Satellite broadband touted as digital divide clincher

Satellite broadband touted as digital divide clincher KA-SAT launch promises 10Mbit/s service for hard-to-reach locations.

A satellite being launched in November could close the digital divide in the UK by helping citizens and companies currently underserved by the cable broadband market to get online with vastly improved services.

The KA-SAT satellite, developed by Eutelsat, will provide broadband to regions where services such as cable and DSL have failed to penetrate, the firm claimed.

"This will be the most powerful satellite in space. It offers 35 times more throughput than traditional KU-band satellites, and can fulfil a crucial role in meeting the broadband needs of some 30 million underserved EU citizens," said Guillaume Benoit, project manager at KA-SAT, at an event in Toulouse Thursday.

"Using spot beam technology we will be able to provide dedicated coverage in 80 set areas across the EU, the Middle East and Africa, delivering speeds of 10Mbit/s download and 2Mbit/s upload to users in current broadband not-spots."

The satellite communicates with 10 ground satellites, with two set aside as backup, that sit on a fibre-optic ring connected to the internet, through which a user's request is transmitted via the KA-SAT.

The satellite will orbit on a longitude of nine degrees east, which the firm said should ensure that it is always visible to a customer's ground satellite, and will offer overall throughout put of 70Gbit/s, a huge increase on industry norms of around 20Gbit/s.

Jean-Francois Fremaux, director of business development at Tooway, the firm that will offer the service to resellers, gave some more details on the types of services that could come to market.

"We expect basic packages that would cover emailing, browsing and some uploading, to retail at around €30 (£25), going up from here to higher level packages leading to services for business users and firms," he said.

Fremaux expects the service to be of particular benefit to small companies with up to 10 employees, but did not detail any pricing structures.

Tooway is keen to enter into partnerships with train and boat companies that could use the ubiquitous nature of a certain spot beam to provide broadband on the move.

The satellite has been developed in Toulouse by Astrium, a division of EADS. Gerard Berger, marketing manager for communication satellites at Astrium, explained more about the development.

"We have now completed key tests including the thermal vacuum test to ensure it can withstand conditions in space, and final integrations are now underway including preparation for moving the satellite to the launch site," he said.

The satellite will be sent into orbit by launch company Proton in November in Kazakhstan, owing to its proximity to the equator, and its services should become commercially available in the first quarter of 2011 once tests have been carried out.

Christopher Baugh, head of satellite broadband at analyst firm Northern Sky Research, believes that the High Throughput Satellite technology used in KA-SAT will revolutionise the market.

"This new satellite is a game changer for the broadband industry. Previously, satellites have been viewed as inadequate for numerous reasons, such as speed or quality of service, but the new satellites now being launched are changing this, " he said.

"Furthermore, firms hoping to offer cable and DSL will find it prohibitively expensive and logistically almost impossible to get their services to those in rural areas, and this is where the new era of satellite technology will prove vital."

However, Baugh warned that many governments remain unwilling to embrace the technology, or are unaware of its capabilities.

"There is a lot of resistance from those we speak to in government about the potential of satellites to meet their broadband initiatives, but we expect the launch of KA-SAT to bring more awareness to what the technology can deliver," he said.

Baugh also noted that the price of satellite broadband is falling as resellers offer improved subsidies on the cost of hardware, which should persuade governments to consider funding access to the technology.

"By offering subsidies to citizens to help them purchase the hardware for access to satellite broadband, governments could get their populations online, as we are seeing in Australia," he said.

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Arabsat-5A and BADR-5 satellites have been handed over to Arabsat by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space

The Arabsat-5A and BADR-5 satellites have been handed over to Arabsat by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, as part of the in-orbit delivery contract and have entered commercial service. Both satellites were deployed and tested in orbit in the same time period, due to their close launch dates.
 

 
Arabsat-5AAfter the successful completion of in-orbit testing, the BADR-3, which was launched via a Proton vehicle on June 3rd, was officially transferred to Arabsat on July 17th, at the designated orbital location. This event was followed shortly by Arabsat-5A, launched by an Ariane 5 onJune 26th and officially transferred to Arabsat on July 21st at the designated orbital location, less than one month after launch. Astrium and Thales Alenia Space are acting as co-prime contractors for the satellites’ construction and delivery into orbit. Astrium, the team leader, supplied the Eurostar E3000 platforms and assembled and tested the spacecraft. Thales Alenia Space supplied the communications payloads. The Launch and Early Orbit Phases were conducted from the Astrium spacecraft control centre in Toulouse, and the In-Orbit Testing from the Arabsat main control centre in Riyadh with the participation of the Arabsat control centre in Tunis. Arabsat’s first 5th generation satellites are now in commercial operation providing communications services.
 

