Trends of Mobile Base Station Vendors
   1) ERICSSON, Thales, QUALCOMM
   2) NOKIA
2. Satellite Communication Services by Overseas Businesses
3. Status of System-on-Chip (SoC) Solutions
   1) Qualcomm
   2) MediaTek
4. Aviation
   1) Demand Trend for In-Flight Entertainment (IFE)
       Systems
   2) Device suppliers geared to aircrafts
       - PanasonicAvionics
   3) Efforts by Airline Companies
       - Japan Airlines (JAL)
       - All Nippon Airways (ANA)
   4) Satellite Communication Services Market in Passenger     Aviation Service
5. Marine Vessels
   1) Use Cases in Marine Vessels (Including Passenger           Ships, Cargo Ships)
   2) Suppliers geared to Ship Applications
   3) Efforts by Cruise Ship Operators
   4) Satellite Communication Equipment (LEO Constellation) Market Size
6. Railway Services (High Speed)
   1) Use Cases
   2) Supplers geared to Railway Applications
   3) Efforts by Railway Service Providers
       - Central Japan Railway Company, West Japan Railway       Company, Kyushu Railway Company
       - East Japan Railway Company
       - China Railway High-speed, CRH
       - Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français
         (SNCF)
       - Deutsche Bahn (DB)
       - Brightline
7. Smart Devices (Smartphone, Smartwatch), e-call Services
   1) Market Entry by Major Smartphone Manufacturers
   2) e-call
   3) Satellite Communications (SMS/Text, Voice/Data
       Communication)
   4) Efforts by Terminal Manufacturers
       - Apple
       - Google
       - SAMSUNG
       - Huawei
   5) Perspectives of Satellite Communication Services

IV    Technological Development Trends of Satellite Communication Services

1. Considerations on Frequency Band for Satellite Communications (10GHz - 20GHz band)
2. Telecommunications Standards between Lunar Surface and Earth (Optical Communications, Radio Wave Communications)
3. Moves toward International Standardization, 6G Standardization
4. Optical Communications, Optical Communications between Satellites
5. Satellite Broadband Service
6. Direct Satellite Communications (Direct Satellite-to-Device Mobile Services)
7. Innovative Optical and Wireless Network by NTT
8. HAPS Development

V     Perspectives of Satellite Communication Services

1. Satellite Communication Service Market Size Projections in Japan
2. Influence of China