With this issue of ‘GVF FOCUS’, we end the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of GVF’s establishment. Earlier contributors to this column noted that GVF – or the Global VSAT Forum as it was first known – was established in a much different era in the satellite communications industry. In 1997, GVF was one of a few industry trade associations and the industry was still dominated by the intergovernmental organizations enjoying privileges and immunities that extended to exclusive supplier relationships with the world’s largest PTTs.
I am grateful to have collaborated with GVF in different roles throughout my professional career in my company, INTEGRASYS. I have worked with GVF not only in contributing to conferences and securing other opportunities for enhancing company visibility, but also in connection with the training offered by the GVF. Within the 25-years of the association, I have been in growing with GVF for more than a decade.
GVF’s representative role includes the Ground Segment of the SatCom industry, giving support to development and delivery of satellite technologies and services for consumers, businesses, and governments around the world by operators, producers, service providers, and other elements of the satellite ecosystem.
I am grateful to have collaborated with GVF in different roles throughout my professional career in my company, INTEGRASYS. I have worked with GVF not only in contributing to conferences and securing other opportunities for enhancing company visibility, but also in connection with the training offered by the GVF. Within the 25-years of the association, I have been in growing with GVF for more than a decade.
GVF’s representative role includes the Ground Segment of the SatCom industry, giving support to development and delivery of satellite technologies and services for consumers, businesses, and governments around the world by operators, producers, service providers, and other elements of the satellite ecosystem.
In this time of celebration of the 25th anniversary of GVF, I want to highlight first and foremost the unique approach of GVF for raising awareness of the various benefits brought by satellite systems in our daily lives. Where other organizations essentially focuses on disseminating information about satellite applications, GVF aims at spreading knowledge, building capacity and facilitating access to satellite-based solutions, notably through its well-known set of training and certification programs that have become over the years references across the entire satellite ecosystem.
The space domain is currently experiencing a rapid diversification and increase in the number of actors involved in space activities. More than 70 states, commercial companies, and international organisations currently operate just over 6900 satellites in Earth orbit.
The increased availability of space technology and capabilities has both advantages and disadvantages. It has spurred innovation, lowering of costs, and greater access to capabilities and services available from satellites for all. However, the growth in space activities and the influx of new actors also has the potential to exacerbate many of the current threats to the long-term sustainable use of space, such as on-orbit crowding, radio-frequency interference, the proliferation of space debris, and the chances of an incident in space sparking or escalating geopolitical tensions on Earth.