09 September 2022

Solomon Islands has secured a US$100m loan from China to build 161 mobile communication towers, to be erected and supplied by Chinese tech giant Huawei.
The move was celebrated by the Pacific nation’s government as “a historical financial partnership” between the two countries that would “work closely to ensure the successful implementation … of the project”.

The loan, the island nation’s first from Beijing since it switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China in 2019, will come from the Exim Bank of China, with a 1% interest rate.

08 September 2022

US global communications provider Omnispace wants to be the first company to deliver a global 5G non-terrestrial network with connectivity directly to mobile devices from its low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites.

The move comes after the company completed the launch of two satellites through its Omnispace Spark program earlier this year. It believes the future of communications is hybrid — where satellites extend and augment terrestrial mobile networks.

Fellow US firm AST SpaceMobile is currently building a space-based cellular network designed to be accessible directly by standard mobile phones. It launched its first satellite in March 2019 and it has taken its second satellite, BlueWalker 3, to Cape Canaveral in Florida with launch plans for the end of the summer.