Advanced Television

Satellite

EchoStar 25 success

EchoStar’s latest satellite, its XXV mission, was successfully launched on a SpaceX rocket on March 10th, just after midnight local time, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. EchoStar XXV is a high-power direct broadcast satellite serving Dish Network. Designed to deliver high-quality video and content across North America, the satellite uses steerable beams to target capacity where […]

March 11, 2026By Chris Forrester

SpaceX: Over 11,000 satellites launched

March 7th saw SpaceX launch 25 satellites from its Vandenberg Space Force complex. There’s another 25 due to launch on March 10th also from Vandenberg, and a further 29 craft from Cape Canaveral on March 12th. These totals will take the overall total of satellites launched by SpaceX to 11,493, of which some 10,015 either […]

March 9, 2026By Chris Forrester

Amazon Leo urges FCC to block Musk’s 1m satellite plan

Amazon Leo has filed a formal petition calling on the FCC to deny SpaceX’s 1 million-satellite proposal for orbiting data centres using the Sun to charge batteries and the cold of space to cool on-board processing. Amazon argues that the SpaceX 1 million satellite project would take “centuries” to deploy. Amazon Leo says: “Deploying the […]

March 9, 2026By Chris Forrester

FCC eyes freeing up Weird Space Stuff spectrum

The FCC is looking closely at certain satellite ‘guard bands’ which separate designated key frequencies in order to avoid unwanted interference. These bands are frequently used for TT&C, the jargon for Telemetry, Tracking and Command of satellites in orbit. The FCC issued one of its Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on March 5th asking stakeholders […]

March 9, 2026

Germany planning Starlink rival

Airbus is working with German defence giant Rheinmetall and domestic satellite manufacturer OHB to build a Starlink-like internet service for Germany’s Bundeswehr armed forces, according to a Bloomberg report. This is not the first time that the plan has emerged, although it confirms an apparent desire for Germany to want a fully independent source of […]

March 9, 2026By Chris Forrester

LOT Polish Airlines adds in-flight Wi-Fi with Viasat

LOT Polish Airlines has commenced rolling out Internet access on its long-haul fleet. The Viasat Amara service is currently available on the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane (SP-LSA). It will be offered on two more aircraft by the end of April. The service allows passengers to stay connected, work remotely, and enjoy online entertainment during […]

March 9, 2026

Carney pitches Lightspeed for international use

Canadian satellite operator Telesat is building a mega-constellation of 198 low Earth orbiting satellites. They’ll start being launched later this year and start coming into service in 2027. Meanwhile, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is pitching Lightspeed to non-Canadian governments. The UK is already an investor in Eutelsat’s OneWeb and is a reported to be […]

March 7, 2026By Chris Forrester

SES adds new MEO capacity

SES has added new Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite capacity to its network, with the latest pair of O3b mPOWER satellites (launched in July 2025) now delivering commercial service and expanding high-throughput, low-latency connectivity across global markets. To date, SES has launched 10 out of 13 O3b mPOWER satellites. The remaining three satellites in SES’s […]

March 6, 2026

Eutelsat completes refinancing plan

Eutelsat has announced the closing of its €1.5 billion senior notes offering on March 5th. The satellite group said that the transaction “represents the final milestone in [its] comprehensive c. €5 billion equity and debt financing strategy, supported by its main shareholders. It aims to support the Group’s long-term strategic vision through the deployment of […]

March 6, 2026

SES happy with releasing 160MHz of spectrum for 5G

Satellite operator SES has, until recently, explained that it favoured just 100 MHz of C-band upper segment being cleared for the FCC to auction. The FCC is required to complete its competitive bidding auction process no later than July 2027 for at least 100 MHz. A ruling is expected from the FCC during the second-half […]

March 6, 2026