ViaSat plans to offer ViaSat Urban Wi-Fi, a satellite Wi-Fi service for cities across Mexico, starting with service this month in Mexico City, it said Monday. It said it will offer speeds up to 100 Mbps, using the company's ViaSat-2 constellation, and roll out to other cities throughout 2019.
Univision and Dish Network -- blaming each other for a blackout (see 1807020030) -- are now pointing fingers at one another about disruption of the remainder of Univision's networks. Univision said Tuesday it had "made every reasonable effort and beyond to reach an agreement." "Given that Dish experienced its worst-ever quarterly subscriber losses after dropping the bulk of Univision’s networks and stations, its unwillingness to recognize the power of Hispanic consumers and the popularity of Univision’s leading news, sports and entertainment programming is bizarre and disappointing," it said. Dish said it "offered to extend our existing agreement so that negotiations could continue without further impacting our customers, unfortunately, Univision refused" and blocked Deportes, Forotv, Tlnovelas and El Rey from its DishLatino. Univision's “content, on the whole, continues to decline in viewership, and as a result, the economics of their proposals do not make sense" even as it sells its direct-to-consumer Univision Now service at a lower price than it wants to charge Dish, the direct broadcast satellite operator said.
Iridium and Japanese handheld radio-maker Icom will partner on a global push-to-talk-only radio handheld. Iridium said Friday the satellite-based radio is to target remote workers, first responders, the military, nongovernmental organizations and others needing real-time communications in areas lacking ground infrastructure. It said it expects to launch the offering in 2019.
Dish Network is in a no-win situation in its carriage dispute with AT&T over HBO and Cinemax, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Friday. The blackout (see 1811010016), alongside the ongoing Univision impasse and following others, adds up to a "steady drip, drip, drip of lost programming" and "sends a rather unsettling message" that Dish is gradually getting out of the video business, he said: A prolonged HBO/Cinemax blackout will cost Dish subscribers, but acquiescing to AT&T terms would result in "already unattractive economics get[ting] even more unattractive." Dish didn't comment. Its quarterly earnings call with analysts and the news media is scheduled for Wednesday.
Ligado will partner with Ericsson and Sequans on developing 5G L-band technology for mobile services in North America, it said Monday. Ligado said it and its partners -- focusing on technical issues for developing 5G technology for the satellite component of its planned satellite and terrestrial mobile 5G network -- soon will do 5G demos.
The FTC's $3.95 billion lawsuit against DirecTV is over. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam of Oakland Monday signed off on a stipulation (in Pacer, docket 15-cv-01129-HSG) the litigation is voluntarily dismissed with prejudice and the two sides agree to bear their own costs. The judge in August threw out some of the false advertising claims against the direct broadcast satellite company (see 1808160070).
Non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) annual capacity revenue should hit $4 billion by 2027, as their low latency and high bandwidth per terminal should open the door to new markets to satellite, Northern Sky Research said Tuesday. However, the cost of such constellations is huge and the revenue drivers might not be enough to recoup initial investments, meaning risk of possible price disruptions for the whole satellite industry if NGSOs use capacity to poach customers from legacy operators, NSR said. It said even the constellations that have attracted significant funding lack a clear path to service and operator focus on technology development has to shift to commercialization.
AT&T's DirecTV hopes to launch its T16 multiband satellite in Q1, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing Thursday as it asked for authorization for its launch and operation. DirecTV said T16 will operate initially at 103 degrees west as a replacement to or supplement for the T15, T10 and T12 satellites. It said T16 -- which will operate in the Ka-band, 17/24 GHz band and 12/17 GHz band -- will let it expand HD offerings.
Telesat's Telstar 19 Vantage high-throughput satellite is in commercial service from its orbital slot at 63 degrees west, the company said Monday. The Ku- and Ka-band satellite was launched July 22 from Cape Canaveral and will target consumer, enterprise and mobility markets in the Americas and Atlantic, it said. Hughes signed a 15-year agreement to access Telstar 19 Ka-band capacity for its own broadband satellite customers in South America, and Bell Canada will use the satellite's northern Canada Ka-band capacity for broadband connectivity in the Nunavut territory, Telesat said.
The Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center GPS Directorate delivered the first GPS III satellite to Cape Canaveral, Florida, this week for the start of launch processing, it said Wednesday. Once prelaunch final testing and checkout is completed, the satellite will be loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with launch scheduled for December, it said.