Opinion

Part One: Via Satellite’s Advisory Board Discusses One of the hottest topics at SATELLITE 2017 will no doubt be the future of new LEO constellations and whether they will be […]

Recently, we just finished work on our special 30th anniversary edition of Via Satellite where we looked back at some of the huge changes in our industry between 1986 and […]

The central and vital role of satellite systems in human societies, together with the growth of attacks against satellites, has shown that the security aspects of satellite systems cannot be […]

Readers will appreciate that there is international consensus that space activities need to be managed to minimize debris generation and the risk that debris may pose. This consensus is embodied […]

My dream career in the satellite industry started in March of 1980 at Satellite Communications magazine. In 1980 the industry was in the very early stages of development. Everyone knew […]

The explosion of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster and payload on September 1, 2016, bookended by an outreach campaign from Arianespace showcasing the reliability of its rocket fleet, reminded me of […]

I often marvel at the industry developments that transpired during my 11-year editorial stint at Via Satellite, as both managing editor (1991-1994) and editor (1995-2002). Most of the decade saw […]

My six years as part of the editorial team at Via Satellite (2000-2002 as associate editor; and 2002-2006 as editor) spanned some of the key transformative moments that shaped the […]

I was told early in my journalism education that it’s easier to teach a writer about a topic then to teach a subject-matter expert how to write to a broad […]

I am indebted to Via satellite as it has opened my mind and enabled me to take off the ground and move to another huge space with its constellation, orbits […]

2016 will go down as the year of seismic political change. I am sure when we have a 50 year anniversary edition of Via Satellite (we celebrate 30 years this […]

A basic premise of government regulation in the post-liberalization telecommunications world has been that regulations and government benefits should be technology neutral. This has resulted in a number of benefits […]

I was actually on vacation in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts when the first email alert hit my smartphone that Thursday morning about the SpaceX explosion at the Cape, the […]

Via Satellite recently spoke to Winston Beauchamp, a member of the Senior Executive Service, the deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space, and the director, principal DOD space […]

The Middle East and Africa continues to offer one of the largest addressable markets for satellite broadband. With just 15 percent of African households having internet access, challenging geographies, underdeveloped […]

The recognition that space activities, services and products play a central role in the sustainable social and economic development of states has led to a clear increase in the number […]

On May 19 this year the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that the Zika virus had been detected off the north west coast of Africa for the first time. Tests […]

Over-The-Top (OTT) television has been little short of a phenomenon in recent years. Netflix, for example, was a company that almost no one had heard of a few years ago, […]

There is no doubt that OTT video is growing at a rapid pace. Based on our 2015 ConsumerLab TV and Media study*, 80 percent of teenagers and 30 percent of […]

Over the past several years, including most recently at the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15), the satellite industry has had a run of remarkable success in protecting its spectrum “turf” […]

The Opportunity Perhaps the single most important development for the growing SmallSat industry will be low cost access to space. This will be the game-changing technology that opens up the […]

Lawful interception obligations have again been brought into focus after recent terrorist attacks. What does this mean for the satellite industry and how can data interception impact it?

As winter fades, and Spring starts to set in, one thing you can always guarantee at this time of year is that the satellite industry is in full bloom and […]

What happened at the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) with regard to the study of future bands for 5G services, most notably, the 28 GHz band, has taken center stage […]

Operator of the Year: O3b Networks There is little doubt that O3b had an incredible year in 2015 signing well over 30 deals and cementing itself as one of the […]

I first met Ryan Wallace, Facebook’s technical program manager within Connectivity Deployments, at VSAT Global in London last year. In fact, I interviewed him on stage. Typically, he was on […]

Talk is nice, but as we all know too well, action is what really matters. For example, there have been a lot of good words spoken over the years about […]

In a robust move to encourage investment and support commercial activities for the mining of space resources by U.S. citizens and companies, President Obama signed the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015 in November 2015.

Once again, the satellite industry can breathe a sigh of relief at having apparently dodged a bullet at the most recently concluded World Radiocommunication Conference. While some minor incursions were […]

When is an Astronaut not an Astronaut? - Via Satellite