The Global VSAT Forum (GVF) and United Kingdom Event Management Partners (UK-EMP) have announced that the offer of free conference registration for relevant vertical market professionals originally introduced for their Oil & Gas Series conferences will be contin

At the beginning of 2008 Carlsbad, CA-based equipment manufacturer ViaSat startled the world with the announcement of ViaSat-1. Startling not only because of the capacity of the satellite, announced at 100Gbps, (but now increased to 125Gbps) represented a ten fold increase on existing Ka-Band satellites, but also because ViaSat with no operating experience was planning to enter a market dominated by two major players: WildBlue and Hughes. These two operators currently have just under one million subscribers between them.

by Lou Zacharilla, Director of Development, SSPI

Depending on whose science or projections you believe, the world is melting, its waters rising and its future looking a lot like the movie "2012." It may well be. Among the many stepping forward to help save it, the global teleport industry is now taking its turn.

The Year of Living Dangerously" is a great 1983 film by Australian director Peter Weir about an Aussie  journalist (Mel Gibson) covering political turmoil in Indonesia during the reign of Sukarno. He gets caught up in the chaos of an abortive Communist revolution and manages to escape, barely, with his life.

My previous column for this publication focused on the oil and gas exploration and production sector, with particular reference to the increasing attention of the energy industry on deepwater and ultra-deepwater hydrocarbon reserves which now appear to be much more abundant than was thought ten years ago.

by Martin Jarrold, Chief, International Programs Development, GVF

Deployment of broadband satellite technologies is correctly recognized as an imperative to maximization of cutting-edge digital oilfield applications and to considerations of cost-effectiveness – it is a force multiplier, enabling return on investment, as well as facilitating mission critical communications links.

The Middle East market has seen the recent addition of new Fixed Satellite Serivces (FSS) operators who are betting on the potential of Direct-to-Home (DTH) and broadband services via satellite in the region. But is the market really there for these services?

What drives demand for FSS satellite capacity?

Phew…we survived! That seemed to be the expression on everyone’s lips at the recently-concluded Satellite Business Week organized by EuroConsult held in Paris from 7-10 September. There was a definite feeling of relief in the air. Relief that the recession hadn’t hit the satellite companies as badly as it had other industries. A sentiment that probably isn’t shared by companies that recently filed for bankruptcy such as ICO Global, Protostar and SeaLaunch-all but the latter were noticeably absent this year.

Satellite Markets and Research Editor-in-Chief Virgil Labrador and Europe, Middle East and Africa Editor Howard Greenfield discuss the highlights of the IBC Conference and Exhibition held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from September 10-15, 2009. To view a video of this summary click here.

by Elisabeth Tweedie

On May 13, 2009 the EC announced the award of two S-Band satellite licenses. Thus opening the door for the winning operators - Solaris Mobile and Inmarsat - to provide broadcast mobile satellite TV and other services throughout Europe. Unfortunately the path leading from that door is beginning to look more like an obstacle course than an open road.