Eutelsat’s CEO, Rodolphe Belmer, speaking at the Washington Satellite 2017 show, said he had no plans at the moment to seek a MEO/LEO fleet of satellites, although also added “at this time”. Belmer stressed time and again that Eutelsat did not see the world’s viewers – or broadcasters – abandoning their satellite delivery of video […]
SES’s CEO Karim Michel Sabbagh says that despite its ownership of Mid-Earth Orbiting (MEO) satellite with the O3b brand, it is also actively looking at lower orbiting satellites. He said that SES no longer thought about its GEO and MEO fleet as separate entities. In an interview carried on the SES website with Satellite Finance, […]
Platform Communications, the media and technology communications expert, has announced that the inaugural ‘Platform Media Index’ shows press coverage of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 was thoroughly dominated by discussion of ‘next generation networks’, with 5G being the overpowering focus. The newly launched index is designed to assess the main drivers of conversation in bellwether […]
Eutelsat Communications and ViaSat have closed their partnering arrangement combining Eutelsat’s European broadband business with ViaSat’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) business expertise. Building on a decade-long relationship, Eutelsat and ViaSat are now creating a partnership that will expand Eutelsat’s current wholesale broadband business and launch a new consumer retail service in Europe. Headquartered in Lausanne, […]
Millicom International Cellular and Bharti Airtel have, through their respective subsidiaries, entered into an agreement for Tigo Ghana and Airtel Ghana to combine their operations in Ghana. As per the agreement, Millicom and Airtel would have equal ownership and governance rights in the combined entity. The combined business would serve nearly 10 million customers, of […]
The post-announcement comments of the SoftBank-engineered merger between Intelsat and OneWeb are coming in, and they are not all favourable. For example, Sami Kassab, an equity analyst at investment bank Exane/BNP-Paribas, while praising Intelsat’s results said there are still major risks to the deal, not least Intelsat’s existing bondholders agreeing to a severe financial haircut […]
Beleaguered satellite operator Avanti Communications saw a 10 per cent fall in its share price on February 28th, down to an all-time historic ‘low’ of 16.6p on the London Stock Exchanges ‘Alternate’ bourse. At one point the price hit 16.25p. February 28th also saw London-based Avanti issue its latest results for the half-year to December […]
Japan’s telco giant SoftBank is the catalyst in bringing together old-established Intelsat and embryonic satellite operator OneWeb, into a merger. In essence, the agreement sees SoftBank inject $1.7 billion (€1.6bn) of new equity into debt-heavy Intelsat. At the end of 2016, SoftBank invested $1 billion into Jersey, Channel Islands-based OneWeb. Intelsat was already a minor investor […]
At Mobile World Congress, the GSMA published a report outlining the mobile industry’s collective vision and expectations for the 5G era. The new study, ‘The 5G Era: Age of Boundless Connectivity and Intelligent Automation’, is based on an extensive survey of
Jersey, Channel Islands-based OneWeb, which is planning to girdle the Earth with a massive fleet of 648 satellites in order to supply broadband services, says it is considering adding another 1,972 satellites to its super-constellation. Company founder Greg Wyler, speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London last week and according to trade mag Space […]