SES

Boeing completed O3b mPower’s preliminary design review, with the completion disclosed on 2018-07-25.

SES currently operates 16 Ka-band O3b satellites in medium Earth orbit and has another four slated to launch next year on a Europeanized Soyuz from Arianespace.

SES’s total number of channels broadcast reached 7,941, a 3 percent annual increase.

The O3b mPower seven-satellite system that Boeing is building for Luxembourg-based SES completed a preliminary design review during the quarter.

Intelsat, SES, Intel, and Eutelsat support a plan to free up 100 megahertz of C-band provided new users cover the cost of migrating customers and lost opportunities.

Companies participating in the outreach event included L3 Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Technologies, OneWeb, SES, Spire Global, Viasat, ExoAnalytic Solutions, and Hawkeye 360.

SES Networks is aiming for its O3b mPower program to reduce the cost per megabit by tenfold, reduce the cost per terminal by fivefold, and increase throughput by at least tenfold.

O3b mPower is a seven-satellite system Boeing is building for a 2021 launch and is designed to offer 10 terabits of capacity.

SES is building seven O3b mPower very-high-throughput satellites with Boeing to provide 10 terabits of capacity for global connectivity services.

mu Space has access to C- and Ku-band spectrum at the 50.5 degrees east orbital slot through a contract with SES for 15 years with an option to extend for another 15 years.

Intelsat, SES, and Intel believe a market-based approach would facilitate new use of the C-band in 36 months or less and that a regulatory mandate would take many years longer to implement.

Intel, allied with Intelsat and SES, indicated that a market-based approach could clear additional spectrum beyond 100 megahertz without taking more time to complete.

The FCC asked whether the 100 megahertz that Intelsat and SES agreed to offer should be an Initial Minimum Spectrum Benchmark.

SES backed the Intelsat and Intel proposal by agreeing to clear only 100 MHz of C-band instead of the full 500 MHz allocated for satellite in the U.S.

SES posted a statement on 2018-06-25 expressing that it was pleased with the positioning of its proposal in the draft C-band NPRM released on 2018-06-21 by the FCC.

The FCC agreed to waive frequency coordination documentation for C-band registrants, a process that typically costs around $700 according to SES.

SES contracted Space Systems Loral to refuel propellant tanks on one of its geostationary communications satellites using a robotic vehicle that SSL plans to launch in 2021.

SSL is setting up an operations center for its geostationary servicing business and preparing to serve its first client, fleet operator SES.

The FCC conditioned SES’s authorization on compliance with a rule requiring satellites outside the geostationary arc not to cause unacceptable interference to geostationary satellites providing fixed data or broadcast television services.

The FCC approval enables SES to triple the next-generation O3b mPOWER fleet for which Boeing is building the first seven satellites in anticipation of a 2021 launch.