SES signed a comprehensive consultancy service agreement with Qatar-based Es’hailSat. The agreement gives Es’hailSat full access “to the technical experience and engineering know-how of SES,” SES said Monday in a news release. SES will support the development of Es’hailSat’s new teleport facility, which will be designed as a modern facility providing satellite control and communications support for the Es’hail 2 satellite, it said. The teleport will be designed to allow significant future growth, “and will feature all major requirements” to provide customers with satellite ground station and platform services, it said.

Thuraya partnered with SOS Children’s Villages to provide satellite connectivity to remote communities in the Central African Republic. The agreement will help the charitable organization connect its programs “as well as coordinate emergency preparedness and response teams within the remote communities they work in,” Thuraya said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/12rQbAr). Thuraya will provide public calling units, broadband terminals, SIM cards and other technology, it said.

Kerrisdale Capital Management again said results of Jarvinian's testing for Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) are inadequate and misleading. Testing by Allion shows that TLPS “could reduce the capacity of nearby unlicensed networks by as much as 60 or 70 percent,” Kerrisdale said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 13-213 (http://bit.ly/1vTP4Vj). Engineering simulations also call into question the actual range of TLPS, it said. Independent simulations demonstrate that TLPS will never be able to match the throughput and capacity of a competently designed network “utilizing the many available 5 GHz band channels available today for free,” it said. Kerrisdale urged the FCC to consider the tests conducted by Allion as it assesses Globalstar’s request.

Intelsat General received an Air Force contract to study the viability of using commercial facilities and operations expertise for tracking, telemetry and command of government satellites. The contract aims to reduce operations and maintenance costs “while enabling the government to meet national security space objectives and warfighter operational needs,” Intelsat said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1DB0nnm). Intelsat General will partner with Braxton Technologies to do the study, it said.

ViaSat offered higher capacity to its Exede In the Air service for executives, charters and others who rely on general aviation jets. The service is similar to the Internet in-flight service available on JetBlue and United Airlines, it said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1wk0cZA). “Flight tests have validated multiple devices simultaneously using high-bandwidth applications,” like multisite videoconferencing, social media, and live streaming of HDTV and movies while switching between Ku and Ka satellites, it said.

The Intelsat 30 satellite launched successfully last week. It was launched on an Ariane 5 vehicle, Intelsat said (http://bit.ly/11E79vb). The Ku-band payload is designed to provide distribution services for DirecTV Latin America, and the C-band portion “enhances Intelsat’s existing C-band service infrastructure serving Latin America,” it said Thursday. The satellite will be co-located with Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C satellite at 95 degrees west, it said.

ViaSat is offering a Ka-band terminal with a tail-mounted antenna designed to deliver Ka-band mobile services for general aviation. The Aero Mobile Terminal 5230 will service large-cabin business aircraft, ViaSat said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1xWnLIX). The terminal will help provide an "office in the sky" experience with high-speed Internet and virtual private networks, it said. Ka-band coverage for general aviation can meet the demand for high-volume, on-board data consumption and transmission, "including numerous wireless devices running high-bandwidth applications simultaneously," it said.

Inmarsat is delivering beyond line of sight communications to deployed U.S. and coalition forces through its partners and the capabilities of its Inmarsat-4 satellite constellation, it said. The L-band Tactical (L-TAC) Satellite service augments ultra high-frequency capability, Inmarsat said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1pLSFyg). It fully enables interoperable satellite communications using existing radios, waveforms and cryptography, it said. L-TAC also will support the civil government market for things like emergency response and border protection, Inmarsat said.

ViaSat demonstrated 1 Mbps throughput over the LightSquared SkyTerra-1 satellite to a small terminal less than 8 x 5 x 2 inches. The delivery occurred in both fixed configurations and mobile applications at speeds up to 65 miles per hour, ViaSat said Tuesday in a news release. The waveform was delivered as part of the ViaSat L-band Managed Service, it said. Receiving 1 Mbps with a small mobile terminal “creates an opportunity to address unserved and underserved mobile market segments,” it said.

Intelsat renewed its contract with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service to deliver radio and TV programming to military forces around the world. Under the contract, Intelsat General provides a global distribution network that delivers multichannel, broadcast quality programs, Intelsat said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/ZOEdQj). The service reaches more than 200,000 people using 307 MHz of bandwidth carried over 9 satellites, 6 teleports and an Intelsat terrestrial network, it said. The original contract was signed in 2011, with six one-year renewal options, Intelsat said.