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starlink

United Airlines accelerates Starlink timeline

United Airlines has announced an accelerated timeline to bring Starlink connectivity to United travellers around the world. The airline now expects to begin testing Starlink this February with the first commercial flight anticipated to take off this spring on a United Embraer E-175 aircraft. United now plans to outfit its entire two-cabin regional fleet by the end […]

January 6, 2025

India close to spectrum decision on D2C

Imagine the challenges – and pressure – on India’s assorted regulators when you have the likes of local billionaires Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Reliance, Sunil Mittel’s Airtel as well as two outsiders in Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Each and everyone of them are pushing regulators to open up spectrum for their satellite services: Jio is […]

January 3, 2025By Chris Forrester

SES seeks early wrap on Intelsat purchase

SES is buying rival Intelsat for $3.1 billion (€2.99bn) in a deal announced last April. The purchase had been expected to be completed in the second-half of 2025 once all regulatory hurdles had been overcome. Now, however, SES wants to wrap the agreement by June as it cites “fast-moving industry developments” and competitive threats from […]

January 2, 2025By Chris Forrester

Analyst: Starlink at 5m users

According to analysts at Quilty Space the SpaceX/Starlink ‘broadband-by-satellite’ system has now hit 5 million subscribers/users. “From its debut announcement of 60,000 subscribers in 2021 to hitting 5 million this month, Starlink’s growth trajectory is not only accelerating at a rapid clip — but the timeline of milestones continues to narrow. After reaching its first […]

December 19, 2024

One NZ Satellite TXT begins rolling out to customers

The One NZ Satellite TXT initial service has commened rolling out to customers on eligible phones and plans at no extra cost, helping One NZ to deliver mobile coverage like never before where you have clear line of sight to the sky. Joe Goddard, Experience & Commercial Director at One NZ, says: “We have lift-off! […]

December 19, 2024

Starlink vs AST SpaceMobile: Tortoise or Hare?

SpaceX’s Starlink has managed to launch 349 of its Direct-To-Cellular (D2C) satellites in less than a year. While this is an admirable achievement the fleet is currently only able to manage simple Text/SMS messages to users in remote areas. The 349 launched craft represent some 90 per cent of the target constellation. The first Starlink […]

December 12, 2024

SpaceX raising $1.25bn in new shares

SpaceX’s Tender Offer is for $1.25 billion (€1.19bn) of new shares and is priced at $185 per share. It values the rocket-to-broadband company at about $350 billion, according to Bloomberg Business. The Tender Offer is open to ‘Accredited Investors; or to existing employees. The share price of $185 is well ahead from the $112 set […]

December 11, 2024By Chris Forrester

D2D: Power levels concerns

The new Donald Trump administration, and a new chair at the FCC (Brendon Carr), is increasingly expected to permit operators such as Starlink and AST SpaceMobile to begin transmitting and receiving calls direct-to-devices and including consumer smartphones. As Armand Musey (partner at consultancy Summit Ridge Group) suggested during the recent 13th Americas Spectrum Management Conference […]

November 25, 2024

SpaceX to mount Tender Offer?

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly set to mount a Tender Offer this December. The plan is to sell existing shares at around $135 (€128m) each. The end result would be to value SpaceX at around $250 billion. A Tender Offer, usually taken up by existing shareholders, means new shares are not issued. Therefore, the move […]

November 18, 2024By Chris Forrester

SmartCIC launches LEO service powered by Starlink

SmartCIC Global Services, the connectivity and managed services arm of SmartCIC Group, has launched its managed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite service. SmartCIC will leverage its network of 25,000+ engineers to deploy the solution across 30 countries around the world. The LEO service is powered by Starlink. Customers can opt for a standard enterprise terminal […]

November 12, 2024