First International Conference on Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems

The European Space Agency (ESA), European Commission (EC) and Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems Task Force (ASMS-TF) organized the First International Conference on Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems (ASMS Conference 2003). It was held on 10 and 11 July 2003 at the ESA's European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) based in Frascati, 20 km south of Rome in Italy.

The Conference was a great success, with more than ninety people from 14 countries attending this two day event. With the support of ESA, EC and ASMS-TF, it brought together representatives from operators, industry, research institutions and regulatory and standardization bodies.

The Conference provided an international forum for the presentation and discussion of different aspects related to advanced satellite mobile communications, from the market perspective to the latest findings related to systems, services and emerging technologies in the field of satellite mobile telecommunication. It stressed the increasing relevance of Mobile Satellite Communications and their convergence with terrestrial mobile systems, broadcasting systems and multimedia-rich media contents applications.

The workshop consisted of six oral presentation sessions plus a poster session during which the speakers and presenters gave insight into the latest achievements related to this field. The workshop concluded with a panel discussion during which key speakers entered in a fruitful discussion with a live participation of the forum about the present and future perspectives of Mobile Satellite Communications.

During the Conference, the first S-UMTS demonstration in Europe was carried out. It used a satellite communication link connecting, via the L-band payload of the ESA's ARTEMIS satellite, the satellite gateway at Lario (near Milano, Italy) to the mobile terminal (the advanced multimedia van) located at ESRIN. This demonstration provided the user with an internet connection for web browsing and e-mail services. All possible while the user was physically in the van and "on the move". Other services that this pilot system can provide include: reliable multicast with local caching capabilities, ftp, weather reports, current news, MP (3/EG), videoconferencing and localisation based services.