Advanced Television

Satellite

“All aboard” for steamboat broadband

About 1000 passengers – plus crew – on a fleet of Mississippi paddle wheel steamboats can now access satellite-delivered broadband. The American Queen Steamboat Co has equipped its American Queen vessel with FMC GlobalSat connectivity. The company is adding connectivity to its sister vessels, American Countess and American Duchess. The American Queen Steamboat Company operates a […]

June 6, 2019By Chris Forrester

Musk’s Starlink active this winter?

Elon Musk’s satellite-based broadband constellation could start offering services over North America after just 6 batches of satellites have been launched. The first batch of 60 satellites were launched successfully last week on May 23rd. SpaceX, where Starlink is a subsidiary company, said it will launch between 2 and 6 dedicated extra Starlink launches by […]

May 31, 2019

Research: UK digital divide is real

Research by satellite broadband provider bigblu, in partnership with Konnect Europe, reveals that people living in UK rural areas with low quality Internet must travel up to five miles to get connectivity. With more than a quarter of respondents unhappy with the quality of their current Internet provider, nearly three quarters (72 per cent) said […]

May 30, 2019

CBA releases key data to FCC

The C-Band Alliance (of Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat) has submitted the satellite usage data that the FCC requested in April. The filings give the FCC complete insight into the usage of C-band over the US by the different satellite operators; a large part of the data is treated confidentially. The data shows a snapshot […]

May 30, 2019By Chris Forrester

Ethiopia links with China for satellite

Ethiopia will order a joint-venture satellite with China for communications and broadcasting. The agreement was signed on May 27th at an event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Dr Solomon Belay, Director General of Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, signed on behalf of Ethiopia and Han Chinping, Deputy President of the Chinese Rocket Company. The […]

May 30, 2019By Chris Forrester

SES secures Brazilian VNO contract

SES Network’s division has signed a contract with Brazil’s Briskcom Partners to use SES-10 for a virtual network service over the country. Briskcom will expand its service offering by customising and flexibly managing connectivity for customers in energy, mining, agro- and ISP markets across Brazil. SES says: “Through this partnership, Briskcom will leverage connectivity delivered […]

May 30, 2019By Chris Forrester

Airbus wins 3 satellite deal from Inmarsat

Airbus has signed a contract with Inmarsat, a global player in mobile satellite communications, to design, manufacture and build the first in their next generation of geostationary Ka-band satellites, Inmarsat GX7, 8 & 9. The three satellites are the first to be based on Airbus’ new OneSat product line, which is fully reconfigurable in orbit. […]

May 30, 2019

Musk raises $1bn for Starlink

Elon Musk’s Starlink mega-constellation achieved a staggering success on May 23rd when one of his Falcon 9 rockets placed 60 of the small satellites into orbit. It also built on the success by saying it had raised more than $1 billion in fresh funding to help complete the constellation. Within a few hours it was […]

May 28, 2019

Starlink: SpaceX launches 60 broadband satellites

A SpaceX rocket, in a landmark launch, placed 60 ‘Starlink’ satellites into orbit on the evening of May 23rd. Lift-off was precisely as planned – despite two cancellations last week – when the rocket launched at 23.30 Florida time. This was the third flight for this particular rocket, and the 40th when the booster stage […]

May 24, 2019By Chris Forrester

Positive response to C-Band Alliance proposals

Analysts responded positively to the C-Band Alliance’s (CBA) plans for releasing up to 180 MHz of satellite C-band spectrum. One suggested the scheme was now entering the “homestretch”. Barclays’ Nick Dempsey explained that around 178 million people in the US could benefit from the first batch of 3 suggested spectrum allocations which the CBA is […]

May 23, 2019