Advanced Television

Jeff Bezos

Who is behind Project Kraken?

Space Florida, a State-backed unit designed to build on Florida’s already hugely successful space-related activity, is in contact with Project Kraken – a mystery space business that could be looking to locate in or near Florida’s famous Space Coast. Amazon has confirmed that its Project Kuiper mega-constellation of 3,200 satellites have anything to do with […]

March 22, 2021

Report: Satellite broadband capacity to grow 10x by year-end

A report from investment bank Exane/BNPP says that today’s various satellite operators are supplying some 2,000 Gb/s of capacity (as at December 31st 2020 and using Northern Sky Research data). The bank suggests that this will grow ten-fold by the end of this year, and 30-fold before the end of this decade. This growth includes

February 12, 2021By Chris Forrester

Telesat commits to LEO Lightspeed fleet

Ottawa-based Telesat has committed to its own mega-constellation of Low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites. Telesat needed to put its own financial affairs in order first as well as review its potential suppliers. Thales Alenia Space gets the prime contract for the LEO fleet which is called Lightspeed. The fleet would comprise 298 satellites with services […]

February 10, 2021By Chris Forrester

Musk vs Bezos in FCC row

The planet’s two richest individuals, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, are involved in a bitter slanging match over their satellite mega-constellations. Their rival businesses, SpaceX and Project Kuiper, have lodged tit-for-tat almost daily filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with SpaceX saying that Amazon’s Kuiper is guilty of “stifling competition”. SpaceX is already asking […]

January 27, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bezos’ Blue Origin creates Advisory Board

Jeff Bezos has appointed some notable space leaders and industry executives to an Advisory Board for his Blue Origin rocket business. “The Board will provide strategic counsel on the company’s mission to radically reduce the cost of access to space and the utilisation of in-space resources. In doing so, the Board will further advance Blue […]

December 3, 2020By Chris Forrester

Bezos to buy CNN?

Jeff Bezos has already bought the Washington Post newspaper, but amidst rumours that AT&T is looking to dispose of less important assets, it is reported that Bezos might use some of his Amazon billions to buy news broadcaster CNN. The core report came from Sr. Correspondent for FOX Business Network Charles Gasparino who suggests that […]

October 28, 2020

Report: Satellite payloads worth $15bn by 2027

A report from Fortune Business Insights says that the satellite payload market will be worth $15.34 billion by 2027. This growth represents a CAGR of 7.49 per cent. The satellite payloads in the study are made up of private and government satellite and in particular the explosion in growth of communications satellites from the likes […]

October 1, 2020By Chris Forrester

Gates buys into satellite antennas

There are now three major would-be mega-constellation low Earth orbit satellite developers: Elon Musk’s Starlink, Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper and the UK/India joint-venture OneWeb (should it emerge from bankruptcy).  The missing link for each of them is a very low-cost phased array antenna to bring satellite broadband to the mass market. Which is perhaps where […]

August 27, 2020

Analysis: Amazon’s Project Kuiper is a $10bn investment

The Jeff Bezos-backed Project Kuiper will see investment topping $10 billion, says Chris Quilty, senior researcher at Florida-based Quilty Analytics, in the firm’s latest Satcom Quarterly Briefing. The end result, for broadband consumers, could be impressive. Quilty is blunt, saying that Amazon’s involvement in the plan to launch 3236 satellites to Low Earth orbit (LEO) […]

August 25, 2020By Chris Forrester

FCC wants to approve Bezos’s mega-constellation

FCC chairman Ajit Pai says he wants to approve Jeff Bezos and Amazon’s massive plan for a mega-constellation of an initial 3,236 satellites known as Project Kuiper. Pai, on July 10th, said he has shared his proposal with the other key members of the FCC. He Tweeted: “Earlier today, I shared with my colleagues a […]

July 13, 2020By Chris Forrester