Page 45 - SAMENA Trends - September 2019

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Eutelsat 5 West B Delivered to Baikonur Cosmodrome for Pre-Launch
Preparation

Eutelsat Communications announces the safe arrival of EUTELSAT
5 West B at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where
it is due for launch on a Proton Breeze M rocket on September
30, overseen by International Launch Services. Built by Airbus
Defense and Space and Northrop Grumman, EUTELSAT 5 West
B will serve video markets in Europe and North Africa from the
key 5° West orbital position where it will replace the EUTELSAT
5 West A satellite, providing business continuity and improved
service quality via a Ku-band payload of 35 equivalent 36 MHz
transponders. As part of a long-term agreement signed in 2017
with the European GNSS Agency (GSA), EUTELSAT 5 West B
will also host the GEO-3 payload of the European Geostationary
Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS), used to improve the
performance of global navigation satellite systems such as GPS
and Galileo.

Eutelsat Statement on C-Band Alliance

Eutelsat announces its withdrawal from tasked with the clearing and repurposing direct active part in the discussions on
the C-Band Alliance (“CBA”), which has of C-band spectrum to make a portion of C-band clearing and repurposing.
been formally notified to the CBA members. this band available for 5G services in the
As a reminder, the CBA is an organization United States. Eutelsat wishes to take a

Facebook Buys Brain Control Start-Up

Facebook struck an agreement to acquire CTRL-labs, a start-up that develops Facebook’s AR and VR unit, confirmed the deal in
software for controlling computers by thought and movement, in a move aimed a blog post, which Bloomberg reported is valued
at boosting its presence in AR and VR technology. Andrew Bosworth, VP of between $500 million and $1 billion. Specifically,
CTRL-labs makes electronic wrist bands that allow
people to conduct computing tasks, such as sharing
pictures and clicking a mouse by thought, as part
of an emerging field called “brain computing”.
“The vision for this work is a wristband that lets
people control their devices as a natural extension
of movement,” explained Bosworth. The wristband
will be able to “decode” electrical signals sent by a
person’s neurons in the spinal cord and “translate
them into a digital signal your device can understand,
empowering you with control over your digital life”,
he added. Bosworth said this kind of technology
has great potential in areas involving interactions
in VR and AR, and added Facebook hopes to build
the technology at scale and implement it into
consumer products faster. The move falls in line
with the company’s long-term goals, as it has
previously expressed ambitions to enter the world
of augmented reality and become a leader in its
commercial use.

45 SEPTEMBER 2019