A recent agreement to build a submarine cable by 2012 between two Islands, (Vanuatu and Fiji) emphasizes a clear trend: remoteness of a territory is not a barrier for cable connections as long as the market is valuable. Another announcement from the ITU on the sharp decrease of fixed broadband prices (50% between 2008 and 2010) with the 10 countries in the world with the biggest relative change in price all located in Africa illustrates the effect of the many cable projects that were completed recently in Africa, formerly the last satellite IP trunking stronghold.

Recent discoveries in remote areas such as the Arctic are pushing the Oil & Gas (O&G) sector further away from terrestrial service, which drives satellite connectivity in the digital oilfield.  NSR heard three distinct messages at the Global VSAT Forum’s (GVF) 4th Annual Oil and Gas Communications Europe 2011 conference in Aberdeen on 17 – 18th May.

The rapid growth in the delivery of content for viewing on mobile and Internet-connected devices is outstripping the pace at which broadcasters have deployed the workflow and quality control systems needed to effectively support these opportunities. This conclusion is part of the study, "U.S. TV Stations Infrastructure: The HD Transition Has Just Begun,"  released by Positive Flux, a firm that specializes in transforming media companies to address new opportunities.

Consumer expenditures on entertainment media in North America and Europe grew a mighty 69 percent to $234.8 billion in 2010, up from $138.8 billion in 2000, with cable and satellite television retaining its primacy as the leading form of entertainment media during the decade, according to IHS Screen Digest research.

Speaking at a Newtec-hosted seminar in Miami last week, various industry analysts predicted robust growth in emerging markets for satellite broadcasting in the next decade.

Los Angeles, May 6, 2011 by Bruce Elbert

According to Research and Markets Cloud Computing Services reached almost US$ 38 Billion in revenues last year. Will satellite service providers get a slice of this important market?

New York, NY, May 5, 2011 by Robert Bell

The public sharing of consumer reviews has become a worldwide phenomenon. Only when it comes to satellite communications, not so much. That is why the World Teleport Association published Satellite Operator Benchmarks 2011.

Space communications assets will be pivotal in supporting the net-centric capabilities required for tighter integration of EW and CIW, cyber/information warfare

US Cable Loses 2 Million Subscribers in 2010, but Telco TV and DTH Satellite actually gained subscribers

US Cable operators saw over two million video customers evaporate from their rolls in 2010, whereas Telco TV and Satellite actually gained customers over the same period—more than compensating for Cable's losses and netting a modest 273,000 new Pay TV subscribers overall. A new report by Strategy Analytics suggests that the US Cable industry may not be taking the news seriously enough.

Inmarsat recently announced that it is working with partner SkyWave Mobile Communications to develop a new low data rate (LDR) tracking, monitoring and messaging service that is planned for launch in Q3 2011. The new device dubbed the IsatData Pro promises to deliver up to 37x data capability of current global M2M services. The announcement stated that compared to typical global M2M offerings that provide data connectivity rates of about 270-340 bytes, the new service aims to deliver near real-time messages of up to 10,000 bytes to the device, and up to 6,400 bytes from the device.