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Forbes: Belgacom SA says it will launch high-definition television on April 14, starting with video on demand as well as seven channels in HD. HDTV is digitally broadcast and requires a speedy VDSL line.In the following weeks, the group will start broadcasting extra channels in HD as well as sporting events such as the Olympic Games in August.

Alcatel-Lucent secured a Belgacom contract in October to upgrade the group’s infrastructure to a ‘fibre-to-the-node’ VDSL2 network, which will allow the operator to offer triple play and HDTV services to over 60 percent of Belgian households.

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Hemscott: The launch of the second test satellite for the Galileo navigation project — envisioned to be a competitor to the NAVSTAR GPS positioning system — has been delayed to March 2008 from its originally-planned launch at the end of this year.

‘The launch that was planned for December is now envisioned to take place in March 2008,’ a spokesman for the rocket specialist company Arianespace told Financial Times Deutschland in an article to appear tomorrow.

He said the delay was caused by other set backs with the launch of a Russian Sojus rocket at a site in Baikonur, Russia.

There are eight private contractors involved in the Galileo navigation project — which include EADS, Alcatel-Lucent, Thales, Inmarsat and Finmeccanica SpA.

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