The satellite industry may be economically smaller than its mobile counterpart but it is becoming increasingly important in discussions of spectrum policy. One example is the tens of thousands of new non-geostationary satellites that operators are launching to target new or underserved markets. The ITU-R Director-elect, Mario Maniewicz, told us in… Read more...

A legal ruling is expected any day now in the UK instalment of the long-running Viasat/Inmarsat battle over MSS spectrum. It all turns on the most confusing word in the english language... Whether it's fair and fare, maid and made or band and banned, we often find ourselves stumbling over… Read more...

This week we reported ViaSat's criticisms of Inmarsat being allowed to deploy an in-flight broadband service in the 2 GHz spectrum reserved for EU mobile satellite services (MSS) nearly ten years ago. The pending court case will tell us if these criticisms amount to legal wrongdoing, but the real issue is… Read more...

When the Commission tried to encourage a pan-European paging market by setting aside the 169.4-169.8 MHz under the European Radio Messaging System, or ERMES, how could they have known that SMS was about to take off. The spectrum stayed very much set-aside for about 15 years while the legislative process… Read more...