Friday fragments — critical comms snippets for 3 July

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 3 July 2015.

Axell about to become Cobham. In a couple of days, Axell Wireless will have fully, formally completed its merger with Aeroflex to become Cobham Wireless. Laura Clifton, marketing communications manager for Axell Wireless, has put together a short video describing the company’s 45-year history.

One in five M2M connections in China/Far East. A report from Juniper Research predicts that the Far East and China region will account for 22% of global cellular M2M connections by 2019; a substantial increase from 15% in 2014. The report says that “concerted efforts by China’s major carriers, particularly in smart metering and connected cars, will account for the rise of connected devices in China. However, traditional M2M markets in North America and Western Europe will retain the majority of connected device revenues.”

New wireless board members. The Wireless Innovation Forum, a non-profit international industry association dedicated to driving the future of radio communications and systems worldwide, has announced new board of directors members Neeti Tandon of AT&T and Iyad Tarazi of Federated Wireless.

UK’s Morpheus military comms system. The UK’s Ministry of Defence has initiated a project to replace the ageing Bowman tactical comms system with a system called Morpheus, and has called for academia and industry to field ideas. An industry team, led by PA Consulting and including QinetiQ, Roke Manor Research and CGI, will compile the ideas into potential options.

MEOsats boost data throughput. Satellite company O3b has demonstrated higher bandwidth data capabilities for the US Navy using its medium Earth orbit satellites. The system potentially offers 300 times the throughput of current geostationary satellites.