13 September 2018
New use of Ka-Band will also simplify deployments for end users without compromising on speed of connectivity
London, UK, and Brussels, Belgium, September 12, 2018 – A new low-cost satellite broadband service will be launched across Iraq and Afghanistan as SatADSL, a provider of professional VSAT services via satellite, and Talia agreed to expand their long-term partnership.
The two companies’ current agreement lets SatADSL link directly to Talia’s teleport to provide services across the whole of Africa, with Talia’s equipment providing high performance and low-cost per megabit. Under the new deal, SatADSL will also be able to access Talia’s new platform in Jordan Media City, enabling it to offer Ka-band services across Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We are taking our relationship with Talia to the next level by using its facilities to offer our innovative services across Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Caroline De Vos, Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer at SatADSL. “The use of Ka-band High Throughput Satellite capacity, combined with Talia’s equipment means the services we provide can be quickly and easily installed by users and offered at an extremely competitive price, taking a significant step towards bridging the digital divide.”
By connecting its Cloud-based Service Delivery Platform (C-SDP) to Talia’s hub, SatADSL will be able to offer the full range of services available on its platform in Iraq and Afghanistan, including vouchers, VNOFlex, Wi-Fi Hotspots, etc. The C-SDP is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution which enables operators to deliver a full range of satellite-based connectivity services without investing in physical infrastructure. SatADSL expects to have worldwide coverage by the end of the year, further expanding the reach of its C-SDP.
To enable connectivity, Talia uses capacity on the Arabsat 5C Ka-band satellite, located at 20o East. Talia is offering its services based on the Newtec Dialog® multiservice platform which features small VSAT antennas (75cm) on the remote site to create a new lower price point for Internet access and innovative setup guides for self-installation via a smartphone app. A variety of Newtec’s broadband satellite modems have also been deployed, supporting different bandwidth allocations to ensure optimal bandwidth usage. This includes Newtec’s dynamic Mx-DMA technology to achieve the efficiency of SCPC with the dynamic bandwidth allocation of MF-TDMA.
“We see this next chapter with SatADSL as building upon what has so far been a hugely successful partnership in Africa, enabling many developing countries to have access to affordable fast satellite Internet,” said Jack Buechler, VP Business Development at Talia. “Just as in Africa, the services which SatADSL will provide in Afghanistan and Iraq, using our infrastructure will help bridge the digital and economical divide and transform societies for the better.”
SatADSL will showcase its services and the benefits of its C-SDP at IBC 2018 at booth 5.C31. For more information, please see: www.satadsl.net.
About SatADSL
SatADSL (www.satadsl.net) is a satellite Service Provider which designs and offers innovative satellite networking solutions to banks, microfinances, broadcasters, NGOs, Governments, ISPs, telecom operators and other companies in Africa and the Middle East in remote areas or where terrestrial infrastructure is not reliable.
Founded in 2011, SatADSL has already installed more than 3,000 VSAT networks in more than 45 countries. It specializes in providing tailor-made solutions based on customers’ specific requirements and flexible service plans that meet its clients’ budgets.
Through its carrier-grade Cloud-based Service Delivery Platform (C-SDP), which integrates the most advanced technologies, SatADSL provides custom-made networking solutions, tailor-made service plans and value-added services, including hierarchical service control and monitoring, traffic prioritization and online billing and payments, for any frequency band and any access technology.
About Talia
Talia (https://www.talia.net/) is a market-leading teleport, satellite and terrestrial network operator and systems integrator; providing global ICT solutions that allow enterprises to thrive. Our hybrid infrastructure supports international businesses with connectivity wherever and whenever they need it.
With headquarters in the UK, Talia owns and operates their teleport facility in Germany. With international offices across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Europe, North and South America, Talia is ideally positioned to meet the growing demand of today’s global market.
Talia delivers solutions for enterprises, media companies, NGOs, government agencies and many others.
SatADSL
Caroline De Vos
Co-Founder & COO
+32 478 31 13 76
Caroline.devos@satadsl.net
and
Jayne Brooks
+44 1636 704 888
jayne.brooks@proactive-pr.com
10 September 2018
Australia’s ABC has complained about the blocking of its website in China. Access to the website and mobile applications of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have been cut off in China for ten days, said the ABC’s board on 3 September.
The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, which is directly controlled by Chinese President Xi Jinping, confirmed that it has classified ABC as a media “damaging [China’s] national pride” that should be banned.
ABC’s critical coverage of China, especially its publication of a 2017 report denouncing the growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Australia, appears to have triggered Beijing’s recent shutdown of the Australian broadcaster’s service.
