Assessment of demand of communication services in the Arctic region

The scope of the Arcticom project was to assess the demands for and offers of communication services in the Arctic region in the 2015-2020 time frame. The assessment included a number of market sectors such as shipping, mining, oil and gas exploration, fisheries and others, and geostationary and non-geostationary satellite communication systems as well as terrestrial communication systems. The study led to identification of gaps between demands and offers per geographical areas and per service category. The objectives of the project were to obtain a picture of the current status and common practices and to predict future demands for communications in the Arctic region, to predict the coverage, capacity and services to be provided by communication systems currently planned, under development and in operation in the time frame 2015-2020, to present the results using Google Earth and overlays, and to propose ways forward to avoid the identified future gaps between demands and offers. The benefits of the project provided ESA, the European Union and other relevant national and international authorities with information regarding future demands and needs for communication services in the Arctic region.