News Analysis

London, December 15, 2011--British consumers are gaining an appetite for superfast broadband services, says analyst firm, Point Topic. This latest research reveals that the UK broadband market has shrugged off talk of a double-dip recession, to deliver its best third quarter since 2008.The UK market added a net 289,000 broadband lines during the third quarter of 2011, markedly better performance than in the previous quarter with 240,100 lines, bringing total broadband lines in the country to over 20.4 million by the end of September 2011. This is up 6.4% on 19.2 million a year ago.

by Elisabeth Tweedie, Associate Editor

London, December 14, 2011--Europe has certainly delivered more than its share of headline grabbing news this last year.  Most of it very negative and focused on the economic problems of some its member states.  In the satellite world while attention is being given to teleport consolidation and the potential impact on Satcoms resulting from troop withdrawal from the Middle East and Afghanistan the major headlines have centered around two topics: Navigation and Broadband.  On the whole the news has been more positive, even if laced with a hefty dose of skepticism at times.

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., December 13, 2011--NSR's annual review of the government and military satellite market shows the industry stands to continue revenue gains until 2020 but will need to provide higher level solutions for less cost, and via a host of new procurement methods. The shaky global economy as well as increasing budget pressures within countries that have driven market growth over the past 10 years, notably the United States, are at the core of future procurements and in choosing the solution mix over the long term.

Dublin, Ireland,  December 6, 2011- The telecoms industry is currently involved in a massive transformation. Since the arrival of the internet, the focus of the industry has moved from providing defined end-products to becoming a facilitator in the development of a range of new products, companies, and indeed new industries, according to a new report by Research and Markets.

Geneva, Switzerland, December 5, 2011--Television might well be the world’s most universal technology. Almost the entire surface of the planet now has TV signal coverage, with television sets in over 1.4 billion households worldwide, representing 98% of dwellings in developed countries and nearly 73% in the developing world.

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., November 30, 2011-- A quick look at the supply numbers seems to indicate that the previously hot satellite market in Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to become an oversupply fiasco for the FSS industry. During the run up of the African market, satellite operators of every stripe decided to launch new capacity into the region with NSR estimating over 300 TPEs of new and replacement C- and Ku-band capacity will be launched in the coming two years for Sub-Saharan Africa alone. The slew of satellites includes ABS-2, Africasat-1a, Amos-4, Amos-5, Apstar VII, Arabsat 5C, Astra 2E, Astra 2F, Astra 2G, Atlantic Bird 7, Badr-7, Intelsat 20, Intelsat 22, NigComSat-1R, SES-4, SES-5, Thaicom-6, W3C, W3D, W5A, and Yamal-402.

Washington, D.C. November 18, 2011--The  Global VSAT Forum (GVF) has launched a global campaign to assure that communications customers will continue to have unfettered access to Ka-Band spectrum for delivery of state-of-the-art consumer, government and enterprise solutions. The centrepiece of the campaign is the “White Paper for National Regulators on Satellite Services in the Ka-Band.” The GVF’s Regulatory Working Group (RWG) finalized the White Paper in preparation for the International Telecommunication Union’s 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WARC), where the world’s governments will meet in Geneva, Switzerland to consider how best to allocate and manage spectrum in all three of the ITU’s Regions.

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.

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.