Advanced Television

Broadband

Eutelsat gains broadband carriage over Spain

Eutelsat has signed a distribution agreement with Masmovil to supply its Ka-Sat broadband-by-satellite capacity to users in Spain. The contract offers broadband access speeds of up to 50Mbps and data downloads from 30GB to 150GB per month. Fees will start at €37.9 per month. The service will launch in January. Equity analysts at investment bank […]

December 5, 2018By Chris Forrester

Cable Europe ‘committed to 1GB future’

As the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council of European Union adopts a key telecommunications reform, the broadband cable industry signalled its commitment to deliver on the goals of a gigabit society. Commenting on the adoption of the Electronic Communications Code, Cable Europe Executive Chairman Matthias Kurth said: “A central stated aim of the Code is […]

December 5, 2018

Inmarsat wins major arbitration award

Speciality services provider RigNet, which supplies telecoms connectivity to oil rig crews, VSAT customers, mobile connectivity and wireless broadband, has suffered a significant set-back in a dispute with Inmarsat. The arbitration has been heard at the  International Centre for Dispute Resolution. The dispute is centred on a $65 million “strategic” capacity lease in 2014 for […]

December 5, 2018

EU to probe Vodafone – Liberty deal

It now seems the EU’s preliminary look at Liberty Global’s multiple asset sale to Vodafone will lead to a full antitrust probe. The decision is due December 11th. The deal centres on Germany and several German groups, including Deutsche Telekom, have lobbied for an investigation. If the EU takes up the case – which Reuters […]

December 3, 2018

Russia to build IoT satellite constellation

Russian space agency Roscosmos says it will create a new mega-constellation of satellites to serve Internet of Things demand. The ‘Marathon’ constellation will likely comprise hundreds of craft and operate alongside Russia’s Glonass GPS system and as part of Russia’s planned ‘Sphere’ project which calls for 640 satellites, and to be fully deployed by 2026. […]

December 3, 2018By Chris Forrester

FTTH warns against misleading Fibre promotions

The FTTH Council has written an open letter to attendees at the Telecoms Council, warning against misleading promotions for fibre speeds and service levels: ‘As the European Electronic Communications Code is being formally adopted by the Telecoms Council, we would like to highlight that misleading advertising practices directly undermine the achievement of the new, fourth […]

December 3, 2018

Eutelsat helps world’s first 8K channel

Eutelsat carried live 8K signals from Rome’s Vatican City to Japan in order to help launch the world’s first 8K channel for NHK, the country’s public broadcaster. NHK partnered with Eutelsat on December 2nd from the Vatican where images were transmitted to Tokyo via Eutelsat 12 West B satellite with a mobile uplink provided by […]

December 3, 2018By Chris Forrester

Altice takes €1.8bn FTTH investment

Altice France is selling a group of investors a 49.99 per cent stake in SFR FTTH, a new fibre venture that will bring fibre to 5 million French premises. Allianz Capital Partners, AXA Investment Managers and Canadian investment firm Omers Infrastructure will acquire the stake for a total cash consideration of €1.8 billion, based on […]

November 30, 2018

OneWeb to start building satellites in Florida

OneWeb Satellites will start building its first satellites from its brand-new Florida production facility in January. The Exploration Park factory, itself a joint-venture between OneWeb and Airbus Defence & Space, will build a target 900 satellites at the initial rate of 2 a day for the $6 billion mega-constellation. OneWeb has two production lines at […]

November 30, 2018By Chris Forrester

Amazon goes into space

Amazon’s Cloud business is launching a satellite direct connection service and representing the company’s first public move into space-based hardware and a continuation of its efforts to support the growing industry. Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) is creating a new division, AWS Ground Station and partnering with Lockheed Martin to build a dozen more – it […]

November 29, 2018