Mobile Connectivity

Viasat’s U.K. subsidiary won a U.K. Ministry of Defence contract to supply Ultra High Frequency (UHF) satellite communications on five new Royal Navy Type 31 frigates. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.  Viasat UK Ltd., said in a Wednesday release that the UHF satcom will provide the Type 31 frigates with secure integrated...

The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded L3Harris Technologies an $88 million program award for Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT). Under the firm-fixed-price, Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract, L3Harris will supply up to 169 Panther II terminals.  Jerry Adams, general manager of VSAT for L3Harris told Via Satellite that the Panther II terminal that L3Harris will be supplying...

AXESS Networks revealed Tuesday that it will provide cellular backhaul connectivity services for ALTÁN Redes in Mexico. The first phase of the project will include the assignment of 80 satellite sites, and the second phase will include an additional 1,000 sites. With the satellite deployment already in place, ALTÁN Redes currently provides connectivity through 4.5G...

Gilat Satellite Networks revealed last week that it was awarded a three-year contract renewal and expansion for cellular backhaul managed service from a Tier-1 Mobile-Network Operator (MNO) in the U.S. The contract renewal is worth $20 million. With this award, Gilat becomes the MNO’s sole vendor to provide the end-to-end services for LTE backhauling and...

SES revealed Tuesday that Mercy Ships will be using SES Networks’ connectivity solutions to provide better healthcare services. Mercy Ships is a humanitarian mission delivering healthcare and medical training in some of the world’s economically deprived regions. The Global Mercy, the newest and the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, will leverage SES Networks’ Signature Maritime...

Last week, the movers and shakers within the Russian space industry gathered virtually at SatComRus to talk about the future for satellite in Russia, and what the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will have on this landscape. Oleg Dukhovnitskiy, Head of the Federal Communications Agency (FCA) in Russia said that satellite communications plays a big...

RigNet, Inc. has received a multi-year contract with what it calls one of the “largest contractors” in the offshore drilling industry to provide fully managed communications services and global satellite access to its entire global drilling fleet. Neither the company nor the terms of the deal were specified.  The new contract, announced Oct. 5, expands...

Cobham Satcom and Kepler Communications performed connectivity trials on Kepler’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) network with Cobham’s SAILOR 600 VSAT Ku-band antenna system, demonstrating downlink rates of 150 Mbps and uplink rates of 130 Mbps. In a Tuesday announcement, the companies said the speeds were demonstrated on a 65 cm antenna with a 6W Block Upconverter...

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded L3Harris Technologies and SpaceX contracts worth a total of  $342.8 million for the development of the Wide Field of View (WFOV) program to build satellites to help in the warning and tracking of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missiles. L3Harris received an almost $193.6 million contract, and SpaceX...

Asian satellite players see great potential in future in the satellite data market in Southeast Asia moving forward. During a virtual Satellite Asia panel discussion, part of ConnecTech Asia trade show, executives discussed challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, future satellite markets in connectivity services, and working with future constellations in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).  Daniel Kim,...