Focus: Telecom

For government operations, satellite technology has empowered local and multinational African organizations to establish a significant foothold in today’s communication’s arena. Moving forward, expanding applications will predominantly drive Africa’s satellite-enabled businesses. Today, falling prices for equipment and bandwidth have lead to greater penetration in the large, medium and small office/home office market segments. In turn,...

Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) communications systems are cost-saving additions to most enterprise businesses. Throughout recent years, communication systems via satellite have come down in price. But size of network build out, future expansion and applications that will be transmitted all play a role in the final price, return and network structure chosen. Years ago,...

The European Space Agency (ESA) has begun working with several large multinational businesses to integrate satellite data into the companies’ corporate sustainable development (CSD) efforts, ESA announced. The practice of CSD, also known as corporate social responsibility, is when corporations manage their business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. Companies regularly issue...

Impending consolidations will create massive global Fixed Satellite Service operators that will dwarf their regional competitors. But sheer size alone will not bring the largest operators competitive advantages, and the regional operators continue to pursue new and exciting business opportunities that will help them compete not only against the global operators but also against the...

It looks as if the telecom/dot.com depression that weighed down the satellite industry is over, and 2006 is looking good for attracting additional private equity (PE) and public market investment. That was the message from financial experts who addressed attendees at the SATELLITE 2006 Conference Pre-Day program Feb. 6. In fact, 2006 also looks to...

The advent of Internet protocol (IP) TV promises more choices for consumers in terms of both content and convenience and more business for satellite operators, industry officials said. The advent of IPTV "is the beginning of a shift in the paradigm, as we move from the broadcast world to everything on demand," said Michael Kazmier,...

The U.S. Defense Department has made commercial satellites as its number one option for military in-theater communications. "In the past, [military satellite communications] was our first-in choice," U.S. Air Force Maj. Michael Moyles, commercial satcom operational manager at U.S. Strategic Command, said. Now "we’re turning to you first. That’s a tremendous change in [Department of...

The beginning of the end of broadband satellite provider Aramiska can be traced back more than a year, as the company was unable to compete against aggressive terrestrial broadband providers, former CEO Philippe Bodart told Satellite News. Aramiska, a pioneer in the satellite broadband business when it launched service in December 2001, abruptly closed down...

Part of Frascati’s Controlled Origin Denomination — "Denominazione d’Origine Controllata" or DOC in Italian, a wine’s legally demarcated home region — was surveyed before and after the October harvest using airborne and satellite imagery under a European Space Agency (ESA) program. The Bacchus-Doc effort, intended to use earth observation and GIS technology to improve European...

The four largest U.S.-based space companies, Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co., generally posted strong performances in 2005 thanks to continued strong government work and a resurgence in commercial space activity. Boeing Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), which includes the company’s space operations, reported a 1 percent increase in revenue...