With little to no opportunities to grow the company through acquisitions of sizable cable operators, extending Charter Communications network through regular edge-outs in rural areas coupled with a wave of new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) commitments has emerged as the next best option. I think that rural build is like cable M&A, Chris Winfrey, Charter s chief financial officer, said Monday at the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference. You re essentially building a cable company here over several years from scratch, Winfrey said of the RDOF opportunity.
Charter expects to start some preliminary RDOF-related building this year, but does not expect it to have a material financial impact in 2021. But the engine will be up and running, and I think 2022 will be the first decent-sized build year, he added.
Even as Starlink pushes toward a commercial launch of its fixed broadband satellite service, its parent company, SpaceX, is also pursuing a plan to connect Starlink s network to trucks, planes, ships and other types of relatively large moving vehicles.
Starlink s mobile-facing interests were outlined in an application for blanket-licensed Earth Stations in Motion, or ESIMs, filed on March 5 with the FCC. SpaceX believes authorization for a new class of ground-based components that would expand the range of broadband options available to moving vehicles would serve the public interest. This application takes the next step by seeking authority for ESIMs that will enable the extension of that network from homes and offices to vehicles, vessels, and aircraft, David Goldman, SpaceX s director of satellite policy, explained.
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For nearly 20 years, Thermo Companies has been quietly making investments in the telecom space by mixing together a blend of 5G assets that includes midband spectrum holdings, fiber transport and technologies related to spectrum efficiency.
However, it s unclear what the investment firm s end goal is. These investments don t work together like a perfect puzzle at this point. We are trying to get them to be, but we aren t there yet, said Kyle Pickens, VP of strategy at Globalstar and a partner at Thermo Companies.
Globalstar ties
Thermo is probably best known for its majority ownership of Globalstar. In 2004, the company, which was founded by Jim Lynch and Jay Monroe, invested $700 million in the bankrupt satellite company, not just because it saw potential in the satellite services but also because of Globalstar s spectrum assets. We thought there was value in the terrestrial spectrum, said Pickens.
Credit Liam Niemeyer / Ohio Valley Resource
As Barkley Hughes and I rumbled around in his red utility vehicle last month, memories slowly unwound about his western Kentucky hometown.
Tolu, a historic Ohio River-bound community of less than a hundred, only makes up a few blocks before opening up into rolling farmland. Hughes openly admits it’s not near anywhere, but that’s part of the reason he came back.
He points to the Methodist church across the street he attended growing up. There’s the community center that would put together a “haunted house” around Halloween. There’s what used to be the general store in town, which he figures closed more than a decade ago because it’s hard to get deliveries out in a place so remote.