Ahead of the ministerial meeting due November 22nd-23rd, an agreement was reached between the EU Parliament, European Space Agency and EU member states to invest €2.4 billion ($2.48bn) in the proposed IRIS² low Earth orbiting broadband and sat-nav scheme. The IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) project will build and operate an […]
Satellite operators for many years welcomed their wholesale clients. Part of this was because many operators were initially owned by their national telcos who wanted hold onto their re-selling rights and their inherent profits. Indeed, almost all European telcos were perfectly happy to invest in satellites just so long as they retained their wholesale relationships. […]
Russia is working on Skif, the name of a proposed satellite constellation to rival the likes of Elon Musk’s Starlink and Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper. Russia’s TASS news agency reports that Skif is planned to commence deployment around the planet in 2025. Russia’s Skif satellite constellation is being developed to provide cheap and high-speed internet […]
BApple is investing $450 million (€435.6m) as part of its strategy to supply emergency Text/SOS messaging from satellites to suitable iPhones (initially iPhone 14 models). Much of the cash goes to Louisiana-based satellite operator Globalstar which Apple has already announced as a key partner in the scheme. The investment cash comes from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing […]
OneWeb, and the joint venture entity formed between OneWeb and Tonomus, have announced the signing of a distribution partnership agreement with Azyan Telecom – a satellite service provider in the Sultanate of Oman and the Middle East. The partnership will enhance the capabilities of the existing and future national telecom networks in the Sultanate of […]
Findings from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) indicate that 66 per cent of TV households in the US have some form of pay-TV service. The percentage of TV households that have a live pay-TV service (via cable, satellite, Telco, or Internet-delivered vMVPD) is down from 79 per cent in 2017, 88 per cent in 2012, and […]
A giant Indian rocket successfully placed 36 much-needed OneWeb broadband communication satellites into orbit in the early hours (00.07 India time) of October 23rd. The rocket, India’s Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) heaviest, marked a significant milestone for the India space agency as the vehicle carried the heaviest payload of 5,796 kgs. This was the maiden […]
A report from Northern Sky Research (NSR) suggests that satellite-based phone connectivity is “on the brink of mainstream adoption”. NSR says that the latest collaboration agreements between likes of SpaceX, T-Mobile, Apple and Globalstar have reinforced the notion of early deployments. “Satellite operators AST SpaceMobile, Lynk and Omnispace are also advancing in partnership with mobile […]
UK-based Orbex Space has raised £40.4 million in C-round financing. The company says the new cash “led by a new investor, the Scottish National Investment Bank, will allow the company to scale up its resources as it counts down to the first vertical launch from UK soil, as well as unlocking additional funding to support […]
In a contract worth several million euros, Exotrail is the in-orbit logistics operator the French major space institutions have selected to ensure capacity for satellites transferring into low Earth orbit (LEO). In 2021, the French government announced a national investment and stimulus package (France 2030), which included €1 billion to support emerging French space companies. […]