Focus: Telecom

The next generation of the Apple iPhone is rumored to support satellite connectivity, but differing reports on the capabilities have caused confusion.  Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International, who has broken news on details about Apple products in the past, said in a recent note to investors that the iPhone 13 will support communication with...

Gilat Telecom and ST Engineering iDirect have deployed a cellular backhaul network in the Democratic Republic of Congo for Vodacom, the companies announced Tuesday. The companies installed two Newtec Dialog hubs to power cellular backhaul services. The network is used primarily for cellular backhaul services, for applications such as social media, video sharing platforms, as...

Ligado has chosen Mavenir as its partner to develop base stations for its 5G mobile satellite network, the company announced Thursday. Mavenir is an end-to-end, cloud-native network software provider.  Ligado is working to build a 5G mobile satellite network in the L-band to provide machine-to-machine communications to enterprise customers in the transportation, agriculture, utilities, and...

SES has announced that Microsoft will become the first cloud provider customer for SES’s next-generation Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) system – O3b mPOWER. Microsoft plans to leverage the MEO connectivity services for its Azure Orbital solutions that integrate satellite connectivity with Azure services. Microsoft will use SES’s current MEO constellation to provide connectivity now before migrating...

The Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC), an entity operated by the Russian state, has moved its Express-AM33 satellite from the 96.5 degrees East orbital position to the 11 degrees West slot. The company announced the transition on Aug. 17 and said the move was made as RSCC looks to target a stronger position in the...

OneWeb has signed an MoU with northern Canada telco Northwestel for broadband connectivity. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, the companies will work together to deliver new connectivity services to remote mines, businesses, and governments across Canada’s north using OneWeb’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation.  Northwestel is the largest telecommunications provider in Canada’s north, and it serves...

Intelsat is expanding its partnership with telco Orange to provide cellular backhaul services in French Guiana. Orange will leverage the Intelsat 10-02 satellite to upgrade and expand its existing 2G network and provide 3G/4G services in French Guiana.  The satellite operator said this agreement will allow Orange to extend mobile broadband coverage and connect subscribers...

Telcos are moving towards digital services as they fight the commoditization of their connectivity services. This is one of the key findings of a new whitepaper “Mobile Carriers Accelerate Digital Services Play” by Docomo Digital, the international payments business of NTT Docomo, one of the world’s largest wireless operators. This move is being driven by...

Just over five years ago, Facebook’s connectivity plans took a huge blow when the AMOS-6 satellite was destroyed during a Falcon 9 rocket test fire. The global connectivity giant Facebook had planned to lease capacity off this satellite and after the failure, it never pursued a replacement. While Amazon and SpaceX are taking part in...

The Russian government is inching closer to its goal of offering a global satellite connectivity service after state-operated Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) signed a cooperative agreement on Wednesday with Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications (Intersputnik). The agreement covers joint use of satellite capacity and frequency assignments in Geostationary (GEO) and other satellite orbits....