AT&T upgrades 4G LTE cell sites in Anchorage

AT&T upgraded several cell sites located near Fort Richardson, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Eagle River, and Fairview in Anchorage, Alaska. The improved coverage of Anchorage's 4G LTE network is part of AT&T's ongoing 4G LTE rollout.

The AT&T 4G LTE network made its debut in Anchorage back in September 2012. With this recent series of upgrades, the US communications holding company continues to invest in expanding its network and rolling out its new services.

According to reports, AT&T has spent over $115 billion on both operations and the acquisition of spectrum and other assets to improve the Company's wireless and wired networks during the last five years. Its 4G network currently covers 288 million people and will continue to improve. 

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GlobeCast extends capacity agreement with SES in the Americas

Satellite Services and GlobeCast recently announced that they have renewed their deal for the use of transponders on the AMC-1 and NSS-806 satellites of SES.

Because this capacity allows international broadcasters to reach cable headends in both Latin America and North America, GlobeCast will carry on using two transponders of 36 MHz on the AMC-1 satellite at 103 degrees West, and one transponder of 36 MHz on the NSS-806 satellite at the 319.5 degrees East orbital slot.

In a company statement, GlobeCast spokesperson Philippe Rouxel said, “North America remains the largest broadcast market in the world, and Latin America is a critically important element in our international broadcast strategy. For this reason, GlobeCast is pleased to continue its partnership with SES to provide our broadcast clients with optimal coverage of the Americas at a prime orbital location.”

Echoing the sentiments of Rouxel, SES Chief Commercial Officer Ferdinand Kayser said, "We are honoured that GlobeCast has decided to renew our ongoing partnership. The latest capacity agreements illustrate GlobeCast's and SES' shared commitment to deliver best-in-class broadcasting services across Latin America and North America.”

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Globe Wireless, Arimar team up in Italy, Mediterranean markets

Arimar announced that it has signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Globe Wireless to deliver the latter company's products and services to maritime vessels flying the flag of Italy.

The deal will open up the Italian maritime market to the two partner companies. Arimar will serve as the billing agency for Italian flagged vessels equipped with Globe Wireless systems. The two companies will be able to offer improved communication to maritime customers and industries in Italy and the Mediterranean region.

With Arimar's significant knowledge of the Italian and Mediterranean maritime market, Globe Wireless will be able to offer improved services and more innovative solutions to their joint customers.

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Broadcom secures set-top boxes with CRI technology

Broadcom announced that its portfolio of set-top box (STB) platforms are now protected by differential power analysis (DPA) countermeasures developed by Cryptography Research (CRI.)

CRI has licensed Broadcom to deploy the former's advanced security measures. CRI technology lets broadcasters expand their services and premium content delivery methods for multi-screen and Internet-based TV experiences while also ensuring their security.

Broadcom now offers CRI-developed DPA and developed countermeasures that will defend sensitive systems such as bank cards, mobile devices, and pay television systems against attacks. The Company is further offering more than 60 patents that provide countermeasures against DPA attacks.

According to Paul Kocher, the President and Chief Scientist of CRI, Broadcom is the first set-top box SoC manufacturer to offer DPA countermeasure technologies in its solutions. Broadcom will play an important role in the protection of pay-TV ecosystems and the delivery of quality content to homes across the world.

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Station711, Inmarsat integrate Crewtalk, FleetBroadband Multi-Voice into one solution

Station711 and Inmarsat have integrated the former's Crewtalk complete onboard voice gateway solution with the latter's FleetBroadband Multi-voice service to create a new communications solution.

The combination of an onboard PBX integrated with a crew prepaid solution boosts the accessibility and efficiency of operational and personal communications by allowing users to access up to nine voice calls at the same time.

The Crewtalk solution was created by Station711 to extend commercial, operational, and pre-paid voice services. It can also allocate different profiles per user and onboard extensions, which increases the flexibility of communications.

The combined Station 711-Inmarsat solution enhances the efficiency of marine vessels by way of the Multi-voice capability as well as the control and management of telephony usage and costs. The seamlessly integrated solution makes sure to route all crew phone calls through the prepaid system from either the PBX extensions or the dedicated voice lines.

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China Puts Beidou Navigation Satellite System in Motion

Xinhua News Agency recently reported that China has launched the state-run global positioning services Beidou Satellite GPS system (BDS) from its Beidou satellite network on Thursday.

BDS is specifically built to deliver navigation, positioning, short-message services and timing in China as well as the Asia-Pacific region. The objective of Beidou is to supply both open and authorized global navigation services internationally come year 2020 and will eventually utilize a total of 35 satellites. The GPS system is managed by the U.S Department of Defense and is offered free of charge to businesses around the world, while the Galileo system of EU plans on charging users.

In a statement, Beidou Spokesman and China Satellite Navigation Office Head Ran Chengqi noted that the Beidou system, also known as Compass, is compatible with other global positioning systems and is designed to deliver a positioning accuracy of ten meters, velocity accuracy of 0.2 meters per second and one-way timing accuracy of 50 nanoseconds.

"We hope industries based on the Beidou Navigation Satellite System will hold 15 to 20 percent of the market share by 2015,” Chengqi told Xinhua News Agency.

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Emcore launches Optiva SatCom

California-based semiconductor materials developer Emcore announced that its has launched a new Optiva Satcom Band RF Fiber Optic Transport System. The development marks the expansion of the existing Optiva Platform by supplementing the technology in adding C, X, Ku, and the newer Ka band transmitter and receiver modules.

The new product is part of the SNMP managed fibre optics transmitter and receivers. According to Emcore, the Optive Satcom used for satellite communications and other microwave applications can support up to 40 GHz of broadband microwave transport, alongside audio, video, data, and ethernet.