Advanced Television

Broadband

AST SpaceMobile suffers delayed BlueBird launch

AST SpaceMobile (AST) already has five of its Mark 1 ‘BlueWalker’ satellites in orbit but they are far from enough to provide even close to decent coverage of its direct-to-consumer cellular coverage. Key to its 2025 strategy is to launch the larger and more powerful BlueBird satellites. India was initially reported to launch the first […]

April 22, 2025By Chris Forrester

Data: Consumer media usage grew 2.4% in 2024

Global consumer media usage, including digital and traditional media channels, increased 2.4 per cent in 2024 to an average of 57.2 hours per week, following a sharp deceleration in time spent with media growth in 2023, according to a market intelligence report from media econometrics specialist PQ Media. Growth in consumer media usage, including all […]

April 17, 2025

Italy joins Germany in IRIS2 alternate thoughts

Germany has already made it known that it believes the EU-backed IRIS2 mega-constellation of super-secure satellites is too expensive. Now it seems that Italy is also having thoughts about its own satellite fleet. A report in German newspaper Handelsblatt suggests that the German army (Bundeswehr) is backing an alternate orbiting satellite system, and may not […]

April 17, 2025

AT&T plans satellite connectivity trials

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted AST SpaceMobile, in coordination with AT&T, the ability to test direct-to-cellular connectivity on public safety’s Band 14 spectrum via its BlueBird satellites orbiting Earth. With this approval, it is envisioned that select first responders on FirstNet, Built with AT&T will trial public-safety-grade satellite communications later in 2025. AT&T […]

April 17, 2025

Kuiper launch delayed again

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) already delayed launch from April 10th and again on April 14th of a batch of Amazon Project Kuiper broadband satellites has now further delayed lift-off until April 28th. Weather got in the way of the April 14th launch. The new date should see the ULA Atlas V rocket lift off […]

April 16, 2025By Chris Forrester

Kazakhstan to create museum at Yuri Gagarin launch site

The Baikonur rocket and missile site in the middle of Kazakhstan is an area of some 90 kms in diameter which is leased to Russia until 2050. At its heart is the spaceport, and central to the spaceport’s modest visitors area is a small museum where the world’s first astronaut Yuri Gagarin lived ahead of […]

April 16, 2025

Hughes, Eutelsat LEO partnership

Managed network connectivity solutions specialist Hughes Network Systems has confirmed the availability of its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite service. Using Eutelsat’s OneWeb high-speed, low-latency, LEO satellite broadband services with Hughes ground equipment, installation, and network management, enterprises across Europe will experience enhanced connectivity from European-based providers. As an engineering partner, Hughes is developing gateway […]

April 15, 2025By Colin Mann

Vodafone, Vantage Towers in Germany antitrust probe

German antitrust body the Bundeskartellamt has sent Vodafone Group, Vodafone GmbH and Vantage Towers AG its preliminary legal assessment relating to the shortcomings in providing antenna sites to 1&1. Previously in 2021, Vodafone’s group company Vantage Towers had contractually agreed to provide the sites. However, massive delays have occurred since then. Vodafone and Vantage Towers […]

April 15, 2025By Colin Mann

Netflix: 41% of ISPs rise on Speed Index

Forty-five per cent of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) saw an increase of 0.2 Mbps, 54 per cent stayed the same, and 1 per cent saw a decrease between 0.2 and 0.4 Mbps in March 2025 on the Netflix ISP Speed Index – a monthly update on which ISPs provide the best prime-time Netflix streaming experience. […]

April 15, 2025

Telesat trims Lightspeed LEO fleet

Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat has formally advised the Federal Communications Commission that it wants to reduce the size of its proposed Liightspeed low Earth orbiting fleet from 1,671 craft to 300. The major change is that Telesat will orbit the Lightspeed fleet in higher orbital altitudes. The initial ‘Shell 1’ launches were due to comprise […]

April 15, 2025By Chris Forrester