According to the ABC, officials at two separate Chinese government departments have declined to specify how the ABC allegedly violated Chinese laws or cite any content as an example. Access to other Australian news websites inside China, including those of Fairfax, News Limited and SBS, appears not to have been affected.
In a statement, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced China’s increasing censorship of foreign media. “Given the Chinese government’s stranglehold on the media, foreign websites such as ABC are the only platforms providing independent information to Chinese citizens,” said Cedric Alviani, director of the RSF East Asia bureau. “By adding ABC to its blacklist, which already counts more than 8,000 domain names, Beijing again demonstrates its commitment to keep Chinese citizens in ignorance.”
According to official sources, over two million people are involved in China’s censorship and internet surveillance effort. The “Great Firewall of China” keeps 800 million Chinese netizens away from a wide range of foreign news websites, including Wikipedia, Radio Free Asia, the New York Times, BBC and Bloomberg News.
China is towards the bottom of the 2018 RSF World Press Freedom Index, ranking at 176 out of 180 countries.
4 September 2018
SatADSL defines itself as a business-oriented company. It is currently present in some forty countries and develops specific solutions for niche sectors, including hotels, microfinance institutions, schools, and rural radio broadcasting companies. Let’s discuss the strengths and strategies of the company with Thierry Eltges, CEO and co-founder of SatADSL.
What are the assets and specificities of SatADSL?
Thierry Eltges: One of our competitive strengths is that we have our own service platform: the Cloud-Services Delivery Platform (C-SDP). This platform allows us to provide an offer that is unique from our competition today: any operator or Internet Service Provider (ISP) can now start a satellite business anywhere in the world and without infrastructure investments. You should know that it takes a small fortune to start such a business and the financial risk is high. Operators or ISPs wanting to start selling their own services have to invest in a satellite hub and enter into a contract to lease satellite capacity for several years.
And the SatADSL C-SDP can offer advantages that other companies cannot match?
Thierry Eltges: First, there is no need to buy expensive equipment. Operators and ISPs who start their business using our services only need to buy satellite terminals that are relatively easy to install and use. You could say that SatADSL assumes the financial risk. Secondly, our C-SDP is connected to several teleport operators. This means that in case of an outage in one operator’s network, we can quickly switch to another operator.
How important is your network of local partner distributors?
Thierry Eltges: This is certainly another of our strengths that sets us apart from our competitors. We actually have two types of partners: on the one hand, we work with a network of distributors ‒ mostly African companies with local VSAT and Internet licenses offering satellite services. They must be able to carry out installations and provide after-sales service themselves. SatADSL invoices the connectivity services – subscriptions or vouchers – to these distributors, who in turn invoice their own services to their end users. On the other hand, we work directly with end-user customers, including European companies active in Africa. We rely on the same network of distributors to do the technical installations, provide the licenses, etc. These distributors invoice us for their services and SatADSL invoices the end-user customer.
What is your strategy for the future of SatADSL?
Thierry Eltges: We will continue to invest heavily in research and development. More than a third of our team is dedicated to innovation and we work extensively with the European Space Agency (ESA). We also want to expand geographically. We already have customers in Africa and the Middle East and we want to go to Asia and South America. This is, by the way, another reason why we invest so much in our C-SDP: we want to be able to provide both global connectivity and multi-technology capacity. It is part of our “horizontal” business model to encourage cooperation with teleport and satellite operators. This model challenges the “vertical” model endorsed by some large satellite operators to the benefit of the end customer, who can enjoy an optimal service at the lowest price.
Does this mean that the satellite capacity available on the market will increase significantly in the coming years?
Thierry Eltges: Absolutely! On all five continents, more and more companies and operators are investing in new satellite technologies. Our goal is to continue developing our C-SDP to make it a truly open platform, including all technologies, satellites, frequency bands and operators. This will allow us to continue providing the best solutions using the best available technologies at the best price. The satellite market is currently undergoing major changes and very large projects are under study. For example, Google wants to launch 800 satellites into low orbit. Facebook also wants to be present in the stratosphere. This involves many different technologies, sometimes even beyond satellite technology. And we need to be ready!
What else can be said about the technological developments?
Thierry Eltges: Until now, geostationary satellites are mostly used as communication satellites. They circle 36,000 km above the Earth’s equator at a fixed position and use spot beams to cover an entire continent. This technology requires very large receiving antennas and powerful antenna amplifiers, leading to very high costs. As a result, the main technological evolution today is to increase the frequency and to narrow the beams with high-throughput satellites (HTS) to 30 to 50 small spot beams, instead of one large spot beam. This technology makes it possible to concentrate power in a limited area and to have more capacity available at a lower price. But there is only room for a few hundred satellites on this specific orbit arc and the orbital positions are allocated to each country depending on its size. This is one of the reasons why several operators are preparing to launch mega-constellations of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, to which our C-SDP will also be able to connect in the future.
