It seems like a natural progression to bring the Internet to every possible consumer electronics device available today, and the television set is no exception. Not to be left behind, many a DTH provider has provisioned Ethernet ports in the next generation of STBs, although the software and strategy to provide enhanced services may still be a few years away. As expected, North America and Western Europe are leading this market as viewers in these regions become more particular about what content they want as well as where and when they want it.

As noted in my column last month, the program for the recent GVF Oil & Gas Communications conference in Kuala Lumpur included a session entitled Cloud Computing and Future Oil & Gas Industry Networking.  This was the first time the topic of the Cloud had been introduced to any of the GVF-EMP vertical market-focused series of conferences, though not the first time that a Cloud-related topic had been included in one of the GVF’s horizontal-market events – specifically the MENASAT Summit held at the time of the Satellite MENA exhibiti

2010 has been another bumper year for the satellite operators, including the European operators. This is all good news in times where many other sectors are still struggling. However, there is a risk that good times breed complacency. 

IEEE GLOBECOM 2010 recently held its most successful meeting in the conference’s 53-year history with more than 2,500 scientists, researchers and academia attending nearly 2,000 presentations dedicated to the advancement of global communications designed to increase the quality of life worldwide.

Satellite Markets and Research are media partners for the following events where we will be participating as either exhibitors, speakers or session moderators. To book a meeting with Satellite Markets and Research in any of the shows below, e-mail: virgil@satellitemarkets.com 

The opportunities  for satellite communications in Africa has never been greater.  We saw a glimpse of this in June this year during the World Cup finals held in South Africa. The successful holding of the World Cup in South Africa demonstrated to the world that Africa is coming of age in the world’s stage. 

If follow the communications and technology press, you know that the world as you know it is speeding through massive change.  Market shifts, disruptive technologies: it's like driving fast through a small town.  Blink at the wrong moment and you will miss it.

The Brazilian satellite market is booming.   With  the FIFA Soccer World Cup and the Summer Olympics slated to be held in Brazil in 2014 and 2016 respectively,  coupled with a growing economy, demand for satellite capacity is at an all-time high.

There were an estimated 116.3 million broadband subscribers at the end of Q1 2010 in Western Europe. This translated into a 2.4% growth over the quarter. By the end of Q1 2010, broadband accounted for close to 100.0% of all Internet connections in the majority of the countries in the region, compared with around 60.0% in 2005. The number of broadband subscribers is forecasted to have grown by an average of 4.7% to 150 million by the end of 2014. At that time, broadband should account for the totality of Internet connections in all markets, according to research firm Hot Telecom.

Plans to make Britain’s broadband the best in Europe are in danger of stalling as the rural population of the UK falls further behind their city cousins. This was the warning given today by Chief Analyst Tim Johnson of Point Topic   who was speaking at the  NextGen10 conference in Birmingham.