Japan companies join global rivalry to launch satellite-based internet services

Efforts to put satellites into orbit, thereby giving more people around the world access to internet services, have been spreading widely.

More than 3 billion people are estimated to live in places with insufficient internet systems. This has led to growing international rivalry among technology firms and other companies as they seek to mine the untapped market for such services in newly emerging economies and developing countries.

Speaking at an international trade fair for telecom businesses held in Spain in June, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his company would be able to provide high-speed, broadband internet service almost anywhere in the world by August. A U.S. space enterprise and the frontrunner in the satellite communications business, SpaceX has been competing fiercely with Amazon. com, Inc. and Facebook Inc., both of which aim to launch their own satellites to provide internet service.

SpaceX has launched over 1,500 satellites to date and started its internet service last year in such countries as the United States and Canada. Users have to buy special terminals for about $500, while paying a monthly service charge of about $100.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry plans to review the Radio Law this summer so that people in Japan can also use the SpaceX service.

Japanese companies have likewise entered this field. SoftBank Corp. in May agreed on a business tie-up with OneWeb LLC, a U.K. satellite communications company in which its parent firm SoftBank Group has invested. OneWeb has successfully put over 180 satellites into orbit, and SoftBank plans to start providing its service in some parts of the world this year.

Rakuten Group, Inc. plans to launch its satellite communications service for domestic customers as early as fiscal 2022, by making use of the technologies owned by a U.S. startup it has invested in. As Rakuten is a late starter in the mobile phone service business, and it will cost both time and a huge sum of money to develop radio communication base stations on the ground, Rakuten aims to swiftly narrow the gap with its front-running rivals via new technologies.

A mainstream method in internet communications is to have data-mounted digital signals converted into optical signals, then have the data exchanged via networks of optical fibers. The nation’s three leading mobile phone service operators — NTT Docomo, Inc., KDDI Corp. and SoftBank — have set up base stations at several hundred thousand locations across the country, giving them extensive communication networks.

In contrast, satellite communications can send radio waves to wider areas and will therefore have less difficulty covering even areas where optical fiber and other communications networks have not been established. Efforts to utilize satellites started several decades ago, with transmission speed and the related cost being major challenges.

The cost of the rockets necessary for launching satellites into orbit has dropped in recent years, while the functions of semiconductor chips have been enhanced, thus having the momentum for adopting satellite communication systems growing.

More time is thought to be needed for companies to realize their objective of making satellite communication services common in newly emerging economies and developing countries. U.S. consulting firm AT Kearney Inc. estimates that the market size of the global space industry, which centers on the satellite communication service business and stood at about ¥40 trillion in 2020, will expand to roughly ¥160 trillion in 2040.

However, some have said that with the growing number of satellites in orbit, radio waves from space might collide with terrestrial radio waves, resulting in glitches. Also, satellites that have reached the end of their life spans could eventually become space debris.

“Providing stable service is our most important mission,” said Nobuyuki Uchida, an executive officer of Rakuten Mobile, Inc. The Japan News