To respond to Hurricane Maria damage in Puerto Rico, Intelsat wants to move its Intelsat 16 satellite from 58.1 degrees west to 76.2 degrees west. In FCC special temporary authority applications (see here and here) Monday, the company said drift would take about two weeks, and DirecTV -- licensed to operate in the Ku-band at 76.2 degrees west -- supports this.
A dual-mission EchoStar 105 and SES-11 satellite was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, EchoStar said in a Thursday news release. The satellite will provide EchoStar with 24 Ku-band transponders of 36 MHz and SES with a C-band payload of 24 transponders, EchoStar said. The satellite will serve EchoStar enterprise, media, broadcast and U.S. government service provider customers across the country, the company said.
Wireless service slowly is being re-established in Puerto Rico, with 78.9 percent of cellsites down Tuesday, compared with 81.1 percent the day before, the FCC said in Tuesday's Hurricane Maria update. It said 18 of the island's 78 counties have no cellsites up, vs. 23 counties. It said satellite cells on light trucks and terrestrial cells on wheels have been deployed. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 60.3 percent of cellsites are out, same as Monday, including 100 percent of cellsites in St. John. The FCC said two Puerto Rico TV stations and nine radio stations are off the air. The FCC said both public service answering points in Puerto Rico are operational as of Tuesday, as are the 911 call centers in St. Croix and St. Thomas, with location information for wireless callers and VoiP callers intermittently available. Meanwhile, Hurricane Nate had "virtually no effect on communications" during the storm or afterward, with no TV or radio stations knocked out of service and one cellsite out in Alabama, the agency said in its update Monday. It deactivated its disaster information reporting system for Nate at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The FCC said it granted an experimental license for Project Loon, led by Google parent Alphabet, to help provide emergency wireless service in Puerto Rico. The project provides coverage through a network of balloons. Loon has consent agreements to use land mobile radio spectrum in the 900 MHz band from carriers in the commonwealth, the FCC said Saturday. “More than two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck, millions of Puerto Ricans are still without access to much-needed communications services,” Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “We need to take innovative approaches to help restore connectivity.”
The growth in satellite-based maritime connectivity means ships are increasingly vulnerable to the same cybersecurity threats that land-based industries constantly face, Northern Sky Research (NSR) analyst Brad Grady blogged Friday. An additional 80,000-plus vessels will get broadband connectivity by 2026, and thus providers of maritime connectivity services increasingly are talking about cybersecurity issues, NSR said. That could set the framework for "a robust industry response," as well as represent potential revenue streams for maritime service providers, NSR said.
SiriusXM is “deeply saddened at the passing of Tom Petty,” said Scott Greenstein, president-chief content officer, in a Tuesday statement. SiriusXM, said Greenstein, had “a long and rewarding creative relationship” with Petty, 66, who died of cardiac arrest Monday in Santa Monica, California. SiriusXM launched its Tom Petty channel in 2015 and its "Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure" show a decade before that, said Greenstein: “Tom was intensely involved in curating and presenting Tom Petty Radio, using his passion and humor to shape one of our most unique music channels. He will be greatly missed but will forever live on through his incredible, timeless music.”
Globalstar and IPmotion are starting a commercial mobile satellite service, Globalstar Japan, that will offer a variety of voice, data, asset monitoring, tracking and emergency capabilities aimed at consumer, enterprise and government customers, they said Friday. They said Globalstar expects to receive type certification to sell a variety of its products in Japan in coming weeks.
Space & Satellite Professionals International is the new name for the former Society of Satellite Professionals, it said Thursday. It said the name change reflects an expanded mission with the satellite industry expanding into new businesses and markets. It also reflects expanded membership, it said, with companies such as Blue Origin, DigitalGlobe, Kymeta, Planet and SpaceX joining in the past year.
Raycom Media and DirecTV signed a carriage agreement that will keep Raycom's 54 stations on the direct broadcast satellite system, Raycom said Wednesday.
The 10 satellites making up Iridium's third Next constellation launch are at Vandenberg Air Force Base and scheduled for Oct. 4 liftoff, the company said Wednesday. The launch originally was planned for Sept. 30 (see 1707280016), but SpaceX required more time for rocket preparation, Iridium blogged last month. Iridium Next eventually will consist of 81 satellites -- 66 in operation, 15 on-orbit spares and six ground spares -- and the October launch will be the third of what eventually will be eight, with the constellation to be operational next year, it said.
High-throughput satellites, non-geostationary orbit satellite constellations and high-altitude platform stations (HAPS) are starting to offer global broadband connectivity and could play a key part in "a truly ubiquitous and affordable broadband ecosystem," reported ITU's Working Group on Technologies in Space and the Upper-Atmosphere Monday. It said advantages of space and upper-atmosphere platforms include wide area coverage, geography agnosticism, ease of deployment and reliability. The group said policymakers need to ensure sufficient spectrum protection for such platforms and globally harmonize spectrum where possible for satellite and broadband HAPS. It recommended "technology-neutral policy making" by regulators and streamlining of satellite and HAPS licensing, urging governments to ensure ITU and other bodies develop HAPS standards expeditiously.