Focus: Telecom

ViaSat announced the ViaSat 2 satellite has successfully arrived in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) at 69.9 west longitude, and has transitioned into orbit normal mode (Earth pointing) with its reflector and radiator deployments now complete. The company also confirmed the satellite has commenced in-orbit testing, including the key milestone of the first end-to-end system test,...

Customers of SES’ Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) High Throughput Satellite (HTS) services will have greater flexibility and control of their capacity following the deployment of the iDirect Velocity ground infrastructure, developed by VT iDirect, SES has announced. The operator will deploy the iDirect Velocity infrastructure across three HTS systems — SES 12, SES 14 and...

Marlink and Radio Holland have concluded a partnership agreement whereby Marlink has acquired Radio Holland’s connectivity business. The partnership builds on the complementary strengths and extensive expertise of the two companies and enables Marlink to further strengthen its global leadership in maritime Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), the company stated. Radio Holland will be the...

As part of its efforts to provide broadband for 70 percent of the country’s households, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced it is pursing three significant infrastructure projects. Most notably, the Chinese government is deploying 5G networks in at least five cities and is also establishing a quantum communications network near the Yangtze...

Lockheed Martin has completed the major assembly of Hellas-Sat 4/SaudiGeoSat 1 and has shipped the communications satellite to its Sunnyvale, California facility to undergo critical environmental testing. The first of the modernized LM 2100 satellites, Lockheed Martin is building Hellas-Sat 4/SaudiGeoSat 1 for Arabsat and Hellas Sat and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. It will provide...

Guatemalan service provider Comnet is the first to tap into the newly launched SES Networks Enterprise+ Broadband for Latin America to enable the delivery of Quantum, a next-generation broadband service, to its end customers spanning the agricultural, tourism and mining industries. SES announced today that, in the multi-year contract, Comnet will use the carrier-class managed...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long been a vocal advocate for the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a new spaceport in the Russian Far East that he hoped would reduce the country’s dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, the first two launches from Vostochny have been abject failures, including this week’s failed mission...

The U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has selected Ball Aerospace to deliver the operational environmental satellite system, Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M), for the Department of Defense (DOD). WSF-M is a predominantly fixed-price contract for the system design and risk reduction of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite with a passive...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has chosen Blue Sky Network for a multi-year contract for Iridium satellite-based communications services. According to the contract, Blue Sky Network will supply new military-grade Iridium 9575 Extreme satellite phones for IMF personnel traveling in high-risk regions around the world. IMF is an organization that comprises 189 countries, working collaboratively...

Marlink has introduced a connectivity boost for its Gulf of Mexico customers with the addition of Tampnet’s 4G LTE services to its high-speed Sealink multi-band network. Offshore support vessels and ships can order Tampnet 4G connectivity fully integrated with the Marlink network as SmartConnect, augmenting the already available Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), L-band satcom...