France’s administrative court (the Conseil d’Etat) has again ruled in favour of Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband system, and ordered California-based Viasat-owned Skylogic to pay damages to Starlink. The earlier victory for Starlink was back in June 2022. Viasat bought Skylogic (then called Euro Broadband Infrastructure Sarl) as part of its acquisition of Ka-Sat back in […]

Viasat, the global communications company, has confirmed the scheduled launch date for the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite is April 18th, during an approximately one-hour long launch window opening at 7:29pm EDT. The ViaSat-3 satellite will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The satellite will be sent into […]

The potential link between the world’s two largest satellite operators, SES and Intelsat, is intriguing the market. The news – at this stage more rumour than hard fact – follows on from a slew of similar mergers/acquisitions in the sector including Viasat’s upcoming purchase of Inmarsat, Eutelsat’s merger with OneWeb, and plenty of smaller satellite-based […]

London-based Inmarsat reported revenue growth of 9 per cent for its 2022 trading year, to a total of $1.47 billion (€1.35bn). Inmarsat’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax and other charges) jumped by 15 per cent to $850 million in 2022, despite saying that chip-set and other component shortages affected the availability of satellite phones. Q4 […]

Boeing has delivered to Florida what it describes as the “most powerful” satellite platform it has ever built in the shape of ViaSat-3 Americas, a new-generation craft for operator Viasat of California. It will be able to harness well over 30 kW of solar power when it reaches orbit. That’s 1/4+ of the power generated […]

Satellite operator Viasat used the Washington Satellite 2023 show to announce it had secured orders from Delta Airlines for further expansion of Delta’s in-flight communications systems on its aircraft. Viasat says it will now be connecting a total of more than 1,000 aircraft including widebody fleets, and all active aircraft in its Airbus A330, Airbus […]

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally cleared the proposed merger between Viasat and Inmarsat following an in-depth review which revealed the business would likely face significant competition from both emerging and established players as the sector expands. While Viasat and Inmarsat compete closely, the merged company would be challenged by new competitor […]

Satellite Communications (SatCom) has entered a period of renewed interest with innovative technological advances, mainly driven by ballooning investment dollars in the high-growth space tech segment and the demand for global connectivity. The SatCom ecosystem has two segments: ground equipment and space. Global technology intelligence firm ABI Research foresees sustained ground segment growth from the […]

California-based satellite operator Viasat has suffered a negative report from Quilty Analytics. The analysts point out to clients that Viasat has “dialled back” guidance for 2023, not helped by delays to the launch of the first of its latest trio of sophisticated satellites. Quilty says: “For the second consecutive quarter, shares of Viasat sold off […]

Viasat’s $7.3 billion attempt to acquire London-based Inmarsat has hit a potential problem following an “in-depth” investigation by the a European Commission (EC), which says it is “concerned that the transaction may allow Viasat to reduce competition in the market for the supply of broadband in-flight connectivity (IFC) services to commercial airlines”. The Viasat/Inmarsat deal, […]