• NASA seeks partners for its Mars telecom network
• French telcos get more time to secure SFR takeover 
• Verizon gets green light for spectrum acquisition

In today’s industry news roundup: NASA is scouting out partners for input on its plans to build a telecom network for Mars; Altice extends the exclusivity period for the sale of its French arm SFR; the FCC rubber-stamps Verizon’s $1bn to buy spectrum licences from UScellular; and much more!

NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is seeking industry partners to collaborate on its plans to build the Mars Telecommunications Network (MTN). The US space agency issued a request for proposal (RFP) this week, calling for potential partners to submit ideas to address both current and future missions, including plans to build a high bandwidth communications network that will use satellites orbiting the red planet, as astronauts seek to explore its surface. The RFP gives industry players 30 calendar days to respond, with NASA planning to build and activate the MTN no later than 2030. It already has backing from the US Congress to the tune of $7m as part of a budget reconciliation bill enacted in July. Several companies have expressed an interest in MTN, notably Blue Origin and Rocket Lab. Other companies that participated in a NASA industry day, held on 9 April,  include Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin, Quantum Space and… you guessed it, Elon ‘Life on Mars’ Musk’s SpaceX. We’re assuming the network will be ‘green’ by design…

Patrick Drahi’s Altice has agreed to extend the exclusivity period granted to Bouygues Telecom, Orange and the Iliad Group for the proposed buyout of its main French operation, SFR, until 5 June. The telco trio are pooling their efforts to acquire most of the assets of Altice France – which operates primarily as SFR – and submitted a bid of around €20.35bn in April after an initial €17bn bid, made in October, was instantly rejected. The bid carried an exclusivity agreement that was due to expire today (15 May) but now Altice has agreed to push back this deadline until June due to ongoing discussions, which it labelled “constructive”. The proposed deal is complex: It would see the three operators acquire the majority of SFR’s assets, excluding Altice’s stakes in IT consultancy ACS/Intelcia, fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) operator XP Fibre (with other bidders competing to acquire’s Altice’s stake), datacentre operator Ultraedge and Altice Technical Services. You can read about the full breakdown of the deal in our coverage from April.

Having just given the green light to a major transfer of airwaves from Echostar to AT&T and SpaceX in deals worth $40bn, US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has now approved Verizon’s $1bn deal to acquire spectrum licences from UScellular. Verizon first reached the agreement to buy spectrum licences from UScellular back in October 2024, which followed an agreement between the US’s fourth-biggest mobile operator (as UScellular was at that point) and T-Mobile US for most of its assets, including its customer base, retail stores and some spectrum. Verizon said the additional spectrum will be used to bolster its network. 

NEC has completed the buildout of the East Micronesia Cable System (EMCS) that links three Pacific island nations – the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati and Nauru. The 2,250km EMCS cable will be controlled by FSM Telecommunications Cable Corporation (FSMTCC), the Republic of Kiribati’s state-owned telecommunications company Bwebweriki Net Limited (BNL), and the Republic of Nauru’s state-owned telecommunications company Cenpac Corporation. It is the first subsea cable to link the state of Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia to Tarawa in Kiribati and Nauru Island. It also lands at Pohnpei, which is also part of the FSM. The EMCS project is backed by the governments of Australia (through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific), Japan and the US, and is being implemented with grant funding from the three countries.

– The staff, TelecomTV