3 September 2018
Arqiva, the international satellite and media services provider, has today announced an upgrade of its five-year contract with France 24 to incorporate the launch of a new high definition (HD) channel in the UK.
France 24, an international rolling news channel broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish to 355 million households around the world, has been available to UK audiences in standard definition (SD) in the UK since 2012. The announcement means that UK customers of Sky and Freesat can access its breaking news coverage in HD with immediate effect.
Arqiva will provide its satellite services to deliver the France 24 service to Sky and Freesat through its media facility in Paris. Using state-of-the-art encoding, Arqiva is also helping France 24 optimise the use of satellite capacity for HD delivery.
Alex Pannell, Managing Director, Satellite & Media at Arqiva, said: “The most satisfying wins are undoubtedly those that result from a long-standing, successful relationship with a partner – we are delighted that we can help France 24 with the next phase of its growth.
“Arqiva prides itself on delivering high quality services that are flexible to the specific needs of our customers, and as France 24 reaches more and more audiences in the coming years, we look forward to evolving our proposition with them.”
David Couret, Director of Technical Distributions at France 24 added:“The launch of France 24 HD represents an important step in our journey to bring instant, high quality news and events coverage to UK viewers, and it is crucial to have a trusted partner like Arqiva working alongside us on this project.
“Arqiva helped us launch our first UK SD channel back in 2012, and its reliable service and technical expertise has been critical in helping us to grow in this essential market.”
29 August 2018
Encompass Digital Media has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Babcock International Group’s (Babcock’s) Media Services business. This deal expands Encompass’ scale in EMEA and extends the company’s combined channel play-out, transmission and digital products portfolio while adding international radio distribution to its suite of services.
“Acquiring Babcock’s Media Services business increases our presence in the EMEA region, expands our video services offering, specifically in the live streaming sports arena, and bolsters our collective relationships with some of the most important media companies and public service broadcasters around the world,” explains Chris Walters, Encompass CEO. “We are thrilled to be adding a large number of highly regarded industry professionals to the Encompass team.”
The amount of technical complexity required to generate and deliver content to viewers continues to grow exponentially, and the acquisition of Babcock’s Media Services business represents a continued push to offer end-to-end, highly reliable and scalable services to media companies. With combined resources, Encompass will offer enhanced solutions to capture, process and deliver video content from any source, in any format, to any destination in the most efficient manner possible.
“I am delighted that Babcock’s Media Services business is becoming a part of one of the leading global providers of managed video services. The combination of Encompass’ significant international presence and prestigious customer base, together with Babcock’s growing capabilities in the rapidly expanding live streaming market and our market-leading position serving many of the world’s leading international radio broadcasters, will further cement Encompass’ global reputation as THE provider of choice,” states Nick Thompson, Managing Director of Babcock’s Media Services business.
Encompass has existing facilities in the UK, US, Singapore, Argentina, Latvia and India; this acquisition will grow its operations in the UK and Singapore and add operations in Oman and Ascension Island.
24 August 2018
Effective immediately, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent U.S. government agency that employs thousands of talented journalists, storytellers and media professionals, has been rebranded as the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
USAGM describes itself as a modern media organisation, operating far beyond the traditional broadcast mediums of television and radio to include digital and mobile platforms. In a statement, USAGM said that the term “broadcasting” does not accurately describe what it does. “The new name reflects our modernisation and forward momentum while honouring its enduring mission to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy,” the statement said.
“We recognise the overdue need to communicate the evolving, global scope of our work as well as our renewed, urgent focus on the agency’s global priorities, which reflect U.S. national security and public diplomacy interests. USAGM is an independent federal agency that provides accurate, professional and objective news and information around-the-globe in a time of shifting politics, challenging media landscapes and weaponized information. Our identity and name will now address these realities.
“The decision to change our name was a result of thorough research and extensive consultation with numerous internal and external stakeholders, including the BBG Board of Governors, agency staff and leadership at all levels, the five networks, Congress, the Administration, and interagency colleagues.”
As with the BBG, the U.S. Agency for Global Media encompasses five networks: the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Television and Radio Martí), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN). These networks collectively reach an unduplicated weekly audience of 278 million people in 100 countries and in 59 languages. Insulated by a firewall from political influence, these networks deliver truth and professional journalism to people living in some of the world’s most closed societies.
Concluding the statement, USAGM said: “Now more than ever, people around the world need access to the truth. The U.S. Agency for Global Media continues to tell the truth, and illuminate the world like no other news organisation in the world.”
