BTK President Karagözoğlu: Negotiations with national and international satellite companies are ongoing

The International Low Earth Orbit (LEO), CubeSat, and Small Satellite Conference and Seminar was organized by the Telecommunications Satellite and Broadcasting Business People Association.

Speaking at the event held at the BTK conference hall, Karagözoğlu stated that there is a need for internet connectivity in many sectors, primarily in manufacturing, healthcare, oil, gas, and electricity production in rural areas, and said, "At this point, interest in satellite technologies is increasing due to their ability to provide wide coverage, low latency, and high data speeds. While satellite technologies offer countries significant advantages in political, strategic, military, technological, and economic fields globally, they also provide very important contributions to communication, navigation, and Earth observation. For this reason, our country continues its projects to increase its capacity and competitiveness in the satellite sector in order to benefit from these contributions as a whole."

Stating that the major transformation movement called "National Technology Initiative and Digital Turkey" by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will serve to blend technological opportunities and development with national goals, Karagözoğlu continued as follows:

"Negotiations are ongoing with national and international satellite companies that want to provide services in our country. Providing services under equal conditions with operators in our country, ensuring there are no negative effects on our existing national satellites, compliance with our national security regulations, ensuring that our country's data remains in our country as much as possible, and compliance with legal regulations regarding personal data are among our primary expectations."

Pointing out that there has been an increase in interest from some domestic companies other than Türksat in low-orbit satellites recently, Karagözoğlu said that they are continuing their work to determine the conditions for service provision via satellites sent by these companies and that they plan to complete this work in a short time.

"TURKISH FIRMS CAN PLAY A DOMINANT ROLE"

Türksat Deputy General Manager Selman Demirel also stated that the majority of the more than 6,000 satellites sent into space in the last 2 years are serving in low orbit, and expressed that the entire sector, especially satellite production, launch services, and services offered via satellites, is facing change.

Demirel emphasized that satellite production infrastructure needs to diversify with a "small, low-cost, and mass production" logic.

Stating that there are more than 3 billion people in the world who are not included in satellite systems and have no connection, Demirel said, "In this context, within the framework of political developments and our country's position, it is seen that Turkey and Turkish firms can play a dominant role in the integration of this population living in China, Africa, Russia, and India into satellite systems."

Demirel noted that due to the rapid growth in the sector, finding available launchers and planning launches is becoming increasingly difficult, drawing attention to the importance of developing domestic propulsion and launch systems.

News Source: 12punto