The UK National Audit Office report into the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) rural broadband programme highlights a 2 year delay which could have been addressed by greater use of satellite connections. The original DCMS BDUK programme consisted of two equally important parts: 1) the Universal Service Commitment (USC) aiming to deliver a […]
The catastrophic failure of a Russian Proton rocket has brought arch-rival Arianespace out with fighting talk, saying that if customers want it could offer another Ariane launch or two to its manifest. Given that – as a rule – an Ariane rocket launches two satellites at a time, this could rescue 4 waiting satellites between […]
Eutelsat has appointed a new CFO and made a few other appointments. Eutelsat has been suffering of late in terms of its share price wiping around €1 billion off the operators share price. The new CFO, who will not start until September 1st, is Antoine Castarède who will join from Oger Telecom where he has […]
SES, Eutelsat and Inmarsat are all reportedly in the second round of bidding for 5 Optus satellites, placed up for sale by owners Singapore Telecom. Local reports in Australia suggest that at least some of the private equity bidders have dropped out of the process. However, private equity funds associated with Malaysia’s Measat are said […]
The number of pay-TV households (analogue and digital) reached 772 million by 2012, up from 585 million in 2008, according to a report from Digital TV Research. Asia Pacific increased by 126 million – or two-thirds of the global additions – during this period to bring its total to 433 million. North America (112 million) […]
NSR’s 6th Global DTH Market report analyses a rapidly changing industry that is diverging from one with growth centered around North America and Western Europe to one where growth will come from the developing parts of the world. “While revenues will still be concentrated in established economies,“ said Blaine Curcio, report author and Analyst with […]
A Russian rocket carrying 3 GPS-type navigation satellites failed just moments after launch. The satellites were for the Russian Glonass global positioning scheme. However, the failure will have an immediate knock-on effect for the many European satellite operators which were queuing up to use the Proton rocket plus its Briz-M upper stage. There will have […]
Eutelsat Communications has announced the extension of agreements with RSCC (the Russian Satellite Communications Company) for capacity on future RSCC satellites designed to serve Russia’s vibrant market for digital broadcasting and broadband services. Building on leases signed in November 2012 for capacity on RSCC satellites to be launched to 140° East in 2013 and 36° […]
India’s cabinet has approved the building and launching of two giant new communications ssattellites (GSAT-15 and GSAT16). The task of procuring and coordinating the build and launch aspects are ceded to India’s state Research Organisation (ISRO). India already has 9 active satellites with a combined capacity of some 195 transponders. GSAT-15 will provide redundancy and […]
Singapore Telecom’s sell-off of its valuable Optus Satellite division is likely to be delayed. The political changes in Australia, where Kevin Rudd has replaced Julia Gillard as Prime Minister, and which might lead to a general election, could put a temporary halt on the sale. That’s the view of one of the potential bidders for […]