SpaceX has won a portion of the US government’s scheme to provide satellite-based broadband access to rural users. The pay-out, which totals $885.5 million, is part of the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). SpaceX, and other non-terrestrial suppliers, had previously complained that they were being excluded from being considered. In total the FCC has […]
The news that Eutelsat is completely ending its already strained relationship with Viasat prompted one analyst to update clients on the position. Viasat will now own 100 per cent the Euro Broadband Infrastructure (EBI). Giles Thorne (media analyst at Jefferies) was blunt: “The curtain comes down on Viasat’s disastrous first steps into European broadband. Eutelsat […]
Eutelsat is selling its majority share in its Euro-Broadband joint venture with Viasat. Eutelsat is reorganising its Ka-band broadband-by-satellite strategy over Europe. It owned a 51 per cent stake in Euro-Broadband with Viasat of California holding 49 per cent. Eutelsat will receive an “initial consideration” of €140 million for its stake. This sum could be […]
Viasat of California is in the final test stages of its antenna development programme for SES and its Middle Earth orbiting satellites. Prototypes should be delivered early in 2021. SES’ Stewart Sanders, EVP/O3b mPOWER Programme Lead at SES, in a statement said: “The flexibility designed into the Viasat phased array antenna will enable our current […]
The satellite industry’s big 5 operators (Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat, Telesat and Viasat) have all now reported their quarterly numbers and – in summary – they are not good. Sami Kassab, an analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, in a useful summary note to clients says that overall, operating trends for the industry remain challenging with Intelsat […]
Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of Viasat, says his company’s plans to launch the ‘next generation’ Viasat-3 iteration of its satellites fleet are being affected by the Covid-19 crisis. Nevertheless, a recent cash-raising exercise gives Viasat some extra opportunities. “The Covid pandemic is definitely creating some issues for us to overcome, but we continue to […]
California-based Viasat has some inevitable anxieties about the current Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it is having on its aircraft-based In-Flight Communications and Entertainment revenues. It is borrowing $400 million (via Senior Unsecured Notes due 2028) in a private placing. Viasat says it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay all […]
The FCC, somewhat unusually, seems to have changed its mind and it is the world’s operators of Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites which could benefit. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said on June 9th that the Commission had changed the text on its draft order. “We did accommodate a request from a commissioner (Commissioner O’Rielly) to […]
SES currently has two core deployments of satellites: It has a fleet of powerful geostationary satellites that just about serves the whole planet. It also has 20 O3b (‘the Other 3 Billion’) satellites in Medium Earth Orbit, with seven new ‘super-power’ O3b satellites on order from Boeing, with deployment starting in 2021. The O3b fleet […]