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Just over sixty years ago, Arthur C. Clarke penned
the now historic statement that “A transmission received
from any point on the hemisphere could be broadcast
to the whole of the visible face of the globe…”, thereby
enabling humankind’s launch into a new era of communication
independent of distance and location on the Earth. Now,
the evolution of the Internet has combined with the
capabilities of geostationary satellites to propel us
into an age of accelerated communications that encompasses
an ever expanding range of sophisticated information
and communication technologies (ICTs) and applications.
This capability has clearly demonstrable implications
right the way across both the economically developed
and developing world.
World Bank studies
Studies by the World Bank and other institutions and
agencies have shown that the provision of telecommunications
connectivity catalyses local economic development, with
a clear and direct relationship between the level and
growth of a country’s GDP and the levels of investment
in its telecommunication infrastructure. Access to robust
and reliable means of communication permits commerce
to expand, inward investment to flow, better education
for a wider populace, modern healthcare to be within
reach, and government to operate more effectively. And
for robustness…, read satellite.
Nowhere is the robustness of satellite-based communications
more vital than in serving the ICT requirements of key
vertical markets of the global economy and society.
For example, in November 2005, in Abuja, GVF hosted
a communications conference for the West African region.
It was perfectly apparent that in the Nigerian, and
wider regional, context a number of vertical markets,
particularly the oil & gas sector, were becoming ever-more
dependent on satellite for the cost-effective delivery
of their mission-critical communications networking.
Now, in order to further build on GVF facilitation of
dialogue on the communications imperatives for such
key verticals, the satellite – and wider ICT – community
is preparing for a major conference on Oil & Gas Communications
for Africa and the Middle East, about which you will
hear much more over the next few months. This is but
one example of how the GVF is focusing attention on
the ‘partnership’ of the satellite industry and its
vertical market customer base.
The Internet Service Provider (ISP) sector offers another
excellent example of a sector which, throughout much
of the world, could not service such a wide market base
without using satellite. On a global level, some 15
per cent of ISP links to the Internet backbone and to
their customers are carried over satellite, but in such
regions as the Middle East this figure rises to 22 per
cent and in Asia to almost 30 per cent. And as the calendar
of events in which the GVF is involved shows, many other
verticals are just as, if not more, satellite dependent.
When natural disasters strike – the earthquake in South
Asia, in the southern United States ravaged by a series
of unusually powerful hurricanes, and in the South East
Asian tsunami – communications links are usually disrupted,
yet for relief workers who arrive on the scene these
links are essential to bring together information from
a wide variety of disparate, inchoate sources. In Telecommunications
for Disaster Recovery (TDR), rescue and relief workers
often rely totally on satellite to coordinate the complicated
logistics of their operations.
Similarly, billions of dollars worth of telecom budgets
have already contributed to supporting economic and
social progress worldwide. Satellite solution providers
have amassed tremendous expertise in implementing rapidly
deployable (as well as cost-effective) networks, with
the result that satellite communications have never
been better suited to address the communications requirements
for critical applications in emergent nations that require
ongoing social and economic development.
Satellite industry
The Satellite industry is a well established one with
a 25-year lineage, and it continues to grow. This growth
occurs precisely because more and more organisations
and individuals are employing satellite technology.
Access to information and knowledge through this affordable
communications platform generates opportunity for social
and economic inclusion, for regional cooperation and
integration, and for increasing the numbers of people
with a stake in the emerging global information society.
Continuing to address the deficiencies in access to
low-cost communication services is an urgent imperative
for not only improving the quality of life in the world’s
poorest communities, but for significantly enhancing
the mission-critical, productivity capabilities of a
range of key market verticals.
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