Focus: Telecom

By Peter J. Brown The satellite sector in China is a mature business, ready for steady growth and eager to leapfrog ahead with as many third-generation satellite solutions as possible. This ability to skip an entire generation of satellite technology in many instances puts China in an ideal position when it comes to setting its...

By James Careless With the first five years of the 21st century nearly over, the satellite industry is looking ahead to the next five years with many questions in mind: What applications will be money makers? How will HDTV, IP, and the military’s use of commercial influence the market? How will new mergers and recent...

By Owen D. Kurtin 2004 may just go down in history as the year the satellite business started to rationalize itself, turned the economic corner and positioned itself to take on both terrestrial competition and the challenge of new service offerings. The year began with President Bush’s call in January for a U.S. return to...

In today’s complex business environment, companies are fusing their communications network infrastructure with their marketing strategies to aggressively stay ahead of the competition. Because of this, executives’ focus has shifted from simply managing a baseline network to delivering rich, interactive media content throughout the corporation and client base. Linear thinking by today’s corporate leader is...

Glen Hubbel was there from the beginning. As the distance learning coordinator at the National Center for Employee Development (NCED), a national training facility in Norman, OK, he helped launch and grow for nearly 20 years a satellite training network that now reaches approximately 300,000 people a year. T he 35-year-old center provides more than...

by Nick Mitsis As the global commercial satellite industry enters the final months of 2004, business executives are examining which of the undertaken ventures worked and what strategic objectives they will need to execute in the coming years in order to increase revenues and improve their respective company’s bottom line. It is no secret that...

By Peter J. Brown The problem of global satellite signal theft looms large. The parties engaged are everywhere and they are highly sophisticated and eager to make money, lots of money. Satellite signal theft is an activity that can spiral out of control in a very short time. In region after region and especially in...

By Mark Holmes Recently, experts from the investment bank community warned that the operators, who have been acquired by Private Equity (PE) firms, could be under much tougher constraints when it comes to capital expenditure plans. Max Herrnstein, managing director at Morgan Stanley, says, "You will see limited capital expenditure. The name of the game...

by Michael R.Flynn In our last article, we discussed the positive implications of the recent entry by private equity firms into the satellite operator sector. The financial discipline, strategic focus and managerial acumen that leveraged buyout (LBO) investors bring to the table are all welcome–and in some cases overdue–developments. Of course, there is another side...

Question and Answer Ken Cohen November 09, 2004 What are the top three business advantages satellite technology brings to the restaurant marketplace? The quick service restaurant industry faces several challenges that make satellite the perfect broadband solution. Those challenges include connecting numerous, disparate locations; the need to rapidly build out new locations; and deploying internal...