UK comms regulator Ofcom is consulting on a proposal to issue fixed-term spectrum licences to enable Starlink to use E band frequencies for Non-geostationary Orbit (NGSO) gateway earth stations at three sites in the UK. This is to expand backhaul capacity to support satellite broadband services. Ofcom notes that take-up of satellite broadband is rising, […]
AST SpaceMobile’s ambition to acquire Ligado’s space bandwidth over the US is close to finalising. A statement from Ligado said: “We have reached an agreement in principle with all of the parties, so with Inmarsat, with AST, and with our two ad-hoc creditor groups…” The final judicial hearing will be on May 29th (if uncontested) […]
The upcoming launch of SpaceX’s giant Starship has been approved by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). The FAA has examined SpaceX’s history on the anomaly which led to the loss of Starship #8 and has now cleared Flight 9 for launch. “The FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap […]
Tom Mueller, founder and CEO of Impulse Space has won a major ‘multi-launch’ order from satellite operator SES. Mueller was the first employee at SpaceX and his work on the Merlin rocket engine, still used by SpaceX, was hugely important to SpaceX. He founded Impulse in 2020 having retired from SpaceX. The SES order will […]
The Federal Communications Commission is aggressively pursuing spectrum abundance as part of its Final Frontiers agenda to secure US leadership in space and supercharge the possibilities of satellite broadband. The Commission voted May 22nd to kickstart a proceeding that could unlock more than 20,000 megahertz of spectrum for high-speed Internet delivered from space. That amount […]
BT has reported full year revenues (to March 31st) of £20.4 billion (€24.2bn), down 2 per cent, mainly attributed to continued challenging trading conditions in Global and non-UK Portfolio channels and weaker handset trading in Consumer, offsetting the benefit of FTTP growth in Openreach and price increases. Adjusted UK service revenue was at £15.6 billion, […]
US telco giant AT&T has reached an agreement to acquire substantially all of Lumen’s Mass Markets fibre business for $5.75 billion (€5bn), subject to purchase price adjustments, in an all-cash transaction that it says will expand investment in critical US connectivity infrastructure, create new middle-class jobs, and accelerate high-speed fibre Internet access to millions of […]
UK digital infrastructure provider Openreach has committed to build the country’s most reliable broadband technology, full fibre, even faster – thanks to increased investment from BT Group. The company has already built the new infrastructure to more than 18 million homes and business nationwide – including more than four million in just the last 12 […]
Ofcom research compares how the UK’s broadband, mobile and landline customers rate their providers for customer service – including call waiting times, complaint handling and overall satisfaction. The media regulator says that it has “seen signs” that companies have improved the way they deal with complaints. Customer satisfaction with complaints handling for mobile (61 per […]
AST SpaceMobile (AST) is expected to launch the first of its giant ‘second generation’ BlueBird satellites in July, and eventually will have around 250 satellites in orbit and will provide global direct-to-cellular and other broadband services. Bankers are getting increasingly enthusiastic about the company. Deutsche Bank, for example, in one of its ‘Stocks in Focus’ […]