Thales Alenia Space will design and build Iridium’s new constellation of low-earth orbit mobile services satellites for $2.1 billion, the companies said Wednesday. French export credit agency Coface issued a promise of guarantee to cover 95 percent of the $1.8 billion credit facility for the satellites, said Iridium. The guarantee offers significant security for lenders and isn’t conditioned on new debt or equity financing, Iridium said. Thales was competing with Lockheed Martin for the contract. Total cost for the constellation, including launch, insurance and ground segments, is about $2.9 billion, the company said. Iridium will pay for the rest of the constellation through its own cash flow.
The FCC said Tuesday it plans to gather data on wireless broadband connections and released a public notice seeking comment on how to do that. The commission also asked for 10,000 volunteers to allow hardware to be installed in their homes to test the actual speed of their wireline broadband connections, in a scientific study to be run by SamKnows Ltd. The regulator still hasn’t decided what it will do with the results and whether they could lead to additional regulation, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin told reporters.
Rocco Commisso, Mediacom’s CEO and controlling shareholder, offered to buy out the company’s public stockholders for $6 a share. He may have trouble raising the bid because the cable operator already carries so much debt, Standard & Poor’s said. Wall Street analysts said the bid seemed low and investors ran Mediacom’s stock price up 17.6 percent Tuesday to $6.27 a share.
Motorola looks to grow its business further by partnering with cities on public safety networks and municipal mobile broadband, said Scott French, vice president of Wireless Mobility Solutions. The manufacturer also plans to make inroads in markets like utilities, transportation and human services, he said in an interview.
SES World Skies successfully avoided signal interference from Intelsat’s stray Galaxy 15 satellite that drifted into SES’s orbital space, both companies said. While the satellite remains within SES’s orbital slot at 131 degrees west, it’s out of range to pose an interference threat to AMC-11, SES World Skies’ satellite in that slot. Galaxy’s expected to exit the AMC-11 orbital space June 7, said Intelsat. Intelsat lost communication with Galaxy in April (CD April 9 p10) and has been unable to keep the satellite from drifting even though its transponders remain active. The companies were concerned the proximity of the two satellites’ active C-band transponders could interrupt service for customers on the AMC-11 satellite.
A combination of legislation and industry self-regulation is the best way to shore up the FCC’s authority over broadband, said AT&T and Time Warner Cable executives. The ISP officials and others condemned FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” proposal in a panel discussion Tuesday co-hosted by the Information Technology & Information Foundation and the Free State Foundation. A technology-based answer by industry would be ideal, said BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker.
An inflection point has been reached in the cable and consumer electronics industries as companies ramp up efforts to provide more online content to video subscribers through their cable connections and via more devices, our survey of executives found. The backdrop is the introduction by Apple of the iPad, increased availability online of content from cable channels, broadcast networks and other programmers, and increasing viewing of video on devices besides TVs. Those factors and cable’s tru2way CE platform mean there likely will be more ways for cable subscribers to view over-the-top content, executives said.
Free Press and Public Knowledge said they're concerned that wireless is getting special treatment in a notice of inquiry about Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” broadband reclassification proposal. That’s based on discussions they've held at the commission and on a notice on the June meeting. Wireless industry representatives had no comment Friday. Meanwhile, AT&T and USTelecom noted that a majority of House members appear to oppose the reclassification proposal.
A recent decision by a federal judge in New York setting the royalties MobiTV is to pay ASCAP for use of songs that are part of the TV programming it distributes over wireless networks has brought a level of certainty to the mobile TV field and should help spur future business deals, MobiTV CEO Charlie Nooney said. “It’s a real watershed moment for the industry,” he said. “It puts mobile in the same category as cable TV or satellite TV, where it should be."
A draft spectrum bill by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., emphasizes that it should be entirely voluntary for broadcasters to give up spectrum. As reported (CD May 27 p10), the bill would codify the National Broadband Plan goals of making 500 MHz of spectrum available over 10 years for wireless broadband, 300 MHz of it within five years, and amend Section 309(j)(8) of the Communications Act to set up incentive auctions under which the government could split auction proceeds with broadcasters that give up spectrum. An eight-page draft we received uses the word “voluntary” and variants of it nine times.