Ken Takagi, Director of Strategy, Communications and Special Projects at the satellite operator, told Convergencia during an interview at Mobile World Congress (MWC), referring to the meoSphere project. "One of the envisioned use cases is Space Relay. We plan to deploy optical terminals on MEO satellites to connect them with other missions, such as Earth observation spacecraft, space stations and Data Centers in Space, as well as other Space Economy activities," he explained.

The project involving the new-generation satellites is that, with additional capacity, they can be allocated to customer payloads — for example, governments placing sensors on satellites for in-orbit monitoring. As Takagi noted, this positions SES as a solutions provider, as it is not just about connectivity to Earth but about infrastructure in Space.

In addition to the new opportunities opened up by the Space Economy, global geopolitical tensions have increased governments’ need for so-called "sovereign networking."

Takagi outlined the areas in which SES is collaborating with Lynk in this move into D2D. It includes not only financing but also cooperation on ground stations, spectrum coordination, engagement with mobile operators and specific application areas such as Government and connected cars.