Chris Forrester is one of the most experienced and highly regarded journalists in the field. His insight and analysis, particularly in the satellite and pay-TV arena, is highly prized. He has written for all the major business journals in the sector as well as several national newspapers.
IRIS2 is the European Commission’s (EC) scheme for a major super-secure satellite constellation. It is already extremely late in coming to any sort of agreement as to how its proposed public/private finance can be structured. Now the European Space Agency (ESA) has spoken out with something of a rescue plan. ESA director general Josef Aschbacher […]
Space tourism business Virgin Galactic announced a reverse stock split where existing shareholders received one new share for every 20 that they owned. The move, an attempt to stay within the rules of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), did no favours for the company and prompted at 14 per cent fall in value in […]
Intelsat emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2022. However, there were many smaller matters that its bankruptcy court still had outstanding, not least a dispute between Intelsat and SES over how the FCC’s C-band incentive payments were to be divided. Over the past few months, these minor elements have all been resolved. Smaller […]
Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation could soon be active over India thanks to its Indian shareholders Bharti Airtel. The latest reports from India suggest that OneWeb’s permissions to operate over India could be approved later this month. Elon Musk’s Starlink, despite favourable comments from India’s prime minister Modi, is still suffering regulatory delays. Starlink has received permission […]
Omnispace, a would-be mega-constellation satellite operator, is alleging potentially harmful interference to its licensed frequences by SpaceX’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite signals. A May 30th letter from Omnispace to the FCC argues that SpaceX’s experimental licence “violates the terms of its authorisation by operating at an altitude inconsistent with the [FCC] filing.” The letter to the FCC […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will attempt the fourth test flight of its massive Starship rocket on June 6th. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued its permission for the flight on June 4th. The FAA authorisation was modified from previous Starship flights, and the end result is that future launches will find an easier route to flight. […]
The high-flying geostationary satellite business is in the doldrums. Worse, Boeing Satellite Systems, which with its then popular 701 and 702 models (developed from its acquisition of Hughes Electronics back in 2000), once played a vital part of many major satellite operator’s fleets. However, in 2023 – according to Marc-Henri Serre SVP at Thales Alenia […]
SpaceX has confirmed it is working with T-Mobile in the US to launch its Starlink direct-to-cell (DTC) service commercially “this autumn”. This suggests that Starlink will be available – albeit in limited applications – while its rival AST SpaceMobile will only have just started to launch its satellites into orbit. Starlink has a global broadband […]
Recently it was asked if AST SpaceMobile, the would-be Direct-to-Cellular satellite business, could beat off competition from Space X’s Starlink and other rivals. It now seems that Verizon, along with AT&T, believes AST can make a very major impact on North American cellular connectivity. Verizon put $100 million into AST’s business and in the process […]
The EU is reportedly looking to “haggle down” the cost of its planned IRIS² mega-constellation of broadband satellites. Reports suggest that the EU Commission looking after the already delayed project wants the end costs to be around €8 billion instead of the current rumoured €12 billion. But tough as this decision is, there are also […]
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