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Ku band downlink frequency range5/6/2023 To be more specific, ranges from 10.7-12.7GHz and 37.5-42.5GHz are used for the transmission of data from Starlink satellites to the customer's terminal on the ground. The ranges from 17.8-18.6GHz, 18.8-19.3GHz, and 37.5-42.5GHz are used for satellite to gateway transmissions. Gateways are locations on the ground that can send and receive data from satellites to connect satellite internet users to the websites and other internet services that they wish to use. Transmissions from the customer's terminal back up to the satellites in orbit are handled in the ranges from 14-14.5GHz, 47.2-50.2GHz, and 50.4-51.4GHz. The ranges from 27.5-29.1GHz, 29.5-30GHz, 47.2-50.2GHz, and 50.4-51.4GHz are used to send information from the gateways back up to the satellites. Under agenda item 1.6, the WRC-15 will table a discussion to answer the following question: should satellite operators be allocated more Ku-band? Finally, the ranges used for tracking, telemetry and control are 12.15-12.25GHz, 18.55-18.6GHz, and 37.5-37.75GHz for downlink communications, and 13.85-14GHz and 47.2-47.45GHz for uplink communications.Samuel Blondeau, Senior Manager, Spectrum Management & Development at SES, shares why the satellite industry has put a request to be allocated additional spectrum in the Ku-band at the WRC-15.Īt the ITU’s World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC) in Geneva this month, quite a bit of attention will be focused on Ku-band. Today, Ku-band satellites are not only used extensively for video distribution and live broadcasting, but also for many data services, such as broadband connectivity, VSAT services, mobile backhaul, maritime and aeronautical services. Each of these applications are considered mission-critical in our highly connected world. In fact, Ku-band is well established as the primary spectrum used for mobility networks to deliver broadband connectivity to where it is needed most: across oceans and the open sky, unreachable by terrestrial networks. Yet, Ku-band is a finite resource, and it’s becoming highly congested. When Ku-band was adopted for mainstream commercial and fixed satellite use in 1983, data and mobile traffic was almost non-existent. This year, data and mobile traffic is expected to exceed 72,000 petabytes (or 72,000 million gigabytes).Īs multiple Ku-band satellites can provide overlapping coverage over one area, the frequency band has become a mainstay for satellites, offering robust capability across the most densely populated areas of the world and oceanic regions alike. This feature alone makes Ku-band highly attractive to the world’s military.Īlready, satellite operators may soon hit a hard ceiling on our collective ability to offer more capacity to our customers. Despite burgeoning demand for more bandwidth, especially in Asia-Pacific and the African subcontinent, the industry may be limiting customers’ aspirations to grow solely because of congestion in the Ku-band. The answer to this issue is additional spectrum. To alleviate the bottleneck, satellite operators are requesting for 250 MHz in uplink and downlink in EMEA, 250 MHz in uplink in the Americas and 300 MHz in uplink in Asia-Pacific. In technical studies conducted jointly with key players in the satellite industry over the last three years, we have identified spectrum band which could be shared without interference to other users: 14.5-14.8 GHz in uplink and 13.4-13.65 GHz in downlink. The selected uplink band is actually already allocated to satellites, although limited to broadcasting applications worldwide except in Europe. The same studies demonstrate that removing sharing restrictions on this band is feasible, and that military applications and terrestrial could co-exist comfortably with satellite operators. What’s more, existing ground and space infrastructure are already equipped to take advantage of this additional spectrum, and badly-needed data and mobility applications can be further optimised. Without access to more spectrum, it’s not just businesses that bear the brunt. To enable developing countries to connect communities across geographically challenging terrains, greater access to Ku-band will be needed.
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