 
BADR-5 is collocated with the BADR-4 and BADR-6 DTH satellites at Arabsat’s hot spot. BADR-5 provides the highest level of service within the MENA region as well as new services for the Central Asia region. BADR 5 provides capacity for more than 700 TV channels, HDTV, 3D, telecom services as well as providing a ful,l in orbit backup for the Arabsat fleet. BADR-5 is equipped with a payload that includes 56 transponders operating in different bands. Arabsat-5A is a multi-mission satellite which provides additional transmission capacity at the Arabsat orbital position for a wide range of satellite communications services, covering the African contenent, Central Asia, and Middle East regions. Arabsat-5A is a Eurostar E3000 satellite equipped with a payload that includes 50 active transponders operating in different bands.
 

 

Astrium creates presence for geo-information in Greece

Astrium has strengthened its presence in Greece by creating the company Spot Infoterra Hellas, a provider of geo-information products and services.
 

 
The Greek company Geomet, a long-standing partner of Spot Image and Infoterra in Greece, will be merged into the new entity.
 
Spot Infoterra Hellas will be distributing the full range of Spot Infoterra products and services, including data provided by the Spot, Pleiades and TerraSAR-X Earth observation satellites.

Astrium Contracts MDA for Technology Support; Selected for U.K. Science Hub

Canadian satellite company MDA has been awarded a contract to provide four advanced technology solutions to EADS Astrium for integration on Astra satellites, MDA announced July 21.

The contract, worth more than $12.5 million, will see MDA provide support technology for satellites that Astrium is building for SES. The satellites are scheduled for launch between 2012 and 2014 and will provide next generation broadcast, VSAT and broadband services in Europe and Africa, as well as add new capacity for the SES group over the coming years.

MDA was contracted to provide advanced technology solutions to EADS Astrium for the Astra 1N and Astra 3B satellites in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Financial details of the contracts were not disclosed.

Separately, Astrium announced July 21 that it has been selected by the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to develop an Earth observation Hub at the U.K. International Space Innovation Center (ISIC).

The $7.45 million contract will see Astrium lead an industrial consortium including Vega, SSTL and Infoterra, in designing and integrating a hub with the ability to coordinate multiple satellites, and a U.K.-specific capability for payload data processing. The hub is expected to be operational by March 2011.

The development of the hub was a key recommendation of the United Kingdom’s Space Innovation Growth Strategy, issued earlier in 2010. “It is envisaged that the new hub will be amongst the first in Europe that will actively encourage direct collaboration between government, industry and academia in developing a centre of excellence for satellite operations and the acquisition of data, whilst providing new opportunities for products and user delivery,” U.K. Minister for Universities and Science David Willets said in a statement.

Astrium Subsidiary Wins ESA Imagery Contract Extension

Astrium Services subsidiary Infoterra has secured a three-year, 7.5 million euro ($9.6 million) contract from the European Space Agency’s U.K. Farnborough Multi-Mission Processing and Archiving Facility (UK-MM-PAF) to continue delivering an operational service that will support the download and processing of images from both the ERS and Envisat satellite space missions.
 
ERS and Envisat provide Spot and TerraSAR-X satellite data and imagery that supports the latest Earth observation research, operational applications and scientific understanding on climate change. Infoterra currently stores over eight millions images for the program.
 
The contract also includes Infoterra taking responsibility for the downloading and processing of images from UK-MM-PAF’s Swarm mission to survey the Earth’s geomagnetic field. Infoterra will support the first phase of the Swarm mission, which will include the installation, integration, validation and testing of the ground-based infrastructure. The second phase will see Infoterra take responsibility for the archiving, processing, reprocessing and dissemination of the Swarm datasets to the Earth observation community.
 

 
Separately, Astrium announced it has launched a new airborne terminal, AirPatrol, at the Farnborough Air Show in the United Kingdom. Astrium says the terminal is designed to provide end users with a lightweight, high performance communications module capable of operating in the most demanding conditions.
 
The terminal, which operates over the Ku-, Ka- and X-bands, has been developed by Astrium Services’ Secure Satcom Systems. AirPatrol is compatible with all types of aircraft, including unmanned aerial vehicles.

Astrium Wins ACES Deal With ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) has contracted Astrium to develop the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) for the International Space Station (ISS).
 
The 35 million euro ($45.2 million) contract will see Astrium deliver the ACES payload for its scheduled launch on a Japanese HTV transport vehicle in fall 2013 with an on-orbit accommodation on the Columbus External Payload Facility. The duration of the mission will be at least two years.
 

 
The contract comprises the development of the ACES Flight Model, the set-up of the ACES specific ground segment, the establishment of a network of ground reference clocks and communication with the ISS-based ACES payload and its two atomic clocks via microwave-link ground terminals.
 
The ACES payload will test a new generation of atomic clocks in space. The Caesium cold atom clock PHARAO, developed and provided by CNES, and the Space Hydrogen Maser (SHM), funded through the Swiss contribution to ELIPS (European Life and Physical Sciences Program), are the heart of the ACES payload. They will be characterized and compared to each other as well as to ground based national time standards in different countries.