Advanced Television

Satellite

Intelsat joins the Seamless Air Alliance

Intelsat has joined the Seamless Air Alliance, a consortium dedicated to the development and promotion of standards to facilitate a better, more seamless, inflight connectivity experience for passengers. The standards would eliminate the immense costs and hurdles commonly associated with acquisition, installation, and operation of data access infrastructure by streamlining system integration and certification, providing […]

July 19, 2018

Google spins off Project Loon/Wing

Two of Google X’s futuristic development projects, its Project Loon and Project Wing have been spun off by Google’s parent company (Alphabet) as standalone businesses although remaining as part of the Alphabet family. Loon envisages a fleet of giant balloons floating in the stratosphere (at 18-25 kms high) to connect remote and underserved locations below […]

July 16, 2018By Chris Forrester

FCC on C-band: “We need a framework”

Last week, the FCC said that the proposal from Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Intel for a restructuring of their C-band capacity over the US can proceed to the next stage. But reading the small print in the form of comments from the four Commissioners, who voted 4-0 in favour of the scheme, throws up some […]

July 16, 2018

First 5G auction in Spain

Spain will launch its first 5G auction next week to award licences and kickstart 5G deployment, with the first services scheduled for June 2020 when DTT migration is completed. The main telco operators -Telefónica, Orange, Vodafone and MasMovil- will bid for the licences valued at an initial price of €100 million. In the auction, 200 […]

July 13, 2018From David Del Valle in Madrid

FCC opens C-band for 5G

The FCC is advancing (by a 4-0 vote) to move forward with a proposal by Intelsat and SES (with Intel) to see a restructuring of C-band spectrum over the US to help develop 5G. The plan would see Intelsat, SES (and including Eutelsat) sell some of their C-band frequencies to the USA’s cellular operators. However, […]

July 13, 2018By Chris Forrester

Eutelsat joins SES, Intel, Intelsat C-band proposal

Leading global satellite operators Intelsat, SES  and Eutelsat are joining forces on a market-based proposal for the future use of the lower C-band spectrum in the US. Eutelsat has agreed to join the proposal initiated by Intelsat, Intel and SES. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to announce its planned adoption of a […]

July 12, 2018By Chris Forrester and Colin Mann

India wants 10 new giant satellites

India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says that it wants to build and launch 40 rockets into space over the next four years, and of that 40, around 10 will carry geostationary satellites for TV and broadband communications. The remaining 30 rockets will carry scientific missions. ISRO chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan, speaking in Bengaluru, said that ISRO […]

July 11, 2018By Chris Forrester

Airbus seeks extra satellite business from US

Airbus Space & Defence is already involved in an $85 million joint-venture with would-be satellite operator OneWeb to build a satellite manufacturing factory at Port Canaveral, in Florida. The plan is to shortly start building the first of an initial 900 satellites for the SoftBank-backed OneWeb project to girdle the planet with a new constellation […]

July 11, 2018

Intelsat and SES await C-band decision

Intelsat and SES, the world’s two largest satellite operators, are anticipating a positive decision from the FCC on July 12th to their proposal (with Intel) on the re-shaping of their C-band frequencies over the US. July 12th will see the FCC commissioners vote on a potential four-step plan that would see the freeing of some […]

July 10, 2018By Chris Forrester

Telesat, Gilat partnership

Gilat Satellite Networks, a global player in satellite networking technology, solutions and services, has announced a collaborative project with Telesat for development of broadband communication technology using low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. CIIRDF will fund the project to facilitate faster and more secure data transmission over satellite. The joint Canada-Israel innovation project will combine Telesat’s […]

July 9, 2018