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Pakistan halts broadband direct-from satellite

India has been reported to be slowing down its permissions for the likes of Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper and SES/Jio to start services. Now it seems Pakistan – no friend of India – is also stuck in what has been described as “bureaucratic limbo”. Evidently, various Pakistani federal institutions are creating obstacles, stalling the companies’ plans […]

September 19, 2025

India stymies Starlink launch

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has thrown a spanner in the launch plans for Starlink in the country. A cynic might suggest that India doesn’t really want Starlink in its neighbourhood. Specifically, the DoT is requesting more information. The telecom department’s highest decision-making body has sought clarification from the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) on certain […]

September 18, 2025

Starlink, AST SpaceMobile race for cellular consumers

The next battleground, according to expert speakers at the World Space Business Week in Paris, is the fight for Direct-to-Device connectivity from satellite. Starlink has more than 7 million customers, but has “little or no chance” to extend its service to voice services for at least two years, said Starlink president and COO Gwynne Shotwell. […]

September 17, 2025

Trouble ahoy for foreign D2D satellites over India?

Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, Eutelsat’s OneWeb and the SES/Jio plans for their satellite direct-to-consumer schemes might have an extra hurdle. Reports from India say that the government, which has been slow in issuing the necessary permits for these services to start, might now want to ‘cap’ or limit the number of subscribers they sign up. […]

September 16, 2025

Can Starlink disrupt the US Cellular sector?

The US cellular businesses of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have had their market presence threatened if not actually dented by the recent moves by EchoStar and Musk’s Starlink. The move by EchoStar in selling off large chunks of spectrum to AT&T (for terrestrial) and Starlink (for satellite) has put the whole sector under the microscope. […]

September 15, 2025

Bank: “There could be more to come from EchoStar”

Analysts at investment bank TD Cowen have issued a note to clients saying that positive news from EchoStar could continue to flow. “EchoStar still owns the highly lucrative 700 and AWS-3 spectrum, in which we note that all three wireless carriers have a robust ecosystem,” TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams wrote in a note for […]

September 15, 2025

FCC: “We are dominating Space Race 2.0”

FCC Commission Chair Brendan Carr, while speaking at the US Chamber of Commerce Global Aerospace Summit this week, praised the new wave of innovation and growth in the Space sector. “As a result, we now have new constellations of low-earth satellites that make it possible to deliver high-speed internet to remote locations and connect Americans […]

September 12, 2025

SABC staring at “complete collapse”

South Africa Broadcasting has been under financial pressures and severe monetary constraints for some years. Local reports say that pressure is mounting on communications minister Solly Malatsi to act to rescue the SABC as it struggles to pay its escalating bills. September 8th saw reports that State-owned signal distributor Sentech, whose primary client is SABC, […]

September 11, 2025

Starship business valued at $2.5tn by 2030

A report from ARK Investment Management forecasts that Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship business, which carried out its tenth test flight on August 26th, is likely to be valued at some $2.5 trillion (€2.1tn) by the end of the decade. The rocket’s upper Starship spacecraft, which is designed to one day carry cargo or humans to […]

September 10, 2025

All to fight for in India’s space race

According to the Indian government, the total number of broadband connections in the country at the end of 2024 stood at 944.96 million (cellular 903.78 million, wireline 41.19 million) and the market is growing. It is commonplace for millions of Indian consumers to own multiple handsets (one for work, for family, etc). But the market […]

September 9, 2025