The C-Band Alliance on November 7th sent a strongly-worded seven-page letter to two senior members of the US House Sub-committee on Communications & Technology. The letter starts politely enough, telling Chairman Michael Doyle and Ranking Member Robert Latta that it wanted to correct some misstatements. But the message soon became blunt saying, in effect, ‘hands […]
OneWeb is to delay the launch of its first batch of 34 satellites until the New Year, saying that they want to give the craft additional checks. They will then be flown to the Russian cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan for launch probably in late-January. OneWeb launched its first 6 debut satellites back in February, and […]
US telco giant AT&T has proposed its own plan for a private C-band auction to reallocate satellite spectrum over the US. AT&T is almost certain to be a buyer of some of the released satellite spectrum. The AT&T ‘variation’ on the C-Band Alliance’s well-rehearsed scheme, suggests that the spectrum should be released extremely promptly and […]
SpaceX is planning to launch 60 of its ‘Starlink’ mini-satellites on November 11th. This second batch of satellites will help populate the proposed $10 billion mega-constellation that SpaceX is planning, and adds to the 62 already orbited in May 2019 (not all of which are still active). SpaceX admits that the hard work in completing […]
Satellite builder Maxar Technologies reported that it had won an important order for a geostationary communications satellite. It did not name the customer but the order comes after a difficult period of drought for the business and in particular its former Space Systems/Loral division, now called Maxar Space Solutions segment. Maxar’s CEO Dan Jablonsky, speaking […]
Giles Thorne, media analyst at investment bank Jefferies, speaking about the eventual C-Band decision for the reallocation of spectrum over the US for 5G usage, sums up the position perfectly, saying ‘The C-Band Home Strait’ in his comprehensive report on the current state of play. He admits that the past year or so has been […]
Satellite mega-constellation OneWeb is looking to raise another $1 billion (€0.9bn) as it starts work on orbiting 30 satellites per month in a few weeks. OneWeb is backed in part by Japanese media conglomerate SoftBank, although there are also reports that SoftBank is looking to exit the business. OneWeb wants to circle the planet with […]
Eutelsat’s poor Q1 trading numbers announced after the close of the market on October 30th and a downward revision to its expected revenues over the next nine months resulted in a severe fall in its stock market share price in early trading October 31st. Eutelsat’s share price tumbled 11.83 per cent (€2.19) to €16.29 (and […]
The FCC has yet to make its mind up on whether to grant the C-Band Alliance its permission to auction of 300 MHz of satellite spectrum over the US. But the CBA is very much ready to proceed with its plans. On October 29th the CBA, in a filing to the FCC, said it had […]
The US Congress Energy & Commerce Committee held a formal hearing into the C-Band Alliance’s plan for spectrum reallocation over the US on October 29th. The meeting did not go well for the Alliance. The Committee already has a Bill (the C-Band Act) before Congress and the Bill is co-sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, and […]