Dr. Peter Guggenbach, the long-standing Head of RUAG Space, has decided to leave RUAG and take up a new professional challenge. Luis De Léon Chardel will assume responsibility on an interim basis for the Space segment as of June.

In its latest research titled, “Prospects for Maritime Satellite Communications,” Euroconsult projects that the previously growing maritime connectivity market will experience a significant setback due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Maritime VSAT connectivity reached an all-time high of 28,200 connected vessels at the end of 2019 but because of the current health crisis, the previous projection of 49,300 terminals by 2023 has been reduced to 40,600 units.

IBC2020 has been cancelled due to concerns for exhibitor and attendee safety and the ability to deliver an event of the quality expected of IBC. IBC2020 was due to take place 11-14 September in Amsterdam, but with many countries in Europe still in lockdown, IBC chief executive Michael Crimp said there were “many unknowns.”

The global Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) market is projected to be positively impacted by the COVID-19 lockdowns, as consumers turn to SVoD services to fill increased viewing hours and restrictions on movie theater attendance. Disney’s arrival on the global streaming stage could not have come at a more opportune time, and it is projected to soon pass Amazon’s Prime Video viewership, and close the gap on first-place Netflix towards the end of 2025.

Digital TV Research forecasts 35 million additional pay TV subscribers between 2019 and 2025, taking the global total to 1.06 billion. Based on forecasts for 138 countries, the number of pay TV subscribers passed 1 billion in 2018. 

Enterprise networks, increasingly deployed by private operators, will provide small cells with the sweet spot they have been seeking for so long, and drive the market to 26 million units by 2026. The cells deployed will be increasingly diverse in form, ranging from compact versions of macro base stations to almost invisible systems embedded in electronic equipment. But the huge majority – 68% of all small cells that will be deployed between 2019 and 2026 – will be for enterprise and industrial use cases.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) marks the anniversary of the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 17 May 1865, when the first International Telegraph Convention was signed in Paris. The theme of this year's World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is “Connect 2030: ICTs for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."