Commercial passenger air travel is booming in Asia, and air carriers -- trying to entice customers to pay for in-flight connectivity -- could see some success by first providing such service for free, Northern Sky Research analyst Claude Rousseau blogged Tuesday. NSR said Asia will dominate in-flight connectivity demand growth over the next decade, with 20-plus airlines having installed the satellite-based systems. NSR said more than 1,000 in-service passenger jets likely will be offering such connectivity by year-end, reaching 5,400 over the next 10 years.
Hispasat's Amazonas 5 satellite was launched into orbit Tuesday on an ILS Proton rocket, ILS said. The SSL-built satellite has a high-throughput Ka-band payload and will be used for broadband delivery in Central and South America and Mexico, and a Ku-band payload to be used for TV and other telco applications in Central and South America, it said.
EchoStar's EchoStar III satellite, which suffered communications problems after an anomaly in July (see 1708030037), was recovered and retired, the company and manufacturer Lockheed Martin said Wednesday. EchoStar said a command and control link was re-established and deorbit maneuvers performed, putting the satellite in a graveyard orbit more than 350 kilometers above the geostationary arc. It also said EchoStar III's fuel and pressurants have been depleted, its batteries drained and its systems shut down. The satellite was launched in 1997.
Raycom is again temporarily extending its DirecTV carriage agreement (see 1708310058), now through Sept. 12, to ensure 4 million local subscribers have access to Raycom stations through Hurricane Irma and as Harvey recovery efforts continue, it said Tuesday.
The first voice call employing nano-satellite technology was made, Sky and Space Global (SAS) said Tuesday. The U.K. company said the three smallsats, launched in June, also demoed the ability to facilitate text messaging and exchanges of voice recordings and images. SAS said with validation of its narrowband communications services, it will focus on building its planned 200-satellite constellation, to be fully deployed by 2020.
Intelsat's 37e satellite, its fifth high-throughput EpicNG constellation satellite, is scheduled to launch Tuesday on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, the company said Wednesday. The C-, Ka- and Ku-band satellite will serve broadband, mobility and government customers in the Americas, Africa and Europe, it said.
Alaska Airlines plans to install Gogo's 2Ku in-flight connectivity offering on its Boeing and Airbus fleet, Gogo said in a news release Tuesday. It said the 2Ku service will be installed on AA's Boeing 737s starting in the first half of 2018, with the AA fleet -- including Virgin America, which AA bought in 2016 -- to be fully satellite-equipped by early 2020.
Total global revenue for the commercial satellite ground segment should top $158 billion between 2016 and 2026, Northern Sky Research said in a news release Monday. It said satellite TV set-top boxes and antennas will remain the biggest source of shipments and revenue, but that the biggest driver of growth will be very small aperture platform modems and baseband equipment driven by such industries as mobility and consumer broadband. NSR also said applications like aeronautical satcom should see big growth, while satcom earth stations will shrink. NSR said low-end antennas are becoming a commodity, while flat panel antennas could be a disruptive technology for segments of the market.
Blockchain technology company Blockstream will start routing bitcoin transactions via satellite, CEO Adam Back blogged Tuesday. He said the service, using a geosynchronous satellite network, will allow free global access to the bitcoin network and is a step to eventual mass adoption: "For Bitcoin to be truly transformative, it must be everywhere, available for everyone."
Communications with EchoStar III have been intermittent since an anomaly last week while it was moving to a new orbital location, said a news release Wednesday. It said the Ku-band satellite was launched in 1997, significantly exceeding its 15-year design life. The company said it's working with the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, to re-establish a reliable link, to recover and retire the satellite, and it shouldn't pose a significant risk to other geostationary satellites.