The subjects of the oil & gas vertical market and that of High Throughput Satellites are rarely outside the scope of anyone connected with the development and delivery of satellite-based communications solutions these days. Indeed, as you read this column – during, I believe, the first week of December – one of the latest of the GVF-EMP Conference Partnership events covering the first of these subjects has already been successfully concluded, and another, covering the later subject, will be very nearly, or even actually, underway.

CASBAA will kick off 2014 with its first event of the New Year, Philippines in View, taking place on Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at the Edsa Shangri-La in Manila.

“We are happy to be starting off the New Year in the Philippines, one of the most dynamic markets in the Southeast Asian media landscape,” said Christopher Slaughter, CEO, CASBAA. “The country offers vast potential for growth for the multichannel TV industry and CASBAA has lined-up an impressive roster of speakers and guests to examine the business of pay TV in the Philippines.”

AST  announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Wright Satellite Connections, (WSC) based in Wellington, New Zealand, increasing the previous shareholding from 49% to 75%.

WSC provides mobile satellite communication solutions to defence, maritime, civil defence and other organisations for their use around the world, and their strength lies in providing end to end solutions covering, hardware, airtime connections, training, peripherals such as encryption, and after sales care.

Intelsat S.A. today announced that Intelsat Jackson Holdings S.A., its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary  has amended its senior secured credit agreement, which governs its approximately US$ 3.1 billion senior secured term loan facility and $500 million revolving credit facility, effective today.

Increasing popularity and greater airplay of sports such as soccer, golf, tennis, badminton, table tennis and athletics across the region signal a growing appetite among consumers for sports-based programming. To ensure high quality and timely delivery of sports content, businesses are actively exploring broadcasting technologies such as 4K/Ultra HD (UHD), file-based management systems, multi-screen experiences, multi-platform streaming, Nextgen broadcasting, Over-The-Top (OTT) to cater to the burgeoning sports industry in the Asia Pacific region.

As OTT players mature, Voxofon expects accelerating market disruption, more options for consumers. Expect connected devices to integrate even further into the way humans live, work and play, which will accelerate adoption of an ever-expanding array of highly specialized over-the-top (OTT) services and further fragment the telecom ecosystem. These are among the top five predictions for OTT in 2014 issued today by Voxofon, a rapidly growing provider of OTT voice and messaging services.

Voxofon's top 5 predictions for OTT communications services for 2014 include:

Coinciding with the SATCON Satellite Communications Conference & Expo held here November 13-14 at the Javits Convention Center, Teal Group space analysts have identified 3,164 space payloads proposed to be built and launched to earth or deep space orbits between 2013 and 2032. They estimate the value of these satellites and other space payloads at more than US$ 235 billion.

nforma Telecoms & Media, has published new research reporting that telecom network transformation is necessary for operators to remain profitable and provide value for their subscribers.

The telecoms market is experiencing an evolution like no other: Voice revenues are eroding; Web-based and Over-the-Top (OTT) services are cannibalizing the operators’ own services; while total profits in the value chain are dropping. Operators need new ways to counter this erosion and new paradigms to follow in order to remain relevant in the fast-paced, user-driven telecoms market.

At an awards ceremony held on the first day of the SATCON Conference and Exhibition in New York City, the Second Annual Vision Awards announced winners in three categories:   David Hershberg, Founder and CEO of Globecomm Systems won the Visionary Executive of the Year; Advantech Wireless’ SapphireBluTM series High Power Amplifiers won the Innovative Product of the Year and satellite operator Arabsat won the Most Promising Company of the Year.

CommunicAsia2014 and EnterpriseIT2014 is back for another year on 17- 20 June 2014 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, with the spotlight cast on the latest innovative technologies through the entire communications ecosystem. As Asia's largest ICT industry event, CommunicAsia2014 and EnterpriseIT2014 together will feature new elements with three refreshed thematic clusters ‘NXT': NXT Connected Services, NXT Cities and NXT Enterprises.