Connectivity

Poland’s flagship air carrier LOT Polish Airlines awarded Viasat a contract to provide in-flight connectivity for 15 Boeing aircraft in its fleet. This marks the first time LOT will offer in-flight Wi-Fi.  Viasat will equip 15 aircraft in LOT’s wide-body Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliner fleet with Ka-band IFC as part of a major upgrade...

IoT provider Soracom has integrated Skylo’s satellite connectivity in its IoT network. Qualified customers around the world can now activate Skylo connectivity on their Soracom SIMs/eSIMs to allow the devices to switch between cellular and non-terrestrial network (NTN) connectivity.  Soracom CTO and co-founder Kenta Yasukawa announced the update at Soracom Discovery 2024 Japanese IoT conference...

SES has signed a new broadcast deal in Germany. It has extended its partnership with RTL Deutschland which will see SES deliver a wide range of TV channels to audiences across Germany and Austria until the end of the decade. RTL Deutschland’s TV offering will also continue to be available on HD+, SES’s HD satellite...

EchoStar Corporation has opened a new Open RAN (O-RAN) testing and evaluation lab at the company’s data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The the Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) is a site where vendors can test and validate O-RAN solutions using EchoStar’s live O-RAN network. The facility was supported by a $50 million...

International mining company Barrick Gold is using a Fleet Space Technologies solution for copper exploration at its Reko Diq project in Pakistan. Barrick Gold is using Fleet Space’s ExoSphere product to generate 3D subsurface maps to find zones of interest for copper mining. ExoSphere combines Fleet Space’s satellite network in Low-Earth Orbit and seismic sensors...

Eutelsat has won a new broadcast deal in Poland, one of Eastern Europe’s biggest markets. TVN Warner Bros Discovery, the Polish subsidiary of Warner Bros Discovery, has signed a new, multi-year, multi-transponder agreement renewing and expanding the group’s capacity at Eutelsat’s Hotbird video neighborhood. Eutelsat announced the deal, July 8. TVN Warner Bros. Discovery will...

SpaceX now has more than 100 direct-to-cell satellites in orbit after a July 3 Starlink launch.  SpaceX launched the first Starlink sats equipped with direct-to-cell capabilities in January of this year and has quickly ramped up to more than 100. These satellites are designed to communicate directly with unmodified cell phones to provide service outside...

Indian space startup Dhruva Space and Kinéis have signed a joint technological and commercial partnership to bring the French IoT company’s connectivity to India.  Dhruva Space will provide Kinéis IoT services in India once the service is launched and develop new applications and services tailored to the Indian market. Dhruva Space will also develop and...

Measat has signed a new broadcasting deal with one of the India’s largest media companies. Sun TV Network will have its 37 channels broadcast via the Measat-3D satellite. These channels broadcast in seven languages, will reach over 140 million households in India and extend to audiences in the Asia Pacific, Europe, and Africa. Measat announced...

Amazon is pushing back the first full launch for its Project Kuiper constellation to the fourth quarter of 2024, the company announced Thursday. Amazon previously said it would start launching the constellation in the first half of this year and to start customer pilots this year as well.  Amazon said the timeline of customer pilots...