Focus: Telecom

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted authorization to SES to serve the United States market using a significantly expanded O3b fleet in the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). The FCC grant opens additional frequencies to SES for use in its Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) constellation and enables it to deploy O3b mPower satellites into inclined...

Comtech EF Data, a subsidiary within Comtech Telecommunications’ Commercial Solutions segment, and Kepler Communications, a nano-satellite telecommunications company, have announced a collaboration to advance rapidly deployable, low-cost, low-latency communications via Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and ground station infrastructure equipment. Kepler’s first Ku-band LEO satellite, Kipp, was launched on Jan. 19, enabling data offload services...

Intelsat has announced that during the Transform Africa Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda in May, it joined Smart Africa, a 2013-established initiative to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development and usher Africa into the knowledge economy through affordable access to broadband and usage of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Smart Africa is geared toward connecting, innovating and transforming...

IsoTropic Networks, a global solutions provider of satellite internet services, has announced that its live, Over-The-Air (OTA) test of DVB-S2/S2X has found that early tests of the new iDirect iQ 200 Series were able to outperform competitive products reaching close to 200 Mbps aggregate throughput. IsoTropic tested the new iDirect iQ 200 Series in a...

Intelsat and the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) of Myanmar have broadened their relationship to accelerate the deployment of wireless communications infrastructure in Myanmar. The MOTC will use services on Intelsat 39, a Ku- and C-band satellite which is scheduled to replace Intelsat 902 at 62 degrees East in 2019. Under the new multi-year,...

Sprint has announced that it is ready for the 2018 hurricane season ahead of subtropical storm Alberto and what is predicted to be another active season. In preparation for the hurricane season, which officially begins tomorrow and runs through Nov. 30, Sprint took a number of actions to strengthen its network including continued investment of new cell...

Yahsat has announced that its third satellite Al Yah 3, located at 20 degrees West, has successfully completed its in-orbit testing and is ready for commercial services. The satellite will potentially expand Yahsat’s Ka-band coverage to 19 additional markets across Africa, covering 60 percent of the population, and marks Yahsat’s first entry into Brazil, where...

It is not often in this day and age, that someone leads for over 20 years, but David Hartshorn can say he did exactly this. He has led the Global VSAT Forum (GVF) for more than 20 years. Therefore, it came as a surprise that Hartshorn announced he was resigning his position as the Secretary...

Could the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) bandwidth replace Wi-Fi as the world’s common connectivity link? According to Preston Marshall, head of access for Google and director of the CBRS Alliance’s Enterprise Council, Wi-Fi and CBRS share many of the same characteristics. “At one point in history Wi-Fi was actually considered a ‘garbage band.’ Now,...

Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services provider SatADSL and Camtel, Cameroon’s national telecommunications provider, have announced a new partnership to provide satellite connectivity across Cameroon. The formal agreement follows a pilot launch of SatADSL’s range of competitive satellite connectivity solutions across a variety of public and private enterprises and communities in Cameroon, including schools, post offices, hospitals...