News Analysis

Changing the Way You Buy and Sell Satellite Services

by Howard Farr

London, UK, November 3, 2011--How is the buying and selling of satellite space and managed services changing? Is it purely transactional and becoming more commoditized? Will a no commission, web-based marketplace catch on where the buyer and seller can find each other instantaneously and for a much reduced cost of sale?

Superfast Broadband for 60% of UK customers by 2016

London, UK, November 1, 2011-Broadband analyst firm Point Topic, predicts there will be over 10.5 million superfast broadband lines in Britain within the next five years. With another 4.6 million cable broadband connections this means that almost 60% of broadband customers – and more than half of all homes and businesses – will be using superfast speeds of 30 megabits or more by the end of 2016.

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Mapping is Vital to Future Broadband Investment

Point Topic’s Oliver Johnson to review broadband mapping, the challenges involved and the solutions at ITU Telecom World 2011

London, UK, October 25, 2011--Broadband continues to spread throughout the world’s population, getting faster and benefitting millions, but according to leading analyst firm Point Topic this has also increased the need for accessible and transparent mapping. It is such mapping of take-up, coverage and speeds that highlights to governments and regulators the evident disparities of broadband availability and where investment funds are best spent.

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42 Million Homes Now Watching Connected TV

Boston, MA - October 18, 2011 – The number of homes using the internet to watch television shows and movies on the TV screen has reached more than 42 million across the US and Europe, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics’ Connected Home Devices (CHD) service. The report, “Multiscreen Connected TV: Assessing Device Usage and Ownership,” bases its findings on a survey of 4800 respondents.

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Satellite Interference: The Counter-Offensive

by Martin Jarrold

London, UK, October 7, 2011--As reported in my previous column, for the satellite industry the recent IBC show in Amsterdam kicked-off with a September 8th  pre-event Summit of critical importance to the industry and to the wider satellite communications end-user community – the International Satellite Industry Forum on “Interference - The Counter Offensive”. Much has happened since this Summit, and key aspects of the RFI mitigation agenda set-out in this meeting continue to be explored, explained, and actioned around the world.

How Service Providers May Gain or Lose from the Interactive TV Revolution

New York, NY, October 3, 2011-Few can argue that the traditional business of linear television is morphing. Services are changing – from HDTV to 3DTV – while platforms are multiplying to encompass Internet delivery to the computer or tablet, streaming to the handheld device, download to PVRs, and over-the-top services that embed a Web browser and Internet-delivered content into the familiar TV set. This is the subject of a new report by the World Teleport Association, Future TV and the Teleport.

Vizada Acquisition Prepares Fighting Lines for Next MSS Battleground

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass.,  September 29, 2011- When EADS Astrium announced on August 1 they had purchased Vizada Networks for $960 million, the satellite world was puzzled: why would a satellite manufacturer and mostly government-focused fixed satellite service (FSS) provider buy a mobility centric-business like Vizada? With the Global Xpress contract for three Inmarsat-5 satellites going to rival Boeing, is this deal a way for EADS to get back ‘lost’ revenues? As economic conditions continue to be mediocre at best, is EADS just looking to diversify revenue streams? Whatever the motivation, the EADS acquisition of Vizada Networks begins the saber rattling in the next battle of Ka-band mobility.

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IPTV now Serves more than 50 million Customers Worldwide

London, UK, September 27, 2011--The Broadband and IPTV Growth Report presented at the Broadband World Forum in Paris, shows that broadband continued to show healthy growth in the first half of 2011. Prepared for the Broadband Forum by industry analysts Point Topic, the figures reveal the broadband subscriber total at the end of June 2011 is now standing at 557.8 million subscriber lines, up by over 29M lines since the start of this year. The second quarter outperformed the same period last year, continuing the trend of stronger growth set in the first quarter’s results announced in June. The good news in broadband was compounded with the news that IPTV has passed a milestone: 51M customers now subscribe to IPTV services worldwide, with France in the lead as top IPTV country.

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Mobile Internet Users will Overtake Fixed Users by 2013

Montpellier, France, September 19, 2011--IDATE has just published its “World Internet Usages & Markets” report. This report provides data and forecasts on Internet services markets – usage and revenue, by country and region – and is structured around the following key services: search engines, social networking, e-commerce, video and online advertising, both fixed and mobile. It covers Europe, North America and Asia, and analyses both the major trends in each segment and the market’s key players.

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Samsung and Philips Have Leads in Germany’s Developing HDTV Market

Scottsdale, Ariz., September 13, 2011--While many of the HDTV markets in Western Europe are relatively mature, a trio of surveys from ABI Research suggests Germany still has plenty of room for growth. Of the 1,000 German respondents, only 38% claimed to own at least one HDTV, a penetration rate significantly lower than the data collected in France and the UK. Among these consumers, Samsung captured the highest share at 27%, with Philips following at 22% of respondents.

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