Advanced Television

Satellite

India talks tough on IFE

There’s considerable interest from the world’s airlines in providing ‘direct-to-seat’ broadband connectivity for email and TV entertainment. The pattern being employed is that the likes of Gogo, Panasonic Aviation and Global Eagle tie up airlines and provide services via satellite capacity that they have booked via Intelsat, SES, ViaSat, Eutelsat and others. Except for India. […]

May 4, 2018By Chris Forrester

SES could earn €4bn from C-band leases for 5G

The news that the FCC is to consult on how the USA might exploit the C-band spectrum for 5G which is controlled by Intelsat and SES (and wants responses by June 15th) is potentially excellent news for Intelsat and SES. The two satellite companies between them manage around 90-95 percent of the C-band capacity over […]

May 3, 2018By Chris Forrester

OneWeb launch slips to Q4

The OneWeb mega-constellation of broadband-by-satellite craft has postponed its launch to later this year. OneWeb’s 10 test-satellites are being built by its shareholding partner Airbus in Toulouse and the first craft had been expected to launch this month. In an interview with trade newspaper Space News, founder and executive chairman of OneWeb Greg Wyler says […]

May 3, 2018By Chris Forrester

Ericsson pushes FCC for 5G access to satellite’s C-band

A March 29th letter from Ericsson to the FCC called on the US regulator to make the 3.7-4.2 GHz band available for mobile broadband. Moreover, Ericsson asked that the FCC moves “quickly” saying that the bandwidth “is of vital importance in fulfilling the goal of ensuring that adequate low-, mid-, and high-band spectrum is available […]

May 1, 2018By Chris Forrester

SoftBank wants India-wide satellite broadband

India’s state-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which markets its broadband service as ‘Data One’, is talking to Greg Wyler’s proposed OneWeb satellite constellation about leasing capacity, The plan is reportedly to “revolutionise” India’s broadband coverage by taking capacity from Japanese media conglomerate SoftBank which is backing OneWeb. BSNL has reportedly signed a MoU […]

May 1, 2018By Chris Forrester

Confusion over Spacecom satellite plans

Spacecom, which operates the AMOS fleet of satellites from Israel, has today (April 30th) notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that the Israeli state is to buy a new communications satellite from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The worrying news is that the notification says the new satellite will be positioned at 4 degrees West, which […]

April 30, 2018By Chris Forrester

Musk to spend $10bn on global Internet

‘Starlink’ is the proposed name of a global mega-constellation of thousands of small satellites which billionaire Elon Musk is proposing to launch, and in the process to “change the world”. SpaceX is Musk’s rocket company and its president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell, speaking on a TED talk, admitted that much of the public’s […]

April 30, 2018By Chris Forrester

SES Q1: ‘A solid start’

Satellite operator SES has reported what it describes as “solid” financial results for the three months ended March 31st 2018. Group revenue and EBITDA were delivered in line with the company’s expectations, with strong underlying revenue growth in SES Networks. “We have made a solid start to 2018 with our Q1 results in line with […]

April 27, 2018

Inmarsat and Eutelsat in-flight battle

ARCEP, back in February, gave its approval to Inmarsat for the London-based satellite operator to deploy its ground-based connectivity for Inmarsat’s European Aviation Network. The French regulator joins Ofcom and many other individual European nations in approving the system which will offer Internet access to and from aircraft using Inmarsat as well as the ground-based […]

April 27, 2018

Tshipama heads Eutelsat Broadband in Africa

Eutelsat Communications has finalised the staffing of its teams in charge of broadband activities with the appointment of Jean-Claude Tshipama, who will be heading Broadband in Africa to promote satellite broadband connectivity in Africa. With an executive MBA and a Master’s degree in economics, Tshipama started his career in the telecommunications industry in the 2000s. […]

April 26, 2018