Arabsat has signed an agreement with the Hellenic Telecommunication Organization (OTE;), one of the largest telecom groups in South Eastern Europe, for the acquisition of its 99.05% equity participation in Hellas-Sat Consortium Ltd.The share purchase agreement was signed upon an aggregate consideration of €208 million  (US$ 280 mil).

The purchase price represents 99.05%, of:

• An enterprise value of Hellas-Sat, amounting to €157 million, which corresponds to 7 times the EBITDA of Hellas Sat for 2012, and

As part of a broader initiative to prevent signal interference, GVF today announced that it is working with the organizers of Cabsat in Dubai to highlight satellite communications equipment that has been tested and approved in co-ordination with a global product-certification initiative.

There are a total of 6 exhibitors with approved products at Cabsat. Those technologies will have demonstrated compliance with GVF-coordinated industry standards, which encourage integrity in equipment design, production, and performance.

When writing under a leaden winter UK sky during January the subject of CABSAT in the rather warmer month of March in the UAE is a very easy one to turn to, and indeed there’s much on the critical agenda on which to be informed. Thus, this year GVF has a very busy CABSAT week, focused on both the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center (DICEC) and the GVF/MenaNets Training Facility in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone.

It is a bad time to sell satellite ground segment, aka a teleport.  But it is a great time to sell a successful satellite services business with a teleport at its core. That paradox is the conclusion of Best Practices in Teleport Valuation, a newly published report from the World Teleport Association.

BroadcastAsia, CommunicAsia, and EnterpriseIT – Asia’s largest and most established media communications and information communications technology (ICT) events – are set to return this year to showcase the latest technologies and trends for the entire communications ecosystem.

SpeedCast Ltd, has completed, with the support of its majority shareholder, TA Associates, a buyout of maritime services provider Elektrikom Satellite Services, based in the Netherlands.

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which started purely as a military application, has now widened to include all possible users - government agencies, industries, and even individuals. Frost & Sullivan analysis forecasts increasing prominence of Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) data derived from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and associated Value Added Services (VAS) in the next 10 to 20 years.

Shakespeare once said that the “past is prologue.”  And the significant events of 2012 are a good portent of things to come in 2013 and beyond.  Here are some of the events from 2012 that will shape and influence coming industry trends (not necessarily in order of significance):

Following the conclusion of the widely applauded GVF Ka Roundtable Assembly 2012: Satellite Service Provision Game-Changer in Action event, which took place in London on 5th & 6th December 2012 with approximately 100 delegates attending, the satellite industry has now called for a further platform to facilitate extended industry and end-user dialog about high-capacity and high-throughput satellite systems, new ground infrastructures, and advanced networking applications.

Amino Communications Chief Technologist Kevin Lingley has looked into his crystal ball to reveal his thoughts about the five most significant developments in the pay-TV market for 2013.

In his latest blog - www.aminocom.com/blog/ -, Kevin predicts: