Advanced Television

Satellite

Data: Fibre over 66% of fixed broadband subs

As of Q1 2023, global fixed broadband connections reached 1.377 billion, reflecting a growth rate of 1.59 per cent compared to Q4 2022, according to broadband data specialist Point Topic, who also recorded a decline in fixed broadband subscriptions in 18 countries, which mainly include emerging markets, as well as some saturated markets such as […]

July 18, 2023

Study: Private satellite launches exceed government

Paris-based Eurospace, which represents Europe’s space hardware manufacturers, has released its annual industry study, and says that private launches into orbit now exceed government-backed launches which includes military and scientific missions. The one fact which jumps out of the report is that 2022 saw almost 1,000 metric tons of space hardware launched into orbit. And […]

July 18, 2023By Chris Forrester

Malaysia wants Starlink for colleges?

Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim recently had a video conference with Elon Musk about his SpaceX broadband service. The end result is a likely order to equip some of the country’s colleges and schools with a Starlink service. But first the system must be formally licensed. Communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil said there are […]

July 18, 2023

SpaceX nears $150bn valuation

July 13th saw a secondary sale of shares from existing investors with stock priced at $81 per share, and a modest rise over the most recent cash-raising which saw shares sold at $77. A total of $750 million in new cash was raised in the offering exercise according to a CNBC report, meaning that the […]

July 17, 2023By Chris Forrester

Telesat launches LEO 3 demo satellite

Telesat has used RocketLab to launch its LEO 3 prototype satellite. The craft is a demonstrator for a proposed 200 satellite mega-constellation, called Lightspeed. The LEO 3 demonstration satellite will provide continuity for customer and ecosystem vendor testing campaigns following the decommissioning of Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite. Once deployed to orbit, LEO 3 will […]

July 17, 2023By Chris Forrester

Virgin Galactic confirms next mission

Space tourism business Virgin Galactic is planning its Galactic 02 mission to happen on August 10th. This mission will be Virgin Galactic’s seventh spaceflight, second commercial spaceflight and third spaceflight this year; flying on this occasion three private passengers to space. The flight window will open on August 10th, continuing the Company’s regular cadence of […]

July 17, 2023By Chris Forrester

Viasat shares crash

Viasat, which only a few weeks ago was celebrating the acquisition of London-based Inmarsat, is suffering a massive crisis of shareholder confidence following news of its problems with its new ViaSat-3 Americas (VS-3A) satellite. Its shares opened on July 13th at $42.98 and closed on the day at $30.74, a net fall of 28.48 per […]

July 14, 2023

China confirms a mega-constellation

China has unveiled its plans for a fleet of ‘Very Low Earth Orbiting’ satellite to be completed in orbit by 2030. The craft will come from a Chinese state-owned firm (The Second Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. CASIC) and confirmed on the opening day of the 9th China (International) Commercial Aerospace […]

July 14, 2023By Chris Forrester

ViaSat-3 suffers major problem

Viasat’s brand new – but long delayed – satellite, ViaSat-3, only launched on May 1st, has suffered problems with its antenna. A statement from Viasat issued after the market closed on July 12th said that an unexpected event occurred during reflector deployment that may materially impact the performance of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite. “Viasat and […]

July 13, 2023By Chris Forrester

GSMA, ESA comms innovation partnership

Mobile industry trade body the GSMA and European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) to bring the mobile and satellite industries closer together to collaborate on developing new, innovative satellite and terrestrial networks technologies. The ambition of the partnership is to further strengthen the competitiveness of both mobile and satellite network […]

July 13, 2023By Colin Mann