HONG KONG SAR – EQS Newswire – 13 March 2025 – At the “100 Satellites” exhibition held in Hong Kong over March 10-12, USPACE announced the official signing of a strategic cooperation agreement with the Arab Information and Communication Organization (AICO) to jointly build a 6,000-satellite low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation. The constellation will serve the Middle East and Africa, with its core architecture focusing on “communication + remote sensing + navigation enhancement.” This groundbreaking initiative will be the first large-scale commercial service to enable direct mobile-satellite connectivity. The goal is to bridge the digital divide in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries and build an integrated space-air-ground information network. This partnership marks a new chapter in the global competition for LEO satellite internet and is a critical milestone for USPACE’s deepening involvement in the international aerospace value chain, driving technological autonomy, artificial intelligence integration, and global expansion.
Intensifying Global Race for LEO Satellite Internet: Opportunities and Challenges Under Starlink’s Dominance
The global landscape for LEO satellite internet has evolved into a highly competitive “one leader, many strong challengers” model. SpaceX’s Starlink, with its ambitious plan of 42,000 satellites, its ability to launch frequently, and its existing 8,000-plus satellites in orbit, controls about 80% of the world’s LEO frequency and orbital resources. It now serves more than 4.6 million users, covering North America, Europe, Australia, and parts of the developing world. Its core advantages lie in low-cost manufacturing and reusable rocket technology, further reinforced by its military applications, notably in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
However, Starlink’s global expansion has also exposed several significant challenges:
- Intensified resource monopoly: Under the International Telecommunication Union(ITO) ‘s “first-come, first-served” principle, LEO Ku/Ka frequency bands have largely been monopolized by Starlink and other Western companies such as OneWeb, leaving emerging countries struggling to access available frequencies.
- Higher service cost: The cost of Starlink’s terminals exceeds $500, with a monthly fee of $99—far beyond the financial reach of developing regions like Africa and the Middle East.
- Geopolitical risks: The military use of Starlink in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has sparked controversy, raising concerns about data sovereignty and network security in many countries.
Against this backdrop, the 6,000-satellite constellation built by USPACE and AICO seeks to differentiate itself by targeting specific market needs:
- Filling coverage gaps: Within the Belt and Road framework, the trade scale of Africa and the Middle East continues to expand, increasing the demand for satellite communication and navigation services for aviation and maritime industries. USPACE is focusing on these regions, where Starlink’s penetration is low, digital infrastructure is weak, and populations are densely concentrated.
- Integrated functional innovation: The constellation combines communication, real-time remote sensing, and navigation enhancement to address a diverse set of needs, including weather monitoring, AI-driven agricultural management, disaster early warning, marine resource exploration, and “mobile-satellite” 6G communications.
- Cost advantage: By designing and manufacturing its own satellites, and employing advanced assembly and testing techniques, USPACE can lower the cost of “mobile-satellite” terminals and services, targeting fees that are less than one-third of Starlink’s costs.
Urgency and Strategic Value of Lunching Middle East and Africa Constellation
Africa and the Middle East represent some of the world’s most digitally underserved regions. According to the ITO, Africa’s internet penetration is under 40%, while parts of the Middle East struggle with geographical challenges like deserts and mountains, making ground-based networks difficult to deploy. At the same time, frequency resource competition is intensifying: national projects like the UAE’s Mars Mission “Hope Probe” and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 are accelerating, but local satellite networks still rely heavily on Western companies, raising concerns about technological independence and data security.
Thus, the partnership between USPACE and AICO is a critical step toward overcoming these challenges:
- Securing scarce frequency resources: USPACE’s constellation plans prioritize the Q/V frequency bands (30-50 GHz), leveraging China’s technological expertise and international coordination advantages to avoid the congested Ku/Ka bands.
- Meeting regional development needs: Countries in Africa and the Middle East are pushing for economic diversification, such as Saudi Arabia’s NEOM smart city initiative, while Africa urgently requires digitalization in agriculture and disaster management. The hybrid constellation will provide real-time remote sensing data (with 1-meter resolution) and high-precision navigation services (with errors less than 0.5 meters), enabling smart cities, precision agriculture, and emergency response systems.
- Strengthening BRI cooperation: Through joint operations, technology transfer, and local manufacturing (e.g., USPACE’s satellite centers in Thailand and Spain), this initiative will promote the export of aerospace standards and technologies, creating a shared space economy ecosystem.
Technological Autonomy and Cost Advantage: USPACE’s Core Competence
In the face of Starlink’s cost pressures, USPACE has made a disruptive breakthrough through “vertical integration + mass manufacturing”:
- Designing 80% of satellite components in-house: By adopting modular platforms and 3D printing technology, USPACE has reduced the cost of core components such as phased array antennas and on-board processing units by 80%, cutting the cost of manufacturing each satellite by 80%, bringing the overall cost close to Starlink’s V2 Mini.
- Innovative mobile-satellite direct connectivity technology: USPACE’s self-developed software-defined radio (SDR) payload supports 4G/5G protocol compatibility, allowing users to connect to satellite networks via ordinary smartphones without the need for specialized terminals. This significantly improves terminal compatibility compared to Starlink.
- Smart manufacturing and reusable launch vehicles: With self-developed satellite design, assembly, integration, and testing capabilities, coupled with reusable rocket technology from the 8th Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (e.g. Upgraded Long March Series), USPACE aims to reduce launch costs by 50% compared to existing domestic costs.
Additionally, the constellation design highlights “Chinese wisdom”:
- Hybrid orbit layering: Satellites in 550 km orbits will provide high-bandwidth communications, while those in 340 km very-low orbits will enable sub-second remote sensing responses.
- Inter-satellite laser links: Using proprietary high-speed optical communication modules, each link can achieve data rates exceeding 10 Gbps, reducing reliance on ground-based communication stations.
- AI-driven on-board processing: By utilizing edge computing to filter remote sensing data in real-time, the data transmission efficiency improves from 30% to 90%, optimizing bandwidth usage.
A 100-Billion-Dollar Market Vision: From Basic Connectivity to Ecosystem Empowerment
The 6,000-satellite constellation is projected to generate an annual market value of over $30 billion, with specific applications including:
- Universal connectivity: Providing affordable broadband services for nearly 1 billion low-income individuals in Africa and the Middle East, with pricing as low as $3 per month. The initiative will also collaborate with local governments and public institutions to deliver digital public services such as education and healthcare.
- Industry Digitalization:
Energy: Real-time monitoring of oil and gas pipelines in the Middle East, exploration of oil and gas reserves in the region, mineral resource surveying across Africa, and cutting existing pipeline operation and maintenance costs by 30%.
Agriculture: Using AI and remote sensing satellites to offer small-scale farmers in Africa smart crop management and pest prediction, boosting yields by 20%.
- Emergency and Security: Developing a “12-minute response” disaster monitoring network, with centimeter-level positioning for maritime rescue.
In the future, USPACE plans to open its constellation APIs and make its satellite AI big data analysis models open-source, attracting developers globally to co-create satellite AI applications. By deeply integrating with 5G/6G networks, USPACE aims to achieve seamless space-air-ground integration and lead the LEO satellite communications revolution.
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