November 2015

Screen capture of an Intelsat EpicNG rendition. Photo: Intelsat [Via Satellite 11-16-2015] Intelsat’s latest EpicNG deal with SkyPerfect JSAT was not easy to do and in fact took well over a year to complete, according to Bruno Fromont, senior vice -president of strategy and asset management at Intelsat. Fromont told Via Satellite that Intelsat had…

Artist’s rendering of an Iceye satellite. Photo: Iceye [Via Satellite 11-16-2015] Iceye, a startup developing radar-imaging microsatellites, has gained $2.8 million in Series A funding, led by True Ventures, with participation from Lifeline Ventures and Founder.org. This follows approximately $2.8 million in Research and Development (R&D) funding from SME Instrument within the European Union’s (EU) Horizon…

New service to contribute to bridging the digital divide across Myanmar. Photo: iStock/Eutelsat [Via Satellite 11-16-2016] Bluewave, a local telecoms operator in Myanmar, has selected Eutelsat’s IP Easy solution to jumpstart a new satellite broadband service throughout the country. Commercialized from today, the service will offer speeds of up to 12 Mbps and will be…

Site view of the Mona Island GPS and seismic integrated station. Photo: USGS [Via Satellite 11-16-2015] Signal Mountain Networks and Hughes Network Systems have completed a managed satellite network at 80 sites for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Under the contract, Signal Mountain and its subcontractor, Hughes, are providing the USGS with ongoing satellite…

Much of the greater Arab Maghreb region as seen by the Suomi NPP satellite. Photo: Norman Kuring, NASA GSFC [Via Satellite 11-16-2015] Yahlive, through a new partnership with Paris-based Sahli Media Group, has launched a bouquet of 43 channels for the Greater Arab Maghreb region. The Free-to-Air (FTA) channels include news, entertainment and lifestyle content.…

WRC-15 Plenary on global flight tracking. Photo: ITU [Via Satellite 11-13-2015] The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has reached an agreement to allocate radiofrequency spectrum for global flight tracking in civil aviation. The frequency band 1087.7 to 1092.3 MHz has been allocated to the aeronautical “Earth-to-space,” Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) for satellite reception of Automatic Dependent…

Artist’s rendition of the Thaicom 7 satellite. Photo: Thaicom [Via Satellite 11-13-2015] A multi-transponder order from Grant Investrade Ltd (GIL) on Thaicom 7 has filled out all the remaining available capacity on the satellite, Thaicom announced Nov. 12. The company is using C-band capacity to provide digital cable TV services through a Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) system.…

Photo: Indi Samarajiva (Flickr) [Via Satellite 11-13-2015] Several international organizations including the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU), NetHope, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the Space Frequency Coordination Group (SFCG),…

ST Teleport’s Earth station. Photo: ST Teleport. [Via Satellite 11-13-2015] SpeedCast has entered a definitive agreement for ST Teleport, a leading satellite communications services provider based in Singapore. The acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, is the fifth of the year for SpeedCast, and includes the teleport facilities and data center infrastructure ST Teleport owns in…

Photo: China Eastern Airlines [Via Satellite 11-13-2015] China Eastern Airlines launched Panasonic Avionics In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) solution on international flights, becoming the first Chinese carrier to do so with Panasonic. The leading Chinese carrier, which, in partnership with China Telecom Satellite, was also the first to offer Wi-Fi on domestic flights, has installed Panasonic’s eXConnect…