Both satellite companies grew their subscriber base by around 13 percent over the last year, but there are signs that the rate of growth may be slowing. EchoStar, the second-largest satellite broadcaster in the United States, added 225,000 subscribers to its Dish Network in the last quarter, bringing the total number of subscribers to 11.46 million. Rival DirecTV added the same number of new customers in the United States over the same period, taking its total subscriber base to 14.67 million. The company signed 964,000 subscribers in the quarter, but the number of net additions was down on the same period the previous year, due to slightly higher churn. EchoStar reported total revenue of $2.1 billion for the three months to the end of June, up 18 percent on the corresponding period the previous year, with a net income of $856 million, ten times more than for the same period the preceding year. DirecTV revenues for the same period were $3.18 billion, with a net income of $162 million, the first profit in two years, compared to a loss of $13.3 million a year ago.
The industrial sector is on the eve of a wireless transformation, driven by an urgent demand for greater network capacity, reliability, and deterministic performance. Historically, manufacturers and mission-critical operations have relied on wired networks — favoring their predictability — because spectrum congestion in legacy 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands limited confidence in wireless for operational technology (OT) environments. However, with the introduction and rapid adoption of the 6GHz spectrum, compounded by significant advances in Wi-Fi standards, industrial facilities are now poised to embrace wireless LANs as the backbone for automation and digital innovation. Industrial WLAN Market Development Recent research from ABI Research forecasts that over 70 percent of industrial-grade wireless LAN access points (WLAN APs) shipped in 2030 will support the 6GHz band. This is a leap from 2 percent in 2023, highlighting a rapid and profound technological shift. The market for ruggedized indust...