I sit down to write this column within days of having returned from a GVF mission to the South Pacific, to Papua New Guinea. There, we – Riaz Lamak, Lead in GVF’s Benchmarking, Validation and High Availabilty Disaster Recovery (HADR) initiatives, and I – were hosted by both the United States Department of Defense Indo-Pacific Command and the PNG Defense Force under the ‘Multinational Communications Interoperability Program’ (MCIP).

In the competitive and rapidly changing teleport business, one company is making waves and gaining substantial market share in a relatively short time through its holistic approach to providing services. iKO Media Group (iKOMG) is a boutique end-to-end media service partner for broadcasters and content owners. They provide tailor-made solutions focused on customer needs through dedicated service to a wide range of global and local networks and a keen ability to offer the best SLA for mid-size networks.

An Inter-regional Workshop focused on preparations for the upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) opened in Geneva today.

Following shareholder approval and its registration in the Chamber of Commerce, Airbus’ Italian space subsidiary Space Engineering has officially changed its name to Airbus Italia S.p.A.. Space Engineering is adopting the Airbus logo as its single visual identity.

Astrocast, a Switzerland-based Internet of Things (IoT) nanosatellite network, has secured US$ 9.2 (€8.3M)  Series A round of funding to accelerate production of IoT modules, to begin commercial phase and deployment of the its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) IoT network.

To date, Astrocast has raised CHF 16.6M in total funding. Founded in 2014 by the developers of SwissCube, one of the longest lasting, operational nanosatellites in space and led by Fabien Jordan, CEO, and José Achache, to develop an advanced nanosatellite network for the Internet of things (IoT). 

Outsourcing the manufacturing of your products is a very important decision for your company that can have a major impact on your bottom line. Outsourcing can undoubtedly have key benefits for your company.  The most tangible benefit is the cost savings in terms of labor costs and capex.  It also eliminates all the headaches of dealing with manufacturing processes and labor issues, so you can focus on research and development and marketing your products.  

It will come as no surprise to anyone in this industry who is paying attention to what has been happening over the last few years, to hear me say that the industry is in a state of flux.  This is hardly news, but the pace appears to be accelerating and things that have been talked about for the last several years, are either reality or now very close to be becoming so.

The uncomfortable co-existence among science, technology and religion is a few centuries old.  For a long while the three disciplines tried to stay in their own lane and tried to avoid swerving into the others’ lane.  But a collision was inevitable.  The crash has given us a toxic political and social climate at times, and made us mistrust each of the three disciplines. 

A number of highly visible new space initiatives, backed by some of the worlds internet billionaires, are challenging the existing satellite industry. Their marketing is great, American style, but is it really a game changer for the satellite industry? For rocket and satellite manufacturers maybe, but the business cases for the satellite operators are not very convincing yet.

SatADSL, a provider of professional VSAT services, has announced the completion of its capital increase and the appointment of Serge Van Herck as president of its board of directors.