Microsoft has retired its ground station offering and sold off its antennae.
The company quietly announced the retirement of its Azure Orbital ground station service in October 2024, with the company telling existing customers they could use the service until December 18.
Space Leasing International (SLI), a company that leases space infrastructure to customers, announced this week that it has acquired 10 six-meter S- and X-band tracking antennas from Microsoft. Terms of the deal were not shared.
The acquired ground stations will be leased to Washington-based operator RBC Signals.
The acquisition was financed by SLI through a sale-and-leaseback arrangement; SLI will own the assets while RBC Signals will manage and maintain them under an operating lease.
Located across North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, the newly acquired assets will be made available to RBC Signals’ government and commercial customers.
Further details on locations weren’t shared, but Azure Orbital ground stations were previously available at Microsoft sites in Quincy, Washington; Longovilo, Brazil; Singapore; and Gavle, Sweden. Antennae at KSAT sites were also listed as available in Awarua, New Zealand; Hartebeesthoek, South Africa; Athens, Greece; and Svalbard, Norway.
SLI was formed by holding company Libra Group in 2023 to acquire and build around 20 ground stations globally and lease them to RBC. SLI previously acquired ground stations in Alaska and Sweden, leasing both to RBC.
Founded in 2015, RBC offers satellite communications and monitoring in VHF, UHF, L, S, C, X, Ku, Ka, and optical bands from a network of more than 50 company-owned and partner-owned sites.
RBC offers ground station-as-a-service (GSaaS) solutions via Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. The company said the divestiture allows Microsoft to “focus on its core business areas while supporting the growth of its partners in the space communications sector.”
“RBC Signals is a recognized leader in the GSaaS market, and we are excited that RBC Signals’ GSaaS offering will be available in the Azure Marketplace,” said Douglas Phillips, corporate vice president, Microsoft. “This will enable our joint customers to seamlessly integrate their satellite data with Azure’s AI-enhanced cloud capabilities and products, unlocking new insights and accelerating innovation.”
Microsoft announced plans to launch a ground station service back in September 2020. The company installed its first ground station at an Azure data center – at its campus in Quincy, Washington – in 2021.
Microsoft also formed a partnership with GEO and MEO satellite firm SES to host its own antennas at a number of Microsoft locations. Incumbents such as KSAT, ViaSat were reportedly working with the cloud provider to incorporate their offerings into Azure Orbital.
