Viasat and China Satellite Communications have announced an agreement for a strategic partnership to jointly provide in-flight connectivity (IFC) services within China for domestic and international airlines. Viasat and China Satcom will work in partnership to enable Viasat’s global airline customers to have roaming connectivity when flying over China; provide IFC service to domestic flights […]
UK comms regulator Ofcom is consulting on a request from the UK’s main mobile network operators to make technical changes to their spectrum licences, to help support the rollout of ultrafast mobile services. EE, Hutchison, Telefónica and Vodafone have asked Ofcom to vary their licences in the 3.4 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 3.6 GHz bands. […]
Convergence Research has released its 2019 Couch Potato Reports (launched annually since 2003). The reports suggest that the TV/movie industry is being reconstructed from the inside and by the outside in the US, as programmers now directly compete against their traditional TV access and independent OTT buyers that rival in terms of content spend. Traditional […]
Independent voices have come out in support of the C-Band Alliance’s (CBA) proposals to make available 180 MHz of satellite spectrum to help 5G’s roll-out in the US. WAY Media, a major Tennessee-based national religious broadcaster which reaches 25 million radio regular listeners (and 1 million weekly), and currently depends on usage of the 3.7-4.2 […]
Spacecom’s much-needed Amos-17 satellite will not be launched before June, according to reports. There had been suggestions that Amos-17 might launch in late May on a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX, but the satellite doesn’t yet appear in the formal SpaceX launch manifest. The Boeing-built satellite is badly needed by the financially stressed Spacecom operation […]
Hughes Network Systems, a global player in broadband satellite networks and services, has announced that Xplornet Communications, Canada’s leading rural broadband provider, has agreed to a lifetime capacity agreement on the next-generation JUPITER 3 Ultra High Density Satellite (UHDS), designated EchoStar XXIV. In a contract valued at more than $250 million over 15 years, the […]
The UK High Court ruling against alternative provider of wholesale full fibre network infrastructure CityFibre in the challenge to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over fibre advertising is a disappointment to operators building full fibre networks, the Independent Network Co-operative Association (INCA) has said. The ruling dismissed CityFibre’s request for a Judicial Review of ASA’s […]
SpaceX says it is looking to raise an additional $500 million in funding. According to a regulatory filing, Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies is the vehicle, and the target for the cash is the company’s ‘Starlink’ internet by satellite project. Musk raised a similar sum a few months ago, and the fresh cash-raising suggests that […]
New research from Parks Associates finds that 22 per cent of US broadband households have a service speed of 100-999 Mbps, the most common service tier, although 39 per cent of US broadband households do not know their broadband speed. The report – Modern Broadband: Competition and Retention at Gigabit Speeds – notes that only […]
In-flight entertainment and connectivity operator Gogo is raising $900 million in new Senior Notes in order to pay off its 2022-due Senior Notes borrowing. Gogo, in releasing its preliminary Q1 revenue guidance, said that a combination of better-than-expected Commercial Aviation revenues, and lower than expected overall operating and satellite communication costs contributed to its much […]