Mobile Connectivity

Intelsat is dropping the name Gogo from the Commercial Aviation division that it retired last year, the company announced July 13.  Intelsat announced the move to acquire Gogo’s Commercial Aviation division in August 2020, and the $400 million cash deal closed in December 2020 after it was approved by Intelsat’s bankruptcy court and creditors. The...

ThinKom Solutions is developing a new phased-array user terminal designed to operate in higher millimeter-wave frequency bands to work with next-generation satellite constellations in  Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO). The terminal, announced July 13, will operate in the Q- and V-band frequencies.  The Electronically Scanned Arrays (ESAs) will be offered in configurations for...

Eutelsat is launching a new end-to-end managed connectivity service called Advance, tailored to maritime, aviation, enterprise, government, and telecom markets. Advance, announced June 24, includes network interconnection, terrestrial connectivity, Ku- and Ka-band capacity, satellite terminals, and a management portal and APIs for service providers and clients.  The company said it will have offerings tailored to...

  Kymeta’s u8 land mobile antenna has been selected to participate in the U.S. Army’s Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) satellite communications on the move pilot program. The program will assess communications solutions including the u8 antenna on select vehicles for battlefield network and command post communications. The ABCT pilot program will be led by...

Iridium’s L-band broadband Iridium Certus 200 service is now available for maritime, land mobile, and government markets, the operator announced June 22. This service is designed to offer uncompressed transmission speeds up to 176 Kbps and up to three voice lines through a small and lightweight antenna.  This is an expansion of the Iridium Certus...

Blue Sky Network has debuted a new dual-mode data management solution called SkyLink for land, air, sea, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. It offers both Iridium‘s Certus service and local GSM/LTE connectivity for continuous sensor reporting, asset utilization, IoT monitoring, and two-way messaging. Skylink said the software and hardware configuration was engineered to capture...

Iridium Communications will kick off a series of partnership-driven field exercises on Friday called Operation Arctic Lynx (OAL) involving more than 20 government and commercial organizations deploying Iridium services above 60 degrees North latitude and stretching as far as 82 degrees North latitude. OAL will run through June 26. During the two week period, the...

Kymeta and Comtech EF Data Corp. have formed a technology partnership to pair the Kymeta u8 mobility terminal with Comtech a modem. The companies announced Tuesday that the u8 terminal is interoperable with Comtech’s SLM-5650B modem, using open-source standard Open Antenna to Modem Interface Protocol (OpenAMIP) for antenna-router integration. This pairing is aimed at expanding...

Iridium and Thales Group will provide connectivity for the Mayflower, a fully autonomous vessel, that will sail on a transatlantic research mission this year. The companies announced May 27 that they have been selected as the Mayflower’s communications partner, but did not disclose a dollar value for the deal.  The Mayflower is an autonomous ship...

South Korean defense company Hanwha Systems Co. (HSC) has received U.S. regulatory approval for its $30 million investment into Kymeta Corp., allowing the companies to move forward to close the transaction. Kymeta announced the approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) on May 25.  HSC plans to support Kymeta’s metamaterial-based...