Aug. 5 at 3:12 PM
$VZ Challenges with satellites
CCI CEO described why satellites alone aren’t able to displace terrestrial-based mobile networks. For one, satellites generally require a clear line of sight to the sky and provide weaker coverage indoors and inside vehicles, which is where about 90% of mobile usage occurs.
For another, satellite operators have significantly less spectrum. Direct-to-device (D2D) satellite services generally have access to only tens of megahertz of spectrum, while each major U.S. wireless carrier controls hundreds of megahertz.
Lastly, a typical satellite beam covers about 100 square miles to 600 square miles versus roughly 3 square miles to 20 square miles for a terrestrial cell site, requiring substantially more users to share the same spectrum resources. That means for every megahertz of spectrum, terrestrial cell sites can support 30x more users, he said.
