Brazilian ISP Unotel Telecom has launched a DTH service. Long-expected (it first announced the scheme back in 2012), the service has signed up some 180 local retail partners across Brazil to help promote the package. Unotel claims it has about 3.5 million corporate and residential customers hooked up to its 16,000 km fibre-optic network, and […]
The fault in the Proton rocket which failed back on May 16th while launching Russia’s Express AM4R satellite has been identified. International Launch Services (ILS), which handles the commercial launches for the Proton system, appointed its own high-level Failure Review Board to examine the evidence. The Review Board says that its initial assessment blames the […]
The SABER Project has called upon the members of the EU and their regional governments to implement co-ordinated Regional Voucher Schemes to encourage awareness and take-up of satellite broadband solutions to cut the Digital Divide across Europe’s most rural regions. According to June 2014 Digital Agenda Scoreboard up to 6 million EU houses are still […]
The announcement that Madrid-based Hispasat is to back the use of SES-developed SAT>IP was due to be made at IBC, and the releases prepared but something got in the way and the press conference scrubbed. But now Hispasat’s president Elena Pisonero has made the deal official. SAT>IP turns a conventional satellite feed into an IP […]
NSR’s Satellite Operator Financial Analysis (SOFA) 4th Edition finds that operational efficiency is more important than ever for satellite operators, with many taking a multi-pronged approach to increasing productivity. This trend is not limited to acquisitions, but also extends to HTS payloads being launched. “We are seeing a fundamental transformation within the satellite telecommunications industry. […]
There are plenty of highly competitive suppliers of satellite capacity operating above Romania, but now the country wants its own craft. Razvan Cotovelea, minister for Communication and Information Society in the Romanian government, says it intends to acquire a satellite which would offer communication services for both the private and public sectors. “We will start […]
Orange’s Romanian satellite DTH pay-TV service says it has won 110,000 television subscribers since launch in June 2013. Orange Romania CEO Jean Francois Fallacher, speaking at a local conference organised by the Ziarul Financiar newspaper, said end-users are increasingly accessing TV services from their smartphones, tablets and computers, as well as the TV set. Orange […]
Colombia has scrapped plans to buy and launch its own $250 million satellite, and instead will continue to lease capacity, data and imagery from other international satellite operators. Colombia’s vice-president German Vargas says the country does not have the budget. “We have explored the possibility over the last few years but the government concluded that […]
Russia launched a heavy-lift Proton rocket into orbit on September 28th, its first flight in some four months. The Proton/Breez-M combination placed a Russian military satellite into orbit. The action means that the rocket can now be used by International Launch Services (ILS), the commercial arm of Russia’s rocket-building operation, and providing competitive launch facilities […]
Emma Scott – initially involved as project Launch Director at the BBC – has decided to stand down from her post as Managing Director of UK digital free-to-air platform Freesat. Scott has overseen the growth of Freesat from its inception becoming MD in 2007. Bal Samra, Chairman of Freesat, said: “Emma has been an outstanding […]