The European Commission has referred to France’s Competition Authority (Autorité de la concurrence) the examination of the acquisition of sole control by the Iliad group of certain assets held by the Altice France group. The Iliad group is active in the electronic communications sector through its subsidiaries Free and Free Mobile. The target assets are […]

AST SpaceMobile has a European joint-venture with Vodafone. Bloomberg suggests that the AST/Vodafone joint venture is the “frontrunner” for upcoming Direct-to-Device (D2D) services over Europe and beyond. The joint-venture is Satellite Connect Europe. In May, the European Commission (EC) proposed reserving a third of the 2 GHz frequency band suitable for direct-to-device satellite communication services […]

Amazon’s low Earth orbiting broadband fleet has structured an agreement with local telco Herotel, and with it comes permission to start its broadband service in South Africa. Rival Starlink has been trying for years to gain permission to start its Starlink services and now has more than 10,000 satellites in orbit. Amazon Leo has barely […]

US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is expanding the reach of its venture capital fund to support development of promising defence technologies in British and European markets. Lockheed Martin Ventures, the company’s startup investment arm, is opening a London office with the goal of investing at least $100 million (€87.4m) of its funding in the UK […]

Australia formally asked the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for a launch time extension to the ITU’s rule for its planned Optus 11 satellite. The current obligation should have seen Optus 11 delivered in 2023, and launched later that year. Airbus Defence & Space is building the satellite. The ITU rules were that the satellite be […]

AST SpaceMobile has announced a private debt funding offering to raise $1 billion (€0.87bn) in the shape of Convertible Senior Notes. AST has also confirmed that is in “advanced discussions” with Japanese company Rakuten regarding the preliminary selection of RAST Co., Ltd. as an indirect subsidy recipient for the Low Earth Orbit Satellite Infrastructure Development […]

Eutelsat has lodged an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build and launch an extra 528 satellites in its ‘Eutelsat Next’ scheme. The filing says the satellites will orbit at 1,220 kms (the same as OneWeb) and designed to extend the company’s ability to provide secure, resilient, high-speed, high-capacity communications services around the […]

Azercosmos has launched its first National Space Incubation programme to support the development of space startups and strengthen Azerbaijan’s innovation ecosystem. The six-month programme is designed for early-stage startup teams working on Earth Observation applications, digital platforms and other space-based solutions. It helps participants turn their ideas into practical products that can enter the market. […]

Research from Parks Associates’ Broadband Market Tracker shows broadband subscriber losses among the largest cable providers in the US continue to lessen as operators strengthen customer retention efforts and expand converged broadband and mobile offerings. Leading cablecos – including Comcast, Charter Spectrum and Altice – lost an estimated 280,000 combined broadband subscribers during the first […]

The FCC has given its approval to launch giant space mirrors into orbit. These large spacecraft can reflect sunlight to Earth’s surface for construction sites, search-and-rescue lighting, and more. The company behind the project wants to launch 50,000 of these space mirrors. Reflect Orbital, a California startup that markets itself as The Sunlight Company and […]