Focus: Telecom

Iridium Satellite LLC announced Nov. 20 its appointment of Lieutenant General John Campbell, U.S. Air Force (retired), as the global mobile satellite services provider’s executive vice president for government affairs. Campbell joins Iridium from Applied Research Associates in Alexandria, Va., where he served since 2004 as its principal for defense and intelligence following a 32-year...

While in most markets in western Europe – i.e., France, Italy and Spain – consolidation has taken place in recent years, among DTH operators in the Nordic markets, competition between the operators Viasat and Canal Digital is alive and well. The two operators have around 1.7 million customers between them to dominate the pay-TV landscape...

ISAT.L Inmarsat Holdings Ltd. recorded revenue of $129.2 million in the 2006 third quarter, up 8 percent from the same period a year ago, the company said. The recently launched Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service has contributed revenues of $3.2 million in the quarter. "Across the board it was a strong revenue and EBITDA...

Nearly a year after emerging from bankruptcy, Loral Space & Communications Inc. posted a profit in its 2006 third quarter as revenues jumped 42 percent, the company announced Nov. 13. Driven by an upturn in the commercial satellite manufacturing industry, Loral reported a profit of $1.2 million in the 2006 third quarter on revenues of...

Sirius Canada Inc. signed an exclusive multi-year strategic partnership to become the official satellite radio partners of the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA), the organizations announced. Under the Show Your Card & Save program, the CAA will provide incentives and offers on Sirius products and services to the CAA’s 4.9 million members.

PTC and Starchaser Industries, a privately held high-technology company, have renewed their commitment to Pro/Engineer, a PTC integrated CAD/CAM/CAE system, for an additional three years, PTC announced Nov. 16. Starchaser specializes in the development, operation and commercialization of space-related products for the microsatellite and space tourism markets. PTC Pro/Engineer in combination with Pro/Engineer Mechanica is...

Micro-Ant Inc. has announced the development of its Blade technology, which as applied to microstrip antennas, enhances electrical performance while allowing for smaller, cheaper, and easier production and use. The Fall River, Mass.-based company claims Blade technology increases overall antenna efficiency, allowing an antenna to be considerably smaller than traditional designs while meeting similar performance...

A request by ICO Global Communications to delay construction of its geostationary satellite means the company’s plans to launch a hybrid satellite-terrestrial communications system will be pushed back even further, and could indicate that development of its system remains up in the air, according to one industry analyst. On Nov. 9, ICO filed a request...

Restructuring cost and higher interest expense related to the acquisition of Panamsat Corp. and the September failure of a satellite serving the Africa and the Indian Ocean region helped contribute to a third quarter loss for Intelsat Ltd., the company announced Nov. 14. Intelsat, the world’s largest Fixed Satellite Services company, lost $172.5 million in...

Sunoco has signed a five-year enterprise networking-services contract extension in which Spacenet will provide upgraded satellite networking and managed services at approximately 900 company-owned retail stores across the United States, Spacenet announced Nov. 15. Sunoco stores will be upgraded to the Gilat Skyedge VSAT platform, and Spacenet also will provide hybrid network-management solutions and application...