World leaders from government, industry and research institutions gathering this week in Mexico City for ITU’s World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS) have sent a strong message calling for the international community to explicitly prioritize information and communication technologies (ICTs) as essential to every nation’s future social development and economic growth.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully completed its first geostationary transfer mission, delivering the SES-8 satellite to its targeted 295 x 80,000 km orbit at 5:41 pm local time.  After two previous attempts that were marred by technical glitches, Falcon 9 executed a picture-perfect flight, meeting 100% of mission objectives. 

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. today announced that it has completed the sale of its Spacenet Inc. subsidiary to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based SageNet. The aggregate consideration for the sale is approximately US$ 16 million, subject to certain post-closing adjustments and expenses.

The transaction, which was closed under the same terms signed in August, is expected to result in a capital loss of US$ 1 million to US$ 3 million, which includes banker's fees, legal fees and other transaction related expenses. 

Vivendi, the French media and telecommunications group, has confirmed its plan to split in two by spinning off its SFR telecommunications company and list it separately on the stock market.

“This plan could take the form of a distribution of SFR shares to Vivendi shareholders on the day of the transaction,” the company said. It added that its supervisory board had approved the spin off, first floated in September.

The subjects of the oil & gas vertical market and that of High Throughput Satellites are rarely outside the scope of anyone connected with the development and delivery of satellite-based communications solutions these days. Indeed, as you read this column – during, I believe, the first week of December – one of the latest of the GVF-EMP Conference Partnership events covering the first of these subjects has already been successfully concluded, and another, covering the later subject, will be very nearly, or even actually, underway.

CASBAA will kick off 2014 with its first event of the New Year, Philippines in View, taking place on Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at the Edsa Shangri-La in Manila.

“We are happy to be starting off the New Year in the Philippines, one of the most dynamic markets in the Southeast Asian media landscape,” said Christopher Slaughter, CEO, CASBAA. “The country offers vast potential for growth for the multichannel TV industry and CASBAA has lined-up an impressive roster of speakers and guests to examine the business of pay TV in the Philippines.”

AST  announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Wright Satellite Connections, (WSC) based in Wellington, New Zealand, increasing the previous shareholding from 49% to 75%.

WSC provides mobile satellite communication solutions to defence, maritime, civil defence and other organisations for their use around the world, and their strength lies in providing end to end solutions covering, hardware, airtime connections, training, peripherals such as encryption, and after sales care.

Signalhornhas been awarded funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a gateway that will allow its customers to monitor all aspects of their services with the company. The funding is part of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program.

Intelsat S.A. today announced that Intelsat Jackson Holdings S.A., its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary  has amended its senior secured credit agreement, which governs its approximately US$ 3.1 billion senior secured term loan facility and $500 million revolving credit facility, effective today.

Increasing popularity and greater airplay of sports such as soccer, golf, tennis, badminton, table tennis and athletics across the region signal a growing appetite among consumers for sports-based programming. To ensure high quality and timely delivery of sports content, businesses are actively exploring broadcasting technologies such as 4K/Ultra HD (UHD), file-based management systems, multi-screen experiences, multi-platform streaming, Nextgen broadcasting, Over-The-Top (OTT) to cater to the burgeoning sports industry in the Asia Pacific region.