China successfully launched the Simon Bolivar satellite for Venezuela last week, Chinese and Venezuelan media reports said. The craft, also known as Venezuela 1 and Venesat 1, was built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. Venezuela paid more than $400 million for the craft and ground systems. The Venezuelan government will use the satellite to bring rural areas communications services, including telephony, broadcasting, tele-education and telemedicine, officials said. Uruguay will use 10 percent of the craft’s capacity in exchange for its orbital slot. The Simon Bolivar satellite is undergoing on-orbit testing. The Venezuelan Science and Technology Ministry expects to begin offering satellite-based telephony Dec. 20. Venezuela plans to launch its second satellite in 2013.
Exports to China
Broadcom names Arthur Chong, ex-Safeco, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary… Edward Evans, Stelera Wireless, joins Neutral Tandem board… New Community Broadcasters Association officers: Kyle Reeves, My Town TV, president; Gregory Herman, WatchTV, vice president, technology; Amy Brown, executive director & secretary; Ronald Bruno WBGN-TV Pittsburgh, treasurer… New World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly ITU-T study group leaders: Marie-Therese Alajouanine, French regulatory authority, study group on service definition, numbering and routing and disaster telecom; Ki-Shik Park, South Korea, study group on tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues; Ahmed Zeddam, France, study group on protection against electromagnetic environment effects; Charles Sandbank, U.K., study group on cable; Wei Feng, China, study group on signaling; Charles Dvorak, AT&T executive director of standards, study group on performance; Chae-Sub Lee, South Korea, study group on future telecom networks; Yoichi Maeda, Japan, study group on network transport and optical technology; Yushi Naito, Japan, study group on multimedia terminals, systems and applications; Arkadiy Kremer, Russian Federation, telecom security study group.
China plans to launch Venezuela 1 Thursday, state media reported, citing a spokesman with the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Prospects are bright for building under an Obama White House on successes by supporters of Carterfone, net neutrality rules and open spectrum for wireless broadband, leading activists said. Groundbreaking changes probably will come Nov. 4 with the arrival of a friendly national administration and FCC white- space rules, said President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project Tuesday at an open-wireless conference of Google and the New America Foundation. “Policy makers are ready to listen,” he said: “There’s likely to be a very receptive environment going forward.”
By 2012 more than 400 million mobile subscribers worldwide will have used mobile ticketing services, Juniper Research said. By 2013 gross mobile ticketing transaction value will reach $92 million, with more than 80 percent of the total in the Far East and China, Western Europe and North America, it said. Travel and transportation will lead mobile ticketing, followed by entertainment and sports, it said. Bar code reading issues and absence of reader infrastructure and handsets are the challenges, it said.
By 2012 more than 400 million mobile subscribers worldwide will have used mobile ticketing services, Juniper Research said. By 2013 gross mobile ticketing transaction value will reach $92 million, with more than 80 percent of the total in the Far East and China, Western Europe and North America, it said. Travel and transportation will lead mobile ticketing, followed by entertainment and sports, it said. Bar code reading issues and absence of reader infrastructure and handsets are the challenges, it said.
China Mobile Monday posted a 26 percent rise in Q3 net income, helped by steady subscriber growth and growth in its data services. The carrier’s subscriber base totaled 436.12 million as of Sept. 30, up from 414.59 million a year earlier. It added 7.25 million users in September and 7.18 million in August. The Chinese economy is feeling effects of the U.S. financial crisis, reflected in China Mobile’s results, said analyst Steven Liu of DBS Vickers.
GENEVA - Countries have geared up for negotiations on a range of telecom and Internet issues at the quadrennial World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in Johannesburg, South Africa. Key topics during the Oct. 21-30 assembly include strengthening resolve to bridge the standardization gap (CD Oct 17 p6), possible new work on communications technology and climate change, accessibility and ways to identify new areas for standardization.
EchoStar is weighing its options for the Loral-built CMBStar satellite, including deploying it in the U.S. for mobile services, President Dean Olmstead told us Wednesday at the Content and Communications World Expo in New York. CMBStar, which EchoStar was to own as part of a Hong Kong joint venture, was scheduled launch late this year to deliver mobile satellite services in China, but EchoStar suspended construction in April pending a review of the satellite’s performance. EchoStar was to lease transponder space from China’s Administration of Radio, Film and Television. It also made a $40 million investment in Chinese mobile satellite service provider TU Media.
More than 250 CE executives attended an HD Radio Development Forum hosted by iBiquity Digital in China on the eve of last week’s Hong Kong Electronics Fair, the developer said. It was iBiquity’s sixth training session there, aiming to bring together makers of HD Radios or components used for them, the licensor said. More than 500,000 HD Radio receivers have been sold to date in the U.S., where 1,750 AM and FM stations broadcast digitally and 80 HD Radio products are for sale at 14,000 retail and online outlets, a spokeswoman told us Tuesday. More than 1.5 million HD Radio chipsets have been shipped to module makers. Design work is under way on new modules that would decrease the digital radios’ size and power consumption, iBiquity said. It’s now offering a reference platform for a new low-cost, USB-powered HD Radio product and for a battery-powered portable.