Opinion

The satellite industry is sometimes difficult to understand. OneWeb recently filed for bankruptcy, letting go of most of its staff, but not long after filed for an expansion of their fleet to 48,000 satellites. In 2015, OneWeb announced that its constellation would comprise 1,600 satellites, but later brought that total number of spacecraft down to...

Maritime broadband connectivity has been a growth story for the satellite industry in the last decade. This was largely built on the increasing value proposition of Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) solutions. While the introduction of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), of other optimization technologies and of the availability of more satellite capacity supported market...

It’s often said that bad news comes in threes: unfettered price drops, COVID-19, and bankruptcies certainly qualify as events that have shaken the satellite industry to its core. Big, medium, and small players alike have had to find ways to stay afloat in the short term, while preparing for the new normal in the mid-...

Growing up, my favorite part of visiting Disneyland was climbing aboard the rocket-shaped roller coaster cart of Space Mountain and dreaming of one day visiting space. As the recent Crew Dragon Demo-2 launch marked the first crewed spaceflight for SpaceX, the future of commercial space tourism has never looked better. SpaceX’s launch kicks off a...

Calling all space nerds – Netflix’s new “Space Force” may not make the list of 2020’s best  shows, but smart and accurate details relating to the military and commercial space industry will invite plenty of chuckles. From the day it was announced nearly two years ago, the new series by “The Office” creators Steve Carell...

In our recent column, we proposed a golden triangle of competitive differentiation in the satcom industry, comprising advantageous configurations of orbit, spectrum and payload to host a subset of 5G satcom services within a unified “network of networks.” With the LeoSat shutdown, and OneWeb and Intelsat recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it seems...

Welcome to the June edition of Via Satellite. We are living in difficult times as the coronavirus continues to claim thousands of lives around the world. I will start by wishing our community, their families, loved ones, colleagues and friends all the best as we navigate this treacherous period in history together. In this edition, we...

Earlier this year, Access Partnership highlighted the top ten trends we see for 2020 across the tech sector broadly, arising from regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), privacy, supply chain security, 5G, and other issues. The full report, Tech Policy Trends in 2020, is informed by our perspective as tech policy experts in all regions of the...

Over recent months we have seen a global crisis on a scale most of us have simply never witnessed before. The impact on individual lives has been vast as has the impact on businesses large and small across the entire world. Many businesses have moved to remote working, which in many cases has caused a...

Although hard to believe, it has been about two months since industry executives gathered for SATELLITE 2020. I wanted to take an opportunity to remember the breadth of discussions and topics covered when last our industry gathered in person. The creation of the U.S. Space Force signifies a new era for satellite communications with more...