Stories about the broadband industry.
Astranis says its first commercial satellite is “ready for launch.” On Wednesday, the SF-based space unicorn said it had cleared all major tests for its first MicroGEO satellite…including the vibe test campaign (vibration/vibroacoustic tests), along with final solar array and antenna deployment tests, propulsion system tests, software tests, and electrical checkouts. In late December, the […]
Western intelligence sources have confirmed to Reuters that a broad cyberattack disrupted Viasat broadband satellite internet services in and around Ukraine. Though sources declined to say who carried out the attack (or, at least, definitively make an attribution), the timing gives us some hints. The cyberattack began when Russian missiles started flying into Ukraine and […]
From rocket engines to Earth-observing satellites to the ISS, seemingly no element of space has been spared from rapidly rising geopolitical and off-world tensions between Russia and the West. LEO internet megaconstellations in buildout phase are no exception to this rule. ICYMI Let’s start with OneWeb. Russia sought assurances that OneWeb internet satellites wouldn’t be used for military purposes, with […]
CesiumAstro has raised a $60M Series B, the company announced this morning. Airbus Ventures and Forever Ventures co-led the round, with L3 Harris also making a strategic investment. Previous investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Lavrock Ventures, Franklin Templeton Blackhorse Fund, and HEICO, also participated in the round. CesiumAstro 101: The startup’s core product is its steerable, […]
Users in Ukraine have reported that Viasat KA-SAT internet service is down in the country, and the outage has spread to other countries in Europe. The likely culprit: a Russian cyberattack on the morning of Feb. 24. Viasat announced Monday morning that it’s consulted cyber experts to investigate the outages. In a statement, the company […]
Lynk announced yesterday that it has completed a demonstration of its direct-to-phone telecom service from its fifth satellite. The company said the satellite connected to thousands of devices on three continents. The Virginia company is hoping to roll out its direct-to-phone two-way communications service later this year. In the meantime, the demo results show that […]
Viasat (NASDAQ: VSAT) reported earnings last Thursday. Highlights for the satellite communications player: $720M in Q4 2021 revenues, which is up 25% year-over-year. Sales in Viasat’s Satellite Services segment were $310M, a YoY increase of 43%, largely driven by new aviation customers. Viasat posted a net loss of $6.6M, which the company attributed to “higher depreciation and […]
Starlink+? If it was following in the footsteps of streaming services, that’s what SpaceX’s satellite internet division would have named its new premium offering. But SpaceX marches to the beat of its own drum and instead went with Starlink Premium, unveiled Tuesday. Price details: The Starlink Premium package costs $2,500 upfront for equipment, along with a $500/month […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is prepared to award $1.2B+ in new broadband payouts through its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). The RDOF is intended to reduce the US’s digital divide by subsidizing broadband deployment in rural and underserved areas. The two-phase auction will pay out up to $20.4B to internet service providers over the course of […]
OneWeb has struck up a six-year partnership with a distributor in India, Hughes Communications India (HCIPL), to sell its broadband services within the country. OneWeb does not yet have regulatory approval to operate within India. Both OneWeb and Starlink, which was recently ordered by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to stop preselling the service in the country, […]
This week, SF-based Astranis announced a $90M deal with Andesat, a Latin American telco, to provide broadband capacity to cell towers in Peru. Astranis’s satellite will extend connectivity to underserved, remote pockets of Peru—and help cell networks leapfrog from 2G to 4G across the country. It’s a “landmark deal,” Astranis cofounder and CEO John Gedmark […]
The FCC is in the process of repurposing chunks of mid-band spectrum to accelerate 5G network rollouts. In the US, satellite operators have historically occupied the C-band, a key mid-band chunk. Long story short, those leases are up. Dec. 5 represents a key deadline for C-band satellite operators. If they clear a predetermined portion of […]
