Chris Forrester is one of the most experienced and highly regarded journalists in the field. His insight and analysis, particularly in the satellite and pay-TV arena, is highly prized. He has written for all the major business journals in the sector as well as several national newspapers.
Charlie Ergen, co-founder of Dish Network and the EchoStar family of business, might just have badly timed his latest venture. Analysts at MoffettNathanson (MN) aptly described Ergen’s position a “petri dish” of challenges, saying that Ergen’s entry into the pre-paid wireless business would have been challenging even under the best of circumstances. These aren’t the […]
There was a telling comment made following OneWeb’s Chapter 11 announcement, and it concerns the all-important cost of user terminals. While rockets were being sent up by OneWeb and still are by SpaceX (a Starlink flight was scheduled for April 16th but is now delayed). But Samer Halawi, now EVP/CCO at Intelsat and who worked […]
Would-be satellite constellation operator OneWeb is looking for the UK government to provide it with a rescue loan. OneWeb Global has also secured $75 million of fresh cash from its main backer, Japan’s SoftBank despite SoftBank’s own loss-making situation. SoftBank on April 13th reported losses of $12.5 billion overall, and that its ‘Vision Fund’ subsidiary […]
The Swarm Technologies constellation of small ‘Nano’ SpaceBee satellites achieved notoriety back in September 2018 when the company behind the system cheekily launched 4 of its craft into orbit aboard an Indian rocket. The problem was they had not been licensed to launch, or operate while in orbit. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was not […]
A report from analysts at Quilty Analytics says that despite OneWeb’s much-publicised Chapter 11 problems, all is not lost as far as Low Earth Orbit schemes are concerned. “OneWeb suffered from a significant first-mover disadvantage, a competitively inferior system (as a result of early design decisions and trade-offs), and inadequate financing (largely due to investor […]
Launching of Elon Musk’s Starlink mega-constellation of satellites is now a regular occurrence. The latest batch of 60 craft were launched on March 18th. But there are also some satellite failures once in orbit. Musk and his team have repeatedly said that some of the satellites will fail and we now have independent verification from […]
A 2010 contract placed with Maxar Technology’s predecessor company MDA Corp to build and launch a geostationary satellite (Lybid-1) for Ukraine’s National Space Agency, and subsequently the subject of a legal dispute between Maxar and the Ukrainian government has been settled in Maxar’s favour. The 18-month dispute ended up with a United Nations arbitration tribunal […]
Investment bank Goldman Sachs is the latest to downgrade its advice to clients who hold Intelsat shares. The advice is ‘SELL’ and comes just a few days after the March 27th advice from Cowan’s analyst Lance Vitanza also alerted clients with a Target Price of $1 for Intelsat’s stock, a significantly lowered target from the […]
A hard-hitting, but fundamentally accurate, report from Quilty Analytics says there are no prospects of a buyer taking control of OneWeb’s assets and moving forward with the company’s business plan and network architecture as they currently exist. “Consequently, OneWeb’s 74 operational satellites have almost no value to a prospective buyer, except in the sense that […]
Examining the OneWeb Chapter 11 ‘debtor in possession’ documents, it is Arianespace which is the company’s top creditor owed $238 million in unsecured claims. OneWeb signed a contract worth $1.1 billion back in 2015 for a total of 21 launches using Ariane’s Soyuz rocket. Three of those launches have happened, the most recent at the […]
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