News Analysis

The Year of the Middle Kingdom- Satellites Take Center Stage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

by NSR

The first modern Olympics held in Athens in 1896 featured some 241 athletes and were probably witnessed by several thousand spectators. Well over 10,000 athletes are expected for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and the best estimates are that the TV viewership records broken during the 2004 Olympics will be smashed once again this year with the possibility of over 4 billion people watching the events in the coming days. This represents three out of every five people on the face of the planet and, quite simply, is a feat that would be essentially impossible to achieve without the use of satellites.

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Why Do FSS Operators Borrow So Much Money?

by Bruce Elbert

President, Application Technology Strategy, Inc.

The Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) satellite operator business is the most established of the satellite industry, with leaders like Intelsat and SES representing many billions of dollars of investment and revenue. In the past, these companies and their predecessors like Hughes Communications Galaxy and RCA American Communications exclusively relied on investor risk capital and internally ground funds. What has changed to make these companies behave more like debt-leveraged industries like wireless/cellular telephone and airlines?

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Broadband at Sea – New Opportunities for Maritime VSAT

by Alan Gottlieb

Inmarsat’s new, Fleet Broadband services is facing never anticipated competition.  Its huge investment in its i4 satellite system and its revenue stream are being challenged by the proliferation of Ku Band deep ocean coverage and new hybrid VSAT/L Band solutions as well as by Iridium’s new OpenPort service. For those merchant shipping users that demand high capacity broadband, typically large fleet owners, rising demand for fixed priced broadband is making Inmarsat’s “pay-by-the-byte” services unaffordable at high usage levels and price-challenged at low usage levels. OpenPortsm offers volume based 128 Kbs service will be available at a cost significantly lower than Inmarsat.

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Musey and Team Reach Summit of Mt. Everest!

Summit, Mt. Everest, Nepal, May 27, 2008 – J. Armand Musey and his climbing team successfully reached the 29,028-foot summit of Mt. Everest, capping an arduous six-week expedition over the most challenging terrain in the world.

 

 

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Musey to Scale Mt. Everest for Charity

New York, NY, March 25, 2008 — After building a successful career on Wall Street as one of the foremost satellite and telecommunications industry analysts,  J. Armand Musey will leave tomorrow on an expedition to scale Mt. Everest in an adventure that will both complete a personal goal and raise funds for the American Red Cross' International Response Fund (IRF). 

 

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