Eutelsat has partnered with the telecommunications organisation ictQatar for the financing and launch of a new satellite at the company’s 25.5E orbital position, to be launched by the end of 2012.
ictQatar Secretary General Dr Hessa Al Jaber told…
Eutelsat has partnered with the telecommunications organisation ictQatar for the financing and launch of a new satellite at the company’s 25.5E orbital position, to be launched by the end of 2012.
ictQatar Secretary General Dr Hessa Al Jaber told SatelliteFinance that ictQatar will own and finance 54% of the new satellite. The funding will come from the Qatari government, either directly or through banks.
“All of the 54% we own will be focused solely on Qatar,” said Dr Al Jaber. “It will be used mainly for broadcast and governmental services.” The satellite will also cover the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.
Eutelsat will finance its own share of the satellite production costs through its existing capex plan for 2009-2012, which allows for an average investment of E450m per year.
The specifications of the Request for Proposal have been finalised, and the satellite is expected to be ordered by over the next few weeks, according to Vanessa O’Connor, Eutelsat’s director of corporate communications. A launch provider has yet to be chosen.
Al Jaber said that the availability of the orbital position and the fact that Eutelsat will be launching in 2012 were two major factors in the formation of the partnership. She also cited the close relations the Qatari government has established with France, Eutelsat’s home nation, as another factor in the agreement.
ictQatar’ outlook is that the high rate of growth in Qatar and the rest of the MENA region necessitates this kind of deal. “We would like to make sure that we will have enough capacity for any expansion as and when the country needs it,” said Al Jaber. “We’re focusing on our future needs because this area is expanding and has seen healthy annual growth over the last five years. Capacity is becoming scarce in the region and we are looking to secure our own resources.”
The new satellite will carry Ku and Ka-band payloads that will be used by both Eutelsat and Qatar. Al Jaber said that Qatar is currently preparing the business case for the use of Ka-band in the country.
She emphasised that Qatar will continue to lease capacity from regional operators. “We are getting a lot of our capacity from local operators and we will continue to do that, but sometimes governments would like to have their own options,” she said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t continue our services with other operators.”
ictQatar anticipates that the partnership with Eutelsat will be a long-term one. “It is only the beginning of the relationship,” said Al-Jaber, which indicates that Eutelsat and Qatar will continue to work together in developing the 25.5E orbital slot further in the future.
The new satellite will be a successor to EUROBIRD 2, which currently occupies the position. As with EUROBIRD 2, the new bird will provide international coverage for Eutelsat across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen said: “We are honoured to partner with ictQatar and are convinced that together, we can represent a strong and complementary force that benefits the expansion and continuing sophistication of digital services across the footprint of our future new satellite. We look forward to developing this new relationship with ictQatar, which further anchors on a long-term basis our commitment to markets in the Middle East and North Africa.”
