Chinese LEO satellite operator Geespace and Malaysian telecoms service provider Altel Communications have agreed to establish an R&D centre to develop use cases for direct-to-device (D2D) satellite communications technology.
Under the deal signed on Friday in Beijing, Geespace – a subsidiary of Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group established in 2018 – and Altel will establish a study and research centre, as well as a centre of excellence, to accelerate development of D2D satellite solutions for Malaysia.
According to the Bernama news agency, Geespace and Altel are working on a proof of concept involving D2D satellite, LEO satellite IoT and high precision positioning that is slated for the second quarter of 2025.
At the signing ceremony, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil told Bernama that the ministry sees D2D satellite as a key technology to provide connectivity problems in remote areas.
"This R&D centre and centre of excellence will give more Malaysians the opportunity to get involved in this field because there is no denying that this is an exciting new field that can generate income for our country,” Fahmi told Bernama.
Fahmi said he has asked the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to examine ways to enable the technology to be deployed in the country.
Fahmi made the remarks while on a three-day work visit in Beijing from Thursday to Saturday. During the visit, the Communications Ministry signed MoUs with China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) for cooperation in media and broadcasting.
Those MoUs include exploring ways for Malaysia to leverage AI tech from China in its telecoms, media, broadcasting and film sectors, the report said.
Chasing the D2D dollar
D2D satellite has become a hot item in the satellite sector in recent months, with operators such as Starlink, Lynk Global and AST Spacemobile planning to offer such services on their LEO satellite networks.
Geespace is planning the same for its network, though not in its current phase of deployment. Under its current roadmap, Geespace plans to deploy 72 LEO satellites by 2025 for the first phase of the constellation, which will target connected cars – it currently has 30 LEOsats in orbit. The second phase will add another 264 satellites for D2D satellite communications, while the third phase will launch 5,676 satellites for high-speed broadband services.
Earlier this year, Viasat, Terrestar Solutions, Ligado Networks, Omnispace and Yahsat formed the Mobile Satellite Services Association to develop a D2D satellite ecosystem using spectrum in the L- and S-bands already allocated and licensed for mobile satellite services (MSS).
D2D satellite offerings from Geespace, Starlink, Lynk Global and AST Spacemobile propose to use the same spectrum bands used by MNOs for mobile services, which also enables people to use their existing mobile phones to use D2D services. However, this approach faces challenges such as local regulatory hurdles and interference mitigation.
Altel Communications – which currently offers enterprise telecoms services such as private LTE, cloud, IoT, edge computing and cybersecurity – holds a sizable amount of spectrum in the 900-MHz and 2600-MHz bands.
The R&D centre deal between Geespace and Altel follows a Heads of Agreement (HOA) signed by the two companies in October 2023 that was focused on “the development and implementation of high technology systems to complement Altel’s existing spectrum.” The announcement of the HOA gave no further details.
