Congresswoman Doris Matsui has introduced her Draft Bill on C-band (the proposed WIN 5G Act) and is seen as being in line with general expectations that the FCC would adopt a modified version of the C-Band Alliance’s proposals. Sami Kassab, satellite analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, said he is sceptical that this legislation will be […]
Geo-stationary satellites are usually very large, and weigh anything between 3 – 7 tonnes. They are expensive to build, launch and insure. And when a satellite fails or suffers a problem it is a major nightmare for the operator impacting services and revenues. There are a handful of would-be satellite rescue plans under consideration, including […]
Russian space agency Roscosmos says that it will bring into use its new ‘Far East’ rocket launch facility at Vostochny for the mega-constellation of OneWeb early next year, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. Vostochny is now Russia’s second space facility, and will over time take over the launch business currently provided by Baikonur in […]
London-based Avanti Communications has been awarded the very first landing permit in the history of Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). These landing rights permit Avanti to start building a satellite business into and out of Nigeria. Avanti said that the authorisation enables the company to strengthen its business in the largest African economy. […]
Intelsat’s latest satellite, I-39, has arrived at French Guiana for pre-launch work ahead of its launch, currently scheduled for July 24th. I-39 was built by Maxar Technologies at its Palo Alto facility (formerly Space Systems/Loral, now part of Maxar). Intelsat 39 is the 52nd satellite built by Maxar for its long-term customer, Intelsat. The Intelsat, […]
Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, has announced Globecast Virtual Networking (GCVN), a new service offering that brings two-way, high bandwidth, IP-over-satellite connectivity to the enterprise market. It provides fast, reliable IP connectivity anywhere and anytime where terrestrial networks fail or are inconsistent. With GCVN, media event producers and content creators in the B2B […]
A new filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and commenting on the C-Band Alliance’s plan to sell off 180 MHz of satellite spectrum for 5G, has thrown up some important concerns about the scheme. In particular, the letter expresses concerns about potential extremely harmful interference from new commercial wireless applications in the 3.7-4.2 GHz […]
Elon Musk’s plan to girdle the planet with an eventual mega-constellation of almost 12,000 satellites is moving ahead with increased speed. New data from tech journalist Joshua Fruhlinger and the statistics site Thinknum indicated that the number of job listings which mention ‘Starlink’ has increased rapidly over the past six months and in particular since […]
Facebook already has tangible partnership and trading relationships with Hughes Network Systems, Viasat and Hispasat. It also tried to strike a deal with Spacecom, and might still sign Eutelsat to its roster of bandwidth suppliers. But it wants more. Wesley Wong, head of connectivity, partnership & business development at Facebook, and reported by Space Intel […]
“Prompt access to [C-band] is now critical” for 5G over the US, says Verizon’s CEO Hans Vestberg. He met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week and in a follow-up letter to the FCC, stated that he had encouraged the FCC to “move forward quickly to make spectrum in the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz band […]