Focus: Telecom

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today] Integral Systems Inc. named William Bambarger Jr. the company’s new CEO, Integral announced Sept. 25. Bambarger replaces William Lewis, who is resigning from his position as interim CFO. Bambarger previously served as senior vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer for EnergySolutions LLC. He joined EnergySolutions when it acquired Duratek...

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today] The board of EchoStar Communications Corp. has directed the company’s management to look at separating its businesses into two distinct publicly traded companies, EchoStar announced Sept. 25. Under the proposed plan, EchoStar’s Dish Network service would be split from the company’s technology and infrastructure assets that include the set-top box design...

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today] Radyne Corp. will supply equipment to upgrade Globalstar’s Simplex data service, the companies announced Sept. 25. Under a $1.6 million contract, Radyne’s AeroAstro business unit will provide asset tracking satellite downlink decoder racks, spares kits and additional software upgrades for existing equipment deployed at Globalstar’s ground gateways. The equipment, known as...

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today]  Inmarsat has ordered an S-band satellite from Thales Alenia Space, joining a list of potential competitors seeking licenses to deliver mobile multimedia broadcast services to mobile devices via satellite, according to a report from TMF Associates. The European Commission released a proposed decision for the European Parliament and Council of Ministers...

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today] Iridium Satellite has signed contracts with four North American air ambulance and medical transportation fleets to provide mobile satellite communications services, the company announced Sept. 25. Air Methods Corp., which provides air medical transport services for hospitals and communities in 42 states, and the California Shock/Trauma Air Rescue fleet are installing...

[09-25-07 – Satellite Today]  Stratos Global Corp. introduced its maritime broadband satellite communications solution based on Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband, Stratos announced Sept. 19. The service is expected to be commercially available in November. FleetBroadband, based on Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service, provides high-speed data and voice communications at speeds up to 432 kilobits per...

[09-25-07 – Satellite Today]  Universal Space Network Inc. will add two new antennas to ground stations in Hawaii and Australia, the company announced Sept. 19. The Hawaii ground station will receive another 13-meter S- and X-band system that will double the capacity of the station, the company said. The antenna will provide redundancy for customers...

[09-24-07 – Satellite News]  GMV has launched SmartRings 2.0, the latest version of its telecommunications satellite payload reconfiguration tool, the company announced Sept. 21. Engineers can use SmartRings during the payload reconfiguration process for changes in the transmission plan or in response to component failures and service interruptions. "We have significantly sped up the reconfiguration...

[09-24-07 – Satellite News]  STM Group’s research and development center is leading a consortium to evaluate, prototype and test advanced modem technologies for the European Space Agency (ESA), the company announced Sept. 21. The primary intent of the consortium is to improve performance of the digital video broadband-return channel satellite (DVB-RCS) standard while reducing operating...

[09-20-07 – Satellite Today]  Tandberg Television has won a deal to supply advanced IP infrastructure equipment and encoders to a new direct-to-home provider in India, Tandberg announced Sept. 19. Bharti Telemedia, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, will use a range of Tandberg’s solutions including the iSIS 8000 IP head-end and MPEG-4 standard definition encoders.