SpaceX and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. were the busiest launchers in Q4 2022, with 18 launches each, BryceTech said Tuesday. SpaceX launched 342 vehicles in those missions, and CASC did 27, it said. Next busiest was Russia's Roscosmos, with nine launches, it said. U.S. launch providers had 25 missions in Q4, compared with China's 22, BryceTech said.
Spain approved Globalstar providing terrestrial services over its mobile satellite spectrum, including LTE and 5G compliant services, the satellite operator said Monday. It's the first European nation and the 10th globally to authorize service, it said.
SpaceX's latest request to use the 1.6/2.4 GHz band, this time for direct-to-device service (see 2302080001), "offers nothing new," Globalstar told the FCC International Bureau in a filing Monday. It said, like SpaceX's previous application to use that spectrum, the application "is void of any technical justification, contradicts settled Commission precedent, and seeks to jeopardize critical communications services provided by Globalstar and its partners globally for more than two decades." SpaceX didn't comment Tuesday.
Gogo expects to launch a low earth orbit-enabled aeronautical broadband service in the second half of next year, it said Tuesday, announcing Q4 2022 financial results. It said it still expects to launch its 5G service in Q4 of this year. Revenue was $108.2 million for the most-recent quarter, up 17% year over year, and aircraft online via terrestrial wireless reached 6,935, an 8% increase, said Gogo.
Smartphone makers Motorola, Honor, Nothing, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi are working with Qualcomm to develop smartphones with satellite communication capabilities, leveraging its Iridium-enabled Snapdragon Satellite platform, Qualcomm said Monday. It said Snapdragon Satellite also will expand to other device categories in computing, automotive and IoT. In a note to investors, William Blair's Louie DiPalma said those smartphone makers combined produce about 30% of global smartphone units. He said Android OEM Samsung "is notably absent from the list," but Samsung is very likely to become part of the Snapdragon Satellite group. Last week Samsung announced it was working on satellite connectivity for its Exynos chip.
Hoping to get more life out of its earth exploration satellite service SkySat satellites, Planet Lab seeks FCC International Bureau permission to expand their orbits. In an application posted Monday, it said that could extend the satellite lifetimes by 50% and doesn't create any countervailing harms on spectrum interference or orbital debris mitigation. It asked to operate SkySats 16-21 in orbital altitudes of 345-450 km and SkySat 19 at 345-425 km, rather than the 400-420 for which they are licensed. It also asked to lower the operational range of SkySats 3-15, 20 and 21 to a perigee of 345 km.
Representatives of Amazon's Kuiper repeated the company's case for use of a degraded throughput methodology for gauging interference (see 2302210034) and for a six-year sunset period for protection of earlier-licensed non-geostationary orbit systems, in a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per a docket 21-456 filing Friday.
Satcom operators need to improve their pitch to terrestrial mobile carriers about what role they can play in backhaul, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm blogged Thursday. Satellite operators must focus more on understanding customers’ needs "and be less centered on ‘how cool’ Space and its technologies" are, he said. Satcom's pitch needs to focus on extending broadband coverage and ultimately driving subscriber retention, unlocking new revenue streams, and on cutting mobile network operators' capital and operating expenditures on rural deployments, he said. MNOs are finally interested in satellite opportunities, but satellite operators need to do more to show they can meet MNOs' network requirements, he said.
Satellite maker Terran Orbital received a $2.4 billion contract to design, build and deploy 288 low earth orbit satellites for Rivada Networks, and develop 12 spares, Terran said Wednesday. Deployment of the satellites for Rivada's planned connectivity network could begin in 2025, it said.
Growing demand for satcom terminals could push the marketplace to sales of $15.6 billion by 2030, ABI Research said Wednesday. Driving that is expectations that satellite communications will be more broadly integrated into terrestrial communications networks, it said. ABI said very small aperture terminals are expected to command more than 80% of the market revenue.