Next-generation satellite services will cater the demands of personal services by bringing the satellite terminals directly to the hands of the user. Technological advances in satellite communications have made it possible by reducing the overall cost as well as addressing many technological challenges such as supporting mobility, having miniaturized antennas and terminal sizes, and providing high data rate links. With the unique broadcast nature and ubiquitous coverage of satellite networks, the synergy between satellite and terrestrial networks provides immense opportunities for disseminating multimedia services to a wide range of audiences over large numbers of geographically-dispersed people. It is evident that the satellite will play a complementary, but essential, role in delivering multimedia and telecommunication services to infrastructure-less regions where the terrestrial high-bandwidth communication infrastructures are practically unreachable. PSATS 2011 conference will explore such topics, bringing together academic and industries (Avanti, Astrium, ESA, Selex, Telespazio, Thales, and Triagnosys), practitioners, and students interested in future techniques relating to the satellite communications, networking, technology, systems, and applications. We would like to thank the TPC co-Chairs, Dr. Igor Bisio (University of Genoa, Italy) and Prof. Fun Hu (University of Bradford) for having defined a very attractive technical programme.

This year we will have two keynote talks from Paul Febvre (INMARSAT) dealing with "Personal Satellite Access Terminals: Observations with a 40-year Perspective" and from Dr. Haitham Cruickshank (University of Surrey, UK) on "Satellite Communications Security - Current Status and Future Expectations". In addition to this, we will have three special sessions organized by Thales Alenia Space España, the University of Bradford, and the SatNEx III project, as well as invited talks from Eutelsat and ESA.This year we have obtained the technical co-sponsorship by the Integral Satcom Initiative (ISI) platform, thus contribution to raise the industrial interest in this event.

This is the 3rd year that the PSATS conference is organized and it is now acquiring a stable size and for the first time outside Italy, in the nice place of Malaga. we would like to take this opportunity to thank the conference manager Brian Bigalke (Create-Net) and the organizer Aza Swedin (EAI) for their continuous support. A special thank is for the local organizer, Prof. Mari Carmen Aguayo Torres of the University of Malaga for her work and conference location definition. Another special thank is for the web chair Susanna Spinsante of University of Ancona for having effectively and timely supported the relevant tasks related to web setup and information updating.

Malaga is very a nice city with a good winter climate. It is rich of archaeological remains and monuments from the Phoenician, Roman, Arabian and Christian epochs. Malaga was also the birthplace of artist Pablo Picasso.We conclude this message hoping that the conference programme will be interesting to participants. Enjoy the conference and enjoy the city!

Claudio Sacchi (University of Trento, Italy) and Giovanni Giambene (University of Siena, Italy), PSATS 2011 General co-Chairs