Singapore’s Astrum Mobile has commissioned a miniature satellite from Swissto12 to deliver robust, low-bandwidth multimedia and connectivity services directly to devices across Asia from geostationary orbit (GEO).
Marking Swissto12’s third HummingSat platform customer, this deal highlights the rising demand for smaller, regionally focused satellites. The company boasts a build and deployment time of just two years.
Following Intelsat and Inmarsat’s orders, Astrum Mobile’s Neastar-1 will utilize the latest 5G telecoms standards for direct smartphone and device connection, offering media and mass notification services alongside basic connectivity for remote areas. Operating in L-band frequencies, it promises resilience against weather-related disruptions.
This resilience will allow Astrum Mobile to provide superior Service Level Assurances (SLAs), maintaining connectivity during typhoons, floods, and earthquakes that frequently disable terrestrial networks. “We have received significantly positive assurance from customers and partners that such a service will address the need to provide ubiquitous service access that meets national and commercial interests for enabling communications anywhere, everywhere,” Astrum Mobile CEO Sean Wallace stated.
Astrum Mobile partners with Singaporean telco Simba and Qualcomm. The rise of small GEO operators like Swissto12, Astranis, Reorbit, and AscendArc contrasts with a shrinking broader GEO market, partially due to uncertainty surrounding the shift toward large low Earth orbit constellations. In 2024, commercial operators ordered only six GEO communications satellites—the lowest in two decades, according to Novaspace. Three were small satellites, signifying strategic adjustments to changing market dynamics.