Max Engel

Every so often, someone points out that a satellite is just a very tall antenna tower – without the tower part. When looked at this way, it is obvious that […]

At SATELLITE 2013, Hughes announced the new Jupiter 2/EchoStar XIX satellite. This satellite will be built by Space Systems/Loral on the SSL 1300 bus and will have 50 percent more […]

In February, the FCC released its third Measuring Broadband America report (MBA report). While previous MBA reports have examined fiber, cable, and DSL connections, this latest report is the first […]

With the success of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, it seems like the age of truly commercial space launch has arrived. But what exactly is a commercial launch? When I worked with […]

It’s always fun to look in my inbox and see what is supposed to be hot in the satellite world. At one point, for example, 3-D video was going to […]

In my last column, I discussed how the cost of providing satellite broadband had fallen to the point where it was thinkable for Dish Network to deploy it broadly to […]

Bloomberg has reported that Dish Network will be offering satellite broadband to its customers sometime this fall. This offering will use EchoStar 17 (previously known as Hughes Network Systems’ Jupiter) […]

I was thinking about the space industry the other day and it occurred to me that things are more complex than they once were. It is not clear to me […]

One of the interesting things about satellite broadband providers like WildBlue or HughesNet, has been the way in which they have formed their very own technological and market niche. As […]

Satellite broadband has always suffered from greater bandwidth limitations than terrestrial alternatives. Even with the new generation of satellites, such as ViaSat’s ViaSat-1 and Hughes Network System’s Jupiter, this remains […]

LightSquared’s plans to deploy a terrestrial LTE network using L-band satellite frequencies was dealt a serious blow by reports that government testing found that its proposed LTE service caused significant […]

I have always liked Iridium, at least the new Iridium that followed the bankruptcy of the original, mobile phone-focused Iridium. One of the things that I have liked most about […]

According to the Satellite Industry Association’s 2011 State of the Satellite Industry Report, satellite equipment sales are up and consumer GPS hardware is singled out as one of the drivers. […]

The world of satellite broadband is about to see the results of a revolution in satellite capacity. In Europe, Ka-Sat is getting ready to enter service. In North America, ViaSat-1 […]

Once again a North American satellite broadband provider has a new owner. Following WildBlue’s acquisition by ViaSat, Hughes Network Systems is being purchased by EchoStar. Is it possible that broadband […]

Satellite radio (specifically Sirius and XM) was created with the idea that such a service could offer more specialized programming than conventional terrestrial radio. A broader range of more specialized […]

As I write this, the biggest news in the mobile satellite world is TerreStar’s bankruptcy. On the long road to the deployment of TerreStar’s ATC network, TerreStar has hit another […]

In this column my focus largely has been satellite services at the consumer level. There is another way to look at this, however, and I was reminded by the recent […]

Ever since the FCC opened the door to the use of satellite spectrum for terrestrial networks, it has seemed like a case of the tail waging the dog. It is […]

Years ago, I did a study on terrestrial versus satellite broadband. At the time, not so long after the failure of initiatives such as Teledesic, it was easy to be […]

When considering commercial space one thinks of satellites. When one thinks about the intersection of commercial space and consumers one thinks of satellite TV, GPS, broadband over satellite and the […]

In the first quarter of 2010, AT&T plans to begin offering Terrestar’s satellite voice service as part of selected AT&T wireless plans, and this may be the time that satellite […]

At the beginning of October it was announced that ViaSat was buying WildBlue. What made this a good idea for ViaSat? What made it worth paying the $568 million needed […]

The DTH sector is doing well, however, the business has two potential long-term problems. These might be seen as bandwidth quantity and offering quality, and both can be addressed through […]

In the commercial satellite world the idea of hybrid networks has become increasingly important. Hughes Network Systems, for example, now sees itself as a network management firm and offers not […]

In my last column, I concluded that direct-to-home (DTH) video was more vulnerable to bad economic times than wholesale video distribution or VSAT services. This month I consider broadband satellite. […]

With the continuing economic collapse, people in every industry are wondering how their particular sector will perform. In the satellite sector, there has been considerable opinion that satellite would do […]

I have discussed the basic business models for direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting (wholesale and retail) and the implications of these models for the structure of the organization that provides them. I […]

In my last column I sketched out the path by which the satellite industry transitioned from one wholly dependent on government and public switched telephone network (PSTN) customers to one […]

Welcome to Satellite Get Personal, a bimonthly column on how the consumer affects — and is affected by — the satellite industry. Why does this matter? Well, according to the […]