SDG4 Using Direct to Handset Satellite connectivity.
Direct to handset is the connection of standard mobile phone (cell phone) handsets, straight from a communications satellite.
Traditional mobile / cell phones, connect to the nearest cell tower, on earth.
These towers only have relatively short distance communications coverage, so there are many of them, within a relatively local area.
What is SDG4
SDG4 is short for Sustainable Development Goal 4.
SDG4 is one of seventeen goals set by the United Nations (UN) in 2015, with the aim to achieve them by 2030.
The aim of SDG4 is the ensure that all children and youths, have access to ‘Quality Education’.
Although access to education worldwide, has improved over the last six decades, millions still can’t access it.
Direct to Handset communications via satellite, offers a way to help address the challenge.
Traditional mobile / cell phone connectivity is uneconomic to implement in remote areas of the world.
One reason is because of the costs associated with what is known as the ‘Backhaul’.
Backhaul is how to cell tower, is connected the the rest of the network.
Backhaul via Fibre Optic links, isn’t feasible, due to the remote locations of local populations.
Another backhaul technology used in traditional cellular networks, is satellite or microwave links.
This can solve the backhaul issue, but there is a second issue.
The second issue, is financial.
Remote communities in the poorest parts of the world aren’t exactly ‘cash cows’.
It is not financially viable, for private telecommunications companies to install infrastructure, to connect remote communities.
A dollar a day is apparently what people in many parts of the world, have to live on.
These people could not afford to pay, what the telecoms company would need to charge, to make a profit.
Good News
Direct to Handset connectivity via satellite, is now a reality.
We as a world, have the ability to connect even the remotest communities in the world.
Connecting people to the Internet will help achieve SDG4, as well as other SDG’s.
I heard on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, someone say that we are all now online.
Not true!
It is estimated that there are 2.7 Billion people, still not connected to the Internet.
Achieving the goal of ‘Quality Education’ for all, needs all people to be able to access information.
Internet connectivity and UN Sustainable Goal 4, go hand in hand, in helping meet the 2030 target.
SDG4 using direct to handset satellite, can help achieve this.