Skylo's direct-to-device partnership with Google for emergency messaging capabilities for the Pixel 9 phone (see 2408130067) could be the first of many for Skylo, which already has chip partnerships with Qualcomm, Samsung and Mediatek, William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma noted Wednesday. While Viasat is one of Skylo's main partners, the Pixel 9 partnership isn't material for Viasat, he said. For the Pixel 9 service, Skyo is largely layering direct-to-device connectivity atop Viasat's existing L-band network, he said.
Viasat ended its FY 2025 Q1 with 257,000 U.S. broadband subscribers, the company said as it announced earnings Wednesday. The number marked a notable drop from the 603,000 it had in 2020 -- the last time it reported that number, space consultant Tim Farrar posted Wednesday on X. "Between the emergence of Starlink, Viasat's delays with bringing new capacity online, and the 90% failure of ViaSat-3 F1 due to a botched antenna, this really was a perfect storm that sent consumer broadband subscribers packing," Quilty Space analyst Caleb Henry posted on X. Viasat said it ended the quarter with 3,750 connected aircraft customers, up 16% year over year, and a contracted backlog of another 1,460. In an earnings call with analysts, CEO Mark Dankberg said Viasat expects it will have 4,200 connected aircraft in service by the end of the fiscal year. Asked about the company's aims in direct-to-device service, Dankberg said it already supports emergency location and signaling devices and similar chips will be rolling out soon in handsets. President Guru Gowrappan said Viasat expects FY 2025 revenue will be flat compared with FY 2024's $4.5 billion and would have been up a handful of percentage points if not for the expected decline in U.S. fixed broadband associated with the ViaSat-3 F1 antenna anomaly. Viasat announced this week that the satellite began offering commercial service (see 2408050002). Dankberg said the company expects it can access about 10% of the satellite's capacity. He said when the other two ViasSat-3 satellites are launched, they will deploy to cover the Americas and East Asia and the impaired one will move to cover the Middle East and Africa. William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma wrote Thursday that while aviation and government customer revenue remains strong, SpaceX's Starlink is pressuring Viasat in residential and maritime.
A case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Consumers' Research, et al. v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, potentially has major implications for the FCC and FTC, and could permit a president to fire a commissioner at will, industry lawyers said. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups are asking SCOTUS in amicus filings to grant the writ of certiorari from Consumers' Research.
Ligado Networks and GCT Semiconductor said on Tuesday GCT’s Luna Cat-12 LTE module is FCC-certified and commercially available. "The module is a foundational technology for a new ecosystem of commercial devices operating on LTE Band 54 spectrum at 1670-1675 MHz,” the companies said. The band “stands out as a highly distinctive mid-band spectrum resource for the utility and enterprise segments,” standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and offering a 5-MHz time division duplex block “available nationwide,” said Sachin Chhibber, Ligado chief technology officer: “Licensed spectrum assures availability and enhances security to enable more robust and secure private networks.”
Regulatory action overseas increasingly is chilling competition from U.S. tech firms while hurting American consumers, regulatory and trade policy experts said Tuesday during an American Consumer Institute (ACI) panel discussion focused on EU regulations and tech competition with China. Legislation like the EU's Digital Services Act and AI Act subjects U.S. firms to "aggressive" investigations and allegations of competitive harm, said Tirzah Duren, ACI vice president-policy and research.
Thomas Earnest, previously Matterhorn Legal, joins Mintz as member-corporate practice, for clients including technology, videogaming and digital media ... Sivers Semiconductors appoints Vickram Vathulya, ex-Nuvotronics, as president-CEO, succeeding Anders Storm, effective Aug. 19... Data solutions company Somos appoints Kayla Gardner, ex-Google, as director-public policy and government affairs and expands role of Joel Bernstein to vice president-head-U.S. public policy and government relations ... Sophos hires Teresa Anania, ex-Zendesk, as chief customer officer ... Cybersecurity company Blumira hires Marc Davis, previously Davmar Consulting, as channel development leader.
U.S. research and development performed by the semiconductor and other electronic components manufacturing industry reached $47.4 billion in 2021, an increase of 9.8% over 2020, the National Science Foundation said Tuesday. California accounted for $23 billion, or 51% of the total, Oregon for 15% and Arizona and Texas each had 8%, NSF said. Idaho and Massachusetts accounted for 3% each of the total.
Skylo Technologies sees a substantial market for satellite-connected IoT devices, Tarun Gupta, Skylo co-founder and chief product officer, said Thursday. Adding satellite coverage to terrestrial service “will really remove the borders of connectivity” and mean no one should worry “do I have coverage here or not?” Gupta said during a Mobile World Live webinar on non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). Other speakers said use cases for NTN are already emerging.
Officials with the 12 GHz for 5G Coalition remain hopeful that FCC action in coming months will allow use of the lower 12 GHz band for fixed-wireless deployments, they said in interviews. In addition, should the FCC act soon, the band could still play a part in some state proposals under the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, the officials said. The coalition had hoped for action early in 2024 (see 2312270045).
The EU isn't on track to meet its 2030 digital transformation targets, the European Commission said in its second report on the state of the digital decade. It found gaps in investment at EU and national levels in digital skills, high-quality connectivity, AI take-up and data analytics by enterprises, semiconductor production and startups. The report pressed EU governments to "be more ambitious," saying reaching digital decade goals is critical for the bloc's continuing prosperity and social cohesion. In addition, the report found 5G networks reach just 50% of the EU's territory and don't perform well enough to deliver advanced 5G services. Other concerns include European companies' uptake of AI, cloud and/or big data are well below the target of 75%, and that the spread of digital technologies is limited outside big cities. Moreover, the report noted, digital skills targets "are still far from being achieved, with only 55.6% of the EU population having at least basic digital skills." EU members have until Dec. 2 to adjust policies to align with the targets of the digital decade program.