The satellite manufacturing sector will experience steady growth in the coming decade, although a fallout from the extended and slow economic recovery will see the number of satellites in the near future drop significantly by almost 10 percent, according to a report entitled "Global Satellite Manufacturing: The Impact of Evolving Trends" by Frost and Sullivan.

In a previous article I referred to the operational deployment of naval and naval auxiliary forces in "non-conflict" roles and within "non-conflict" environments – across multiple and varied geographic theatres – particularly during times, and against a general backdrop, of "international peace." Specifically, such deployments include fisheries and oil/gas installation protection; human trafficking and narcotics trade interdiction in home waters; international sea lanes security; emergency food aid distribution in drought/famine-struck regions; and, similar types of task for which nava

In December 2009, VT iDirect, Inc. (iDirect), a company of VT Systems Inc (VT Systems), announced that SpaceCom International deployed a GSM cellular backhaul service based on iDirect’s satellite communications platform to rural sites in Afghanistan with immediate plans to expand throughout South and Central Asia. The company said further that the initial deployment in Afghanistan results in significant bandwidth cost savings for GSM operators.

Why Afghanistan?

The satellite industry, or at least the overwhelming majority that were still in business or were still employed at the start of the new year, breathed a collective sigh of relief for having survived 2009--one of the worst years since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The industry can take heart that not only has it survived 2009--it has gone through an entire decade in a better position than it started.

The Society of Satellite Professionals International released December 17, 2009 the results of its first member survey. The report, "The Satellite Industry Workforce 2009," reveals some surprising and a few not so surprising results based on responses from SSPI members around the world.

Key findings of the report, include:

· The satellite industry is not a "graying" business. The age distribution of satellite professionals is remarkably even, with 43% of respondents between the ages of 18 and 39 and 80% of respondents under the age of 54.

With the introduction of digital TV a new way of video transport and delivery has emerged, using the Internet Protocol (IP). Video over IP is a general term to describe the use of IP in any or all stages of video transport to the subscriber (or end-customer). This has to be distinguished from the term IPTV, which means specifically the delivery of video as an IP stream to the subscriber set-top box or TV set. All digital video today that is broadcast, transported over satellite or distributed in cable systems is using the MPEG transport stream (TS) communications protocol.

My previous column for this publication focused on the oil and gas exploration and production sector, with particular reference to the increasing attention of the energy industry on deepwater and ultra-deepwater hydrocarbon reserves which now appear to be much more abundant than was thought ten years ago.

 The Asia-Pacific IPTV subscriber base is expected to grow by 51 percent in 2009 to close at 9.4 million users and account for 37.6 percent of the global subscribers.

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) revealed at their annual conference held in Hong Kong November 3rd, new data for subscription TV penetration across the Asia Pacific, noting that the region now has 326 million pay-TV in 2009, up 26 million homes from last year.

According to CASBAA estimates, , subscription television in Asia Pacific now reaches more homes than the rest of the world (ROW) combined. Digital pay-TV subscription households now account for over 115 million homes.

ITU’s latest statistics, published in The World in 2009: ICT facts and figures, reveal rapid ICT growth in many world regions in everything from mobile cellular subscriptions to fixed and mobile broadband, and from TV to computer penetration - with mobile technology acting as a key driver.