Connecting the Unconnected to Make a Better Satellite World
Satellite’s capacity to connect the unconnected in order to reduce and eventually even eliminate the digital divide is a major focus of the Bridging the Broadband Gap campaign. Its a focus the topic campaign shares with SSPI’s Better Satellite World Awards, which honor organizations or individuals who have demonstrated the use of satellite to make a significant contribution to human welfare, good governance, safety, peace and security, improved education and other measures of global good. As a result, the podcast series of the Bridging the Broadband Gap campaign features two interviews with Better Satellite World Award recipients:
The Joy of Connecting the World
Hellas Sat is in a unique position to eliminate the digital divide in many areas around the world. The company received an award from the International Telcommunication Union (ITU) in 2022 and a Better Satellite World Award from SSPI in 2021 for enabling broadband connectivity to 127 public clinics and hospitals in Zimbabwe and for its efficient collection and distribution of health data to policy makers. Hellas Sat is making a difference, and it does so with a genuine passion for making the world a better place through satellite.
In this podcast, we hear from Ken Karantonis, Space Programs Manager at Hellas Sat, who has been with the company for nearly 20 years. Ken tells us a bit about the company’s approach to closing the digital divide in places that have particularly suffered due to lack of connectivity and how Hellas Sat makes such goals financially feasible to pursue.
This podcast is the second episode of the Bridging the Broadband Gap podcast series. The series is sponsored by Hellas Sat.
Crisis Connectivity Charter Update
Before 2018, there were few structural ways for communications to be rapidly restored after a major disaster struck a community. But the satellite industry understood how vital communications are as the first response to a disaster. It established the Crisis Connectivity Charter, a collaboration between the satellite industry and the humanitarian relief community to make satellite-based communications more readily available to affected communities. The Charter established a pre-planned set of systems that allow for an immediate response at the time of a disaster.
The Crisis Connectivity Charter, which won a Better Satellite World Award in 2018, was developed by members of the EMEA Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) and the Global VSAT Forum (GVF) and their members, in coordination with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), which was led by the World Food Programme (WFP). At the time of creation, the Charter aimed to foster efficient cooperation between the satellite industry, local governments, non-government organizations (NGOs) and the broader humanitarian community in the initial stages of a disaster, allowing for better communication planning, increased connectivity and support for emergency responses. The Charter prioritized access to bandwidth during disaster responses by allocating pre-positioned satellite equipment and transmission capacity into high-risk countries. It also provides training and capacity-building for the humanitarian community around the world.
What have been the results of this historic agreement and Charter to date? In this podcast, we hear from David Meltzer, Secretary General of GVF and James Matthews, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Eutelsat Group, who discuss the Charter and its effects thus far.
This podcast is the fourth episode of the Bridging the Broadband Gap podcast series. The series is sponsored by Hellas Sat.