News Analysis

Sydney, Australia,  April 22, 2019 — Speedcast International (ASX:SDA) (FRA:7SC) (OTCMKTS:SPPDF) revenue grew 21% to US$623.1 million, including US$7.5 million contribution from two acquisitions completed in 2018 and the full year impact of acquisitions completed in 2017.

by Omkar Nikam

Dubai, UAE, April 15, 2019--The CABSAT 2019 conference, held in Dubai in March, brought together a wide variety of players from the satellite communications industry, namely satellite operators, service providers, broadcasters, and others. As one of the world’s premier satellite broadcast conferences, CABSAT has historically been just that — a predominantly satellite broadcast conference. However, in a sign of the times, recent years — and this year most notably — have seen a transition at CABSAT, from a primarily satellite broadcast conference to a satellite conference that has much emphasis on broadcast, but also perhaps equal emphasis on a surprisingly wide variety of other verticals.

Cape Canaveral, FL, April 12, 2019 — Arabsat 6A Satellite, the last of its 6th generation satellites, was successfully launched this morning by Space X’s Falcon Heavy from Cape Canaveral in Florida, completing the Falcon rocket’s first commercial launch. The Falcon-Heavy rocket was launched at 22:35 (GMT), carrying Arabsat 6A satellite, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, and was placed in the exclusive orbit of Arabsat 30.5 degrees East.

Kourou, French Guiana, April 4, 2019 — Arianespace has orbited the final four latest satellites in the first phase of SES’s O3b constellation. The launch took place on Thursday, April 4, at 2:03 pm (local time) from the Guiana Space Center (CSG), Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America).

The April 2019 issue of  the Satellite Executive Briefing magazine  focusing on the Satellite Broadcast market sponsored by The SpaceConnection is now available.  Featuring:

Satellite Broadcast Market Update by Elisabeth Tweedie

IoT Applications, Markets and Opportunities by Hub Urlings

GVF Hub Summit DeBrief by Martin Jarrold

Rituals by Lou Zacharilla

Connected Cars: Too Important to be Left to Cellular Service

PLUS Mergers and Acquisitions, Executive Moves, Market Briefs, Vital Statistics, Satellite Markets 20 Stock Index and many more. Click here to read or download the file

Steisslingen, Germany, April 2, 2019 — Calian Group has acquired SatService, a solid player in the European satellite ground systems market, for euro €4.5 million or US$ 5.05 million.

Holzkirchen, Germany, April 2, 2018--Satellite Markets and Research Editor-in-Chief Virgil Labrador was given a tour of satellite ground equipment manufacturer Work Microwave's brand new facility in Holzkirchen, Germany by its CEO, Dr. Thomas Frölich. To view a video of the tour, click here.

by Lou Zacharilla

New York City, April 1, 2019--In much of the world spring is a season with a nice big payload of rituals, customs and a whiff of hope.  Easter, Passover and Ramadan, on the religious side, occur before summer’s sun blares at us.  Among my favorite rituals is “Hanami,” the ancient Japanese tradition of viewing cherry blossoms (sakura).  I go to Brooklyn’s Botanical Gardens for this (not Japan.) But the sakura (cherry blossoms) are really nice in a part of New York not necessarily linked to delicacy.

by Hub Urlings

Amsterdam, The Netherlands,  April 1, 2019--After the launch of a whole new generation of small Sat-IoT systems at the end of 2018, the market is looking forward on how these networks are going to fulfill their promise of global low-cost IoT connectivity services. The significant decrease of the overall global IoT connectivity costs and power requirements these new generation Sat-IoT networks bring is expected to lead to a market expansion that will at least equal to the magnitude of this reduction at a factor 25. Expectations, however, are that the market for Sat-IoT may expand way beyond that leading to tens of millions of nodes around the world.

by Elisabeth Tweedie

Los Angeles, Calif., April 1, 2019--In an article for this publication exactly a year ago, I suggested that maybe it was time for us to start thinking of ourselves as the bandwidth industry, rather than the satellite industry. Now, I’m not vain enough to think that that remark was what prompted DirecTV to announce at the end of last year that it would not be ordering any more satellites, and that it would instead concentrate on building out fiber and OTT offerings for its customers.