We recently ran a story that reported that Inmarsat’s new owners Viasat had cancelled certain frequencies which could have suggested the end of Inmarsat’s plans for its own low Earth orbiting constellation of satellites (Orchestra).

‘Not so’, implied Viasat, and explained: “Viasat chose to withdraw a pending application for FCC authority to access the US market using the V-band, originally submitted by Inmarsat prior to the acquisition. The withdrawal was done in response to the sole condition set by the FCC to complete the acquisition, which relates to a rule that precludes a single entity from holding or seeking multiple authorisations for unbuilt NGSO systems that would operate in the same frequency band. Viasat already has an existing, approved application for V-band access to the US market.”

In other words, the Inmarsat plan for its Orchestra constellation of 150-175 satellites will go head.

Inmarsat says: “Orchestra the first global network of its kind; creating a global, multi-dimensional, dynamic mesh network that will redefine connectivity at scale with the highest capacity for mobility worldwide and at hot spots across the world. It will deliver the fastest average speeds and the lowest average latency of any network, planned or in existence.”

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Bank: “Starlink 18 months ahead on D2D”
2. AST SpaceMobile trims satellite demand
3. Amazon’s Kuiper-1 launch brought forward
4. SES and Eutelsat possibly in line for C-band $bn bonus
5. Consultant: “European satellite mergers are failing”
6. Ligado attempts to unravel Inmarsat L-band agreement
7. SpaceX complains over South Africa investment rules
8. Vodafone, AST test video call game changer
9. Eutelsat shares hit all time low

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