Five companies, including NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS, have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at building and operating a satellite-based mega-constellation and creating new services. The companies will combine their technological, financial and business resources to consider a collaborative framework covering communications, observation, PNT and space data centers.
On 6 November, the five companies, NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS, Mitsubishi Electric, NTT, MUFG Bank and Development Bank of Japan, signed a memorandum of understanding to explore comprehensive collaboration on building and operating a mega-constellation, in which a vast number of satellites work together to provide global services, and on providing services that use the constellation. Going forward, they will advance the organization of technological foundations and the development of a specific collaborative framework in areas including communications, observation, PNT and space data centers. Amid increasing public- and private-sector space development, the companies aim to realize social infrastructure that makes use of coordination among multiple satellites.
Under the memorandum, the five companies will explore sustainable, highly reliable businesses based on openness and interoperability, while leveraging one another's strengths. NTT and NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS will lead the technical study of system design and communications integration using their expertise in communications and ICT, and will examine optimal communications links between satellites and between satellites and ground stations. They will combine NTT's research and development technologies, including IOWN, with technologies from domestic and international partners to explore the potential for future commercialization.