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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
AST SpaceMobile has received a positive upgrade from Bank of America. The bank has given the would-be broadband-to-consumer satellite operator a share price target of $55 (€46.89). AST is currently trading at about $42. The bank says it has based its target on a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis and says a DCF valuation is […]
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved SpaceX increasing launch cadence at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s SLC-40 to 120 Falcon 9 launches per year (up from 50/year) plus construction of a landing zone at SLC-40 and up to 34 first stage landings there per year. The full decision from the FCC says: · […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) is urgently seeking space industry ideas on its ‘intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance’ (ISR) project which calls for a European satellite constellation for military and civil usage. But ESA has set a September 30th deadline for ideas to be presented. This new constellation, called the European Resilience from Space (ERS) is […]
Analysts at investment bank BNP-Paribas have welcomed the $23 billion (€19.6bn) agreement from US cellular giant AT&T to acquire spectrum from EchoStar. But the bank says it is not the best news for cable operators. “Overall, we see this as a good deal for AT&T and the wireless industry in general, and a small negative […]
RSC-Energia (S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia), a main component of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, is very short of funding – and business. A report on the Gazeta newsite said that the Energia portion of Russia’s space and rocket enterprise was being prepared for a sale to a private individual. However, the more official […]
The news that AT&T is paying some $23 billion (€19.8bn) for terrestrial cellular spectrum to EchoStar has alerted many analysts to the implied value of EchoStar’s remaining telephony spectrum. Reports are numerous that both Elon Musk – who has long coveted EchoStar satellite spectrum – and AT&T rival T-Mobile could be next in line for […]
AST SpaceMobile needs to get its second-generation satellites into orbit speedily. The first of these craft, weighing some 6500 kgs, is much-delayed in its promised launch date. Now, AST insists that the satellite is ready to leave its Midland, Texas, fabrication facility and will be shipped this August. Then there’s the question of the rocket […]