In line with the ambition of "exporting" the multi-operator optical fiber business model by land, sea and air, dstelecom joined the mobilizing agenda New Space Portugal as co-promoter. The project, with Portuguese DNA, aims to establish the capacity to design, develop and produce complete satellites, payloads and offer transactable services with high added value, based on the exploitation of Earth Observation (OT) data from Space.

With the aim of boosting the national value chain to serve a rapidly growing global market, this agenda has the participation of 39 entities and a total investment of more than 177 million euros, of which around 1.6 million corresponds to investment from dstelecom.

Within the scope of the project, dstelecom has an active participation in two activities, WP 2 (Work Package 2), designated as ‘Open Constellation’, and WP 4 (Work Package 4), entitled ‘Digital Planet’.

The ‘Open Constellation’ intends to implement 3 state-of-the-art high-resolution satellites, whose complete integration process covers the design, manufacturing, testing and operational aspects of the prototypes. It will be entirely conducted in Portugal, strengthening ties and contributing to the consolidation of the Portuguese space ecosystem.

In this activity, dstelecom assumes responsibility for developing and integrating its communications technology for Internet of the Things (IoT) systems, whose primary functionality is related to providing connectivity to sensors located in remote areas, that is, without access to conventional telecommunications networks. In this way, it intends to consolidate and expand its offer of wireless connectivity infrastructure, open and operator-agnostic. Furthermore, it will allow it to maintain and expand its range of action in rural and low population density areas, the company's key market.

WP4 ‘Digital Planet’ is focused on creating value-added products for the Earth observation market, integrating and merging data from “in-situ” and remote sources. In this case, the different co-promoters seek to focus on applications that leverage the characteristics of future constellations resulting from the Agenda (VHR, HR, SAR, VDES/AIS, or IoT payloads), for the different segments: Defense and Security, Emergency Management , Agriculture and Forestry, Ocean, Energy, Smart Cities, Sustainability, among others. dstelecom, in particular, intends to focus its efforts on creating a digital environment that allows customers to manage and access data packages coming from their facilities in remote locations.

Therefore, this project, together with a vast portfolio of Portuguese entities, will position the country as a nation of excellence in the aerospace sector. As this is a strategic segment of innovation for dstelecom, a participation plan was outlined, which seeks to address the entire value chain, creating a satellite communications infrastructure and a digital environment to encourage direct interaction, participation and customer prospecting.

Remember that dstelecom had already invested in the space sector with the AEROS project, which involved the development of a low-orbit nano satellite to monitor the Earth's surface and maritime territory of Portuguese territory. This satellite, which aims to be the first of the future Atlantic Constellation and provide more information on the study of the Earth, specifically on coastal geographic areas, will predictably be launched in the first half of 2024.