Mobile Connectivity

Air France will install Intelsat‘s 2Ku high-speed satellite In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) service on 60 of its new A220-300 aircraft. Intelsat is equipping the aircraft now and will be ready to offer the full commercial service when Air France begins using the new aircraft for its short and medium-haul destinations starting in the fall. “We are...

BridgeComm has announced its optical inter-satellite link terminal offering, called AstroBridge. These terminals are designed for high data rates for data transmission and resilient performance in navigation.  AstroBridge is designed for Low-Earth Orbits (LEO), with non-gimballed steering for control of optical communication tracking terminals. The unit uses Managed Optical Communication Array (MOCA) technology via Radio...

Hughes Network Systems and SES have demonstrated the ability to connect remotely piloted aircraft with satellites in Geosynchronous (GEO) and Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO), the satellite operators announced early Wednesday. Hughes and SES collaborated on showcasing the capability for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), which was interested in seeing if unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such...

Yahsat has selected Cobham Satcom to deliver a mobile broadband system, including ground infrastructure and products, to operate as part of Yahsat’s next-generation Thuraya 4-NGS system. Under the contract announced Thursday, Sept. 9, Cobham Satcom will develop a range of commercial and government focused terminals for land, maritime and aeronautical applications. The companies said Cobham...

OneWeb and Kymeta have tested the Kymeta u8 antenna with OneWeb’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. The companies reported Tuesday, Sept. 7 that in demonstrations in Toulouse, France, the single aperture antenna achieved downlink and uplink speeds of more than 200 Mbps down, and more than 40Mbps up over repeated testing. They also reported the...

HiSky plans to demonstrate its Smartellite terminals with a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) nanosatellite hosted by Spire Global dubbed “Ella1.” The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have awarded hiSky funding for the program through the ARTES Core Competitiveness Program. Ella1 will be launched into LEO in order to demonstrate the...

Intelsat has certified ThinKom Solutions‘ land-mobile ThinSat 300 phased-array antenna for use on the operator’s FlexMove government satellite network. ThinKom completed a series of over-the-air tests at Intelsat’s Mountainside Teleport in Maryland with Intelsat General. As a result, the operator fully authorized ThinSat 300 for use with Intelsat’s FlexMove — a tiered-service offering built around...

Spacecom and Get SAT have demonstrated the Get SAT Micro Sling Blade Electronically Steered Antenna (ESA) on the AMOS-17 satellite, reporting 5 Mbps forward and 25 Mbps return rate. The test was hosted at the SMS Teleport in Rugby, United Kingdom, the companies reported on Wednesday  The Micro Sling Blade is Get SAT’s new low...

Inmarsat is rolling out an upgraded narrowband L-band network called Elera for Internet of Things (IoT) service using capacity from its soon-to-launch I-6 satellites.  Elera will use capacity from two new I-6 satellites, the first of which is set to launch by the end of the year. Inmarsat said these satellites will deliver 50% more...

Canadian satellite operator Telesat will use ThinKom‘s Ka2517 aeronautical antennas to connect aircraft with its upcoming Lightspeed Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband service, under the terms of a strategic agreement the two companies announced Wednesday. ThinKom and Telesat will work together to integrate the Ka2517 as a complete aeronautical user terminal solution, followed by formal...