Space is a Network.
Constellations is Your Connection.
Europe’s largest telecom operators see significant potential in satellite direct-to-device (D2D) services but remain uncertain about market demand, profitability and which D2D providers will ultimately survive.
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Qualcomm’s partnership with mobile satellite service provider Iridium Communications is just the latest satellite involvement by a company that remains interested in going beyond emergency messaging to a broadband link directly from a low-orbit satellite constellation to user devices.
Startup optical beam-shaping technology provider Cailabs’ recent Series C financing raised 26 million euros ($27.6 million) in equity and will provide the company with at least 2-3 years of runway as it proves out its technology to compensate for atmospheric turbulence.
Satellite service providers and hardware builders are weighing strategies before SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper constellations become fully operational. Industry players believe the answers are in standards, delivery of service, and partnerships.
The Maxar-EchoStar settlement announced Nov. 22 will reduce Maxar’s projected 2022 adjusted EBITDA by $65 million and cut 2023 free cash flow by $50 million to $60 million. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Maxar said Jupiter 3, already two years late, is 96% complete, has completed thermal-vacuum testing and is now undergoing final performance tests.
Globalstar has made the first of two $7-million cash payments to contractor MDA Ltd. The first payment, which MDA confirmed during an investor call, was made Oct. 31.
Indonesia’s head to head satellite broadband match will test whether a Starlink partnership of this kind is a winning strategy against an established local satellite broadband provider.
The European Space Agency (ESA) scrapped a planned late-September update on when the Ariane 6 rocket will fly and whether the agency will be obliged to go to SpaceX to launch at least one European government mission as a result of continued Ariane 6 delays.
Satellite fleet operator Arabsat said software-defined satellites are the future of geostationary-orbit companies and offer a defense against market encroachment by constellations of low-orbiting satellites. Arabsat’s chief strategy officer, Abdulhadi Al Hasani, shares his view of the market and expectations over the coming years.
Globalstar Executive Chairman Jay Monroe, whose family’s investment has kept the mobile satellite service in business since 2004, outlined the advantages of the big-splash Apple commitment that Globalstar says is “transformational.”
