Saudi CST and ITU Conclude Landmark Global Space Connectivity and Sustainability Events 2026 Drawing Over 8,000 Delegates in Riyadh
RIYADH — The Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) has concluded the proceedings of the Global Space Connectivity and Sustainability Events 2026 (SCS26) at its headquarters in Riyadh, culminating three days of multilateral technical deliberations that drew more than 8,000 international delegates, regulatory officials, and space sector pioneers between October 12 and 14 under the theme Connected Earth, Sustainable Space.
Organized in strategic partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and held under the patronage of His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Amer Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Chairman of the Board of the CST, the unified assembly merged the third editions of the Connecting the World from the Skies Forum (NTN) and the Space Sustainability Forum (SSF). The program convened 115 keynote speakers across 33 technical sessions and specialized presentations, uniting global regulators, aerospace manufacturers, satellite operators, and academic institutions to align international consensus on connecting underserved populations and safeguarding orbital environments.
The technical agenda addressed the integration of non terrestrial networks with emerging sixth generation (6G) cellular architectures, direct to device (D2D) links, high altitude platform stations (HAPS), and spectrum frequency coordination ahead of the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2027 (WRC 27). Parallel sustainability sessions evaluated space economic growth, orbital congestion mitigation, debris removal mechanics, lunar and deep space communication protocols, and responsible orbital governance. Specialized regulatory capacity building was simultaneously advanced through a dedicated executive masterclass convened by the CST’s Digital Regulations Academy and the ITU, training 44 regulatory delegates from 19 nations in orbital spectrum management.
The forum honored frontier academic contributions through the conclusion of the Non Terrestrial Networks International Research Competition (NTN 2026), organized in collaboration with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), evaluating 81 research submissions by 280 scholars across 40 peer reviewers. First place was awarded to a pioneering paper establishing a subsidy conscious pricing architecture for satellite connectivity under public budget constraints, followed by second place research utilizing commercial airliners as sustainable relay stations for satellite direct to device connectivity, and third place honors for an artificial intelligence driven multi layered NTN framework optimized for desert search and rescue operations.
Concurrently, the CST and the Saudi Space Agency (SSA) celebrated the winners of the global SpaceUp competition, which engaged more than 690 submissions across 50 countries and localized over 40 technology enterprises within the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s SARSATX, Jordan’s Smart Orbits, and Australia’s Orbital Universe secured top honors for high impact satellite data solutions. Live operational showcases rounded out the assembly, featuring critical remote connectivity solutions from Aramco Digital, ground optical debris tracking from ATON, dynamic NTN capacity reconfigurations by Arabsat, space IoT asset intelligence from Neo Space Group (NSG), and space radar automated collision avoidance systems from Project S, supported by strategic event partners including stc as digital enabler.
