Satellite Networks

The South African government, business and consumer sectors will soon have greater access to mobile satellite services following Iridium’s founding of a South Africa branch...

Gilat Satellite Networks will be providing a SkyEdge II broadband satellite communications network to its long-standing customer Astel, one of Kazakhstan's telecoms operators...

The Asia-America Gateway submarine cable system has received a boost with the news that the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) will use Level 3’s landing station connectivity. The latter extends PLDT’s pan-Asian voice, data and video network into the United States...

Six hours of use and 80 hours of stand-by time are the offering claimed by Thuraya for its new satellite handheld phone battery. Benefits are said to include extended availability during emergencies and extra-rugged construction...

The government of Angola has commissioned a complete ID management system, the contract for which has been awarded to DGM-Sistemas...

An African customer wishing to remain private has ordered an Amos 5 satellite from Spacecom Satellite Communications Ltd. This satellite is due for launch in mid-2011; for the time being an Amos 5i will fulfill the customer’s communications needs...

Commuters on Kazakhstan’s busiest railway line, Almaty-Astana, can now enjoy high-speed mobile broadband and phone services on their journey thanks to a contract between satellite specialist SES World Skies and local telco Astel...

More than 3,500 rural sites on Peru will enjoy the benefits of broadband satellite communications thanks to a contract signed between Gilat and Telefonica del Peru. The contract is part of Telefonica Latinoamerica's initiative to deploy broadband services across the region...

A collaboration between German satellite provider Satlynx and Middle East satellite operator Arabsat will provide the Central Bank of Iraq with a new, fully redundant satellite network that will provide the foundations of an extensive communications platform...

The Internet Divide across the Solomon Islands has been bridged as Solomon Telekom enlists NSS-9 satellite services from SES World Skies to expand broadband delivery to remote communities...

Telespazio Brasil has chosen Gilat to construct its 1,200-site broadband satellite communications network. Intended to serve major financial institutions, the network will assist Sicredi Bank in both connectivity and backup...

At a time of unparalleled link-ups between East Africa and the rest of the world, SES is to offer its Astra2Connect satellite-based broadband platform for Internet connections to East and Central Africa...

Following the recent prolific deployment of cabling systems in the seas around East Africa, two highly-respected organisations, the Christian Science Monitor and the BBC, have been bringing their customers up-to-date. Michael Schwartz reviews the articles...

International Launch Services (ILS), which provides mission and launch services to the commercial satellite industry, has carried the AsiaSat 5 satellite into orbit on its ILS Proton on behalf of Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) of Hong Kong...

Supported by Sky Perfect JSAT, KVH's newest mini-VSAT coverage area now supports broadband Internet and voice services for maritime and aeronautical applications...

Gilat Satellite Networks will provide Argentina’s Servicio Satelital with a SkyEdge II satellite communications network to enable broadband Internet connectivity at hundreds of sites nationwide. The sites will include schools, oil and gas firms and retail lottery locations...

Low-density telephony with an Internet option will become more widespread across Africa thanks to two contracts signed by ViaSat and satellite operator RascomStar-Qaf. Valued at US$53 million, the VSAT terminals in the contract are due for delivery between this year and 2011...

Serbia Broadband (SBB) will be expanding its Total TV platform via new multi-year contracts signed with Eutelsat Communications for two transponders at its 16 degrees video neighbourhood...

Citizens in the most remote regions of Papua New Guinea can expect to enjoy the benefits of broadband satellite, now that government-owned Telikom PNG has commissioned Gilat Satellite to build a network for the country's outlying areas...

Iridium is reporting that its new-generation global marine satellite communication system OpenPort has successfully completed sea trials on a number of different vessels, and worldwide commercial rollout is now underway...

O3b Networks is to help build the world's first ultra-low-latency, fibre-speed satellite network. One of the locations to be served will be the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where O3b will be partnered by Global Broadband Solution (GBS)...  

Boeing is set to construct a new satellite for Intelsat which will be active at 72° longitude over the Indian Ocean area. The satellite is designed to address the demands of high-growth service areas, more specifically C-band for Africa/Asia and Ku-band to bridge South-East Asia, the Indian Ocean and the African coast...

International Launch Services (ILS), which provides mission and launch services to the commercial space industry, has successfully carried the W2A satellite to orbit on behalf of Eutelsat Communications of France via a ILS Proton. The Proton vehicle lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome...

Intelsat and SES are advocating VSAT installation training for technicians in both developing and developed countries...

Transmode, a leading Scandinavian provider of optical networking solutions and NEC Corporation have announced global a partnership agreement...

SES New Skies has announced that its NSS-9 satellite has safely arrived at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, onboard an Antonov cargo plane. The NSS-9 spacecraft, manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will now be readied for launch onboard an Ariane 5 booster, scheduled for take off on February 12, 2009. The launch window for NSS-9 onboard Ariane 5 opens at 22:09 GMT time...

Intelsat has entered into a Joint Venture (JV) with a South African investor group led by Convergence Partners that will utilise project financing to build and launch a new satellite into the 33º East orbital location, thereby ideally positioned to serve the African continent...

Intelsat and Sonema, which provides telecommunication services in Europe and Africa, have expanded their current agreement for contracted satellite capacity, whereby Sonema will be able to increase its enterprise services offerings...

Seven GSM mobile networks in as many countries in Africa are to be connected via a VSAT network to be installed by Globecomm Systems. The contract follows Atlantique Telecom's programme of consolidation of its African markets...

The objectives of Connect Africa took a major step forward when the NetHope aid alliance joined the Global VSAT Forum, the African eDevelopment Resource Centre (AeRC) and iDirect in launching an advanced VSAT installation and maintenance training programme in Nairobi this week...

O3b Networks, a start up company is aiming to provide low cost, high speed broadband access to emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East during 2010...

Thuraya's strategy of product innovation has led to a portable satellite terminal with advanced video-streaming capacity. The terminal is aimed at commercial enterprises such as oil terminals, coastguards, media and transport...

Kenyan businesses are to get a new VSAT network to deliver high quality voice, broadband data and video services...