Chris Forrester is one of the most experienced and highly regarded journalists in the field. His insight and analysis, particularly in the satellite and pay-TV arena, is highly prized. He has written for all the major business journals in the sector as well as several national newspapers.
Such is the market’s enthusiasm for AST SpaceMobile’s prospects that the company’s financial underwriters have successfully placed another 4.83 million shares and, after fees and expenses, the net proceeds will be $14.1 million (€13m). Texas-based AST is proposing a global satellite ‘direct-to-smartphone’ service to commence within the next year or so. Last week it received […]
Eutelsat was hammered on the Paris stock exchange in early trading on January 29th, instantly falling 15 per cent as the Bourse opened. Eutelsat had issued a trading update and the news, as far as OneWeb was concerned, was not good. Eutelsat had owned OneWeb for just four trading months which had enabled a “deep […]
Ligado Networks has been arguing for $40 billion (€36.9bn) of compensation from various US Federal Agencies over claims that the Agencies “roadblocked” Legado’s L-band frequencies and spectrum because the US government wanted the spectrum itself. The case is best described as “complicated” and centres on the FCC’s granting to Ligado in 2020 to create a […]
Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), speaking at the European Space Conference held in Brussels, has urged European space-related industries to be bolder. He wants to set up a ‘Strategy 2040’ programme, and has agreement from the EU. “Europe has to be bold, or else we will always remain a 2nd […]
EchoStar-owned broadband-by-satellite service HughesNet has reportedly lost more than 30 per cent of its subscribers over the past three years with Starlink seemingly picking up the cancellations. Some of the comments suggest that for HughesNet subscribers “in a deep valley with limited potential visibility of Starlink” they will have to stay with HughesNet. Other HughesNet […]
The fallout from the collapsed merger between Zee Entertainment and Sony’s India broadcasting activities continues. Zee’s share price has collapsed (down 26 per cent on January 23rd) and most local analysts suggest that Zee will be under increased financial and shareholder pressure and probable litigation. At least six Indian brokerages also said investors should sell […]
There are currently two Spaceports being built in northern Scotland and seeking rocket launch business. The two (Sutherland Spaceport on the A’Mhoine peninsula and SaxaVord Spaceport on Unst, Shetland) could be one too many says a senior figure at SaxaVord. Scott Hammond, deputy CEO and operations director of SaxaVord Spaceport, told a Scottish parliamentary committee […]
Justus Parmar, CEO of Fortuna Investments, and a close observer of the satellite industry, suggests that Elon Musk is only just getting started in terms of potential size and impact of SpaceX on satellite. Parmar’s team are already investors in the space sector, and according to a Constellations conversation with Kratos Defence, he suggests that […]
Texas-based AST SpaceMobile, which wants to provide a global satellite-to-smartphone services, has received some major investments from major telcos and Google. But there’s also bad news. The cash, totalling some $263 million (€241.4m), comes from AT&T, Vodafone and Google. The finance, according to consultant Dr Tim Farrar (of TMF Association) suggests that the extra cash […]
Fitch Ratings has affirmed satellite operator Viasat and its subsidiaries’ Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at ‘BB-‘ and removed all ratings from Rating Watch Negative (RWN) – which is good news for the company. Fitch has resolved the RWN as it expects Viasat’s debt leverage to decline and sustain within the current EBITDA leverage sensitivities […]
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