Arabsat has signed a strategic commercial agreement with Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) that will see the latter operate a multi-purpose Ka-band hosted payload on the former’s forthcoming Badr-7 satellite.
The payload has been designed from the…
Arabsat has signed a strategic commercial agreement with Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) that will see the latter operate a multi-purpose Ka-band hosted payload on the former’s forthcoming Badr-7 satellite.
The payload has been designed from the ground up by EMC and is intended to support multiple applications ranging from two way broadband services, wireless distribution for 3G and LTE operators and in-country video distribution for regional TV content.
EMC president and CEO, Abel Avellan, commented, “Previous generation of Ka band high throughput satellites where designed to support only mass-consumer basic internet services with little or not flexibility to support other key connectivity needs. Our patented payload configurations not only delivers a large amount of Gbps on a key and vital TV neighbourhood in the EMEA region, with several times the throughput of what traditional satellites can offer today, it also provides total flexibility to serve multiple high growth markets and verticals which was not possible to address until now.”
“We are very excited about this transaction and plan to replicate the same model in other regions of the world,” he added.
Arabsat announced last month that it has contracted a consortium of Astrium and Thales Alenia Space to build Badr-7, with the satellite being based on Astrium’s Eurostar E3000 platform and Thales constructing the communications payload. The new spacecraft will contain 24 Ku-band transponders in and 24 Ka-band spot-beams as well as 3 Ka transponders for additional services.
Due to be launched by the end of 2015 by Arianespace, it is to be co-located at Arabsat’s hotspot at 26E. The estimated cost of the construction and launch of Badr-7 is more than US$400m.
Headquartered in Florida, EMC provides end-to-end communication solutions to governments, non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations operating in remote regions of the world. It currently owns and operates three teleport and data centre facilities in Germany, UK and Hawaii with over 35 antennas supporting the C, Ku, and Ka Bands.
At the end of 2012, private equity firm ABRY Partners acquired a majority stake in company for an undisclosed amount.
Commenting on the deal at the time, Avellan alluded to the hosted payload deal. He said: “ABRY brings EMC the financial sponsorship needed for our next level of growth including the launch of a new Ka band satellite communications service over 32 key markets in the Middle East and Africa”
Tomer Yosef-Or, a principal with ABRY added: “We are prepared to support the company with additional investment in its core platform, and the addition of new products, to further expand EMC’s mission critical services to its customers.”
