Advanced Television

LEO

Spacecom tests Telesat’s Lightspeed demo craft

Israel-based satellite operator Spacecom has wrapped its tests on behalf of Telesat of Canada on its Phase 1 low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite. Telesat has yet to announce who will build its fleet of almost 200 LEO satellites, although most observers expect an order to be placed this winter. The tests, conducted from Spacecom’s Teleport […]

December 16, 2022By Chris Forrester

Bulgaria: Vivacom building satellite gateway for OneWeb

Vivacom, part of the United Group network, and OneWeb have announced the development of a dedicated Satellite Network Portal (SNP), or ground station, for OneWeb in Bulgaria. The facility will expand communications services and increase access for EU territories to OneWeb’s constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites. This will increase system resilience and improve broadband coverage […]

November 29, 2022

EU reaches agreement on LEO system

Ahead of the ministerial meeting due November 22nd-23rd, an agreement was reached between the EU Parliament, European Space Agency and EU member states to invest €2.4 billion ($2.48bn) in the proposed IRIS² low Earth orbiting broadband and sat-nav scheme. The IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) project will build and operate an […]

November 22, 2022By Chris Forrester

SES supports EU LEO scheme

On November 17th the EU and European Commission issued their political approval for investment in a €6 billion proposal for a fleet of up to 170 low Earth orbiting satellites for broadband system (IRIS²) serving Europe and beyond. SES has issued a supportive statement even though it might have to contribute its portion of a […]

November 21, 2022By Chris Forrester

Rakuten Mobile awarded LEO mobile test licences

Cellular telco Rakuten Mobile has obtained preliminary experimental test station licences to conduct mobile communication tests and preliminary verification in Japan using AST SpaceMobile’s low earth orbit satellite, BlueWalker 3. AST SpaceMobile is building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard unmodified mobile phones. In the future, Rakuten Mobile aims […]

November 21, 2022By Colin Mann

EU approves €6bn independent LEO fleet

The EU has given the go-ahead for an independent European Low Earth Orbiting fleet of broadband and satellite navigation craft. The name for the project is IRIS2. An EU ministerial conference approved the spend of €6 billion Internet system in order to ensure Europe’s security by reducing its reliance on foreign – that is non-European […]

November 18, 2022By Chris Forrester

Forecast: Satcoms service market to reach $141bn by 2030

The deployment of satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for low-latency and high throughput network applications and extending terrestrial network (TN) coverage have become significant drivers in the adoption of satellite services in the global telecommunications sector, notes technology intelligence firm ABI Research who forecasts that this adoption will culminate in $141 billion (€135.7bn) […]

November 17, 2022

MDA boosted by Apple contract

Canada-based space technology business MDA reported “strong top-line” growth for Q3 2022, with revenues at C$172 million (€125.6m), up 55 per cent y-o-y. Profitability was solid with EBITDA of C$38.8 million (up 22 per cent y-o-y). Perhaps even more importantly, the company’s backlog is up a very healthy 70 per cent to C$1.4 billion, an […]

November 14, 2022By Chris Forrester

Telesat Q3 down 6%; no Lightspeed update

Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat reported its quarterly and 9-months trading for the period to September 30th. CEO Dan Goldberg told analysts: “In the quarter we progressed discussions with our suppliers and financing sources on Telesat Lightspeed, our revolutionary planned Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation. We continue to believe that we will have greater clarity on […]

November 9, 2022By Chris Forrester

SES contracts with Arianespace for Eagle-1

Europe’s upcoming Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) super-secure satellite, the ESA’s Eagle-1, will be launched for SES by Arianespace on a Vega C rocket from French Guiana as early as Q4/2024. The satellite will be placed into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The EAGLE-1 project comprising satellite and ground infrastructure, is developed by SES and its consortium […]

November 9, 2022By Chris Forrester