The long-running dispute between SES and Intelsat over the SES claim for a full 50 per cent share of the FCC’s C-band accelerate incentive payments is now getting to the focal point in their arguments. Intelsat’s lawyers submitted 134 pages of Exhibits that they depend on and potentially used to support their rebuttal of the […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is altering its plan to send another 30,000 satellites in its Starlink mega-constellation into space using its existing Falcon 9 rocket fleet. A SpaceX lawyer, William Wiltshire, in a letter to the FCC explains that progress on the constellation is moving forward better than expected and that SpaceX plans to start launching […]
The much-delayed legal action from SES against Intelsat over the division of FCC C-band incentive payments is scheduled to begin on February 7th. Two weeks have been allocated for the action. While subject to last-minute delays and Court rules over the Covid anxieties, the lawyers in the action have agreed that witnesses might appear in […]
Data from internet speedtest provider Ookla show a decline of around 100 Mb/s over the past quarter for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband by satellite system. Ookla says that during Q2 this year the median download speed for Starlink users was 97.23 Mb/s. During Q3 the median speed had dropped to 87.25 Mb/s. Ookla’s head of content, […]
Intelsat’s last-minute set of reorganisation agreements, the 6th Supplemental Declarations, as part of its Exit Plan reached on December 16th with some of its – relatively modest – remaining creditors should now enable the satellite operator to fully emerge from bankruptcy early in the New Year. There are some legal hurdles ahead, not least the […]
Judge Keith Phillips, on December 16th, approved Intelsat’s plan for the settlement of much of its indebtedness prior to its May 2020 Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The bottom line is that the agreement reduces Intelsat’s old debts of about $16 billion by more than half thanks to the acceptance of the company’s new Plan of Reorganisation. […]
The likes of Steve Collar, CEO at SES, have heavily criticised the 2021 trend to propose massive satellite constellations. Specifically, Collar had in mind the recent Rwanda proposal, with advice supplied by OneWeb founder Greg Wyler, for 327,230 orbiting satellites in low Earth orbit. Collar, speaking at the Euroconsult World Satellite Business Week in Paris, […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed revisions to its rules for spectrum sharing among non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service (NGSO FSS) systems. The proposed revisions would seek to facilitate the deployment of the new generation of low-Earth orbit satellite systems, including new competitors. According to the FCC, the new generation low-Earth orbit satellite systems […]
The bankruptcy court in the Intelsat review and confirmation of its Exit Plan heard that a number of issues previously considered contentious have “been narrowed” according to Steven Serajeddini, a restructuring partner at Kirkland & Ellis, who are acting for Intelsat in the case. The court heard that the parties want to wrap the discussions […]
Tim Farrar of TMF Associates says the recent “breathless” valuations for SpaceX (ranging from between $80 billion to $100 billion) are inconsistent. He says the quoted company valuations have near-tripled over the past year, and with SpaceX’s share price – albeit privately held – rising from about $200 per share to $560 over the same […]