President Felipe Calderón of Mexico has announced that the country is to order three new geostationary satellites. Calderón was speaking at the 18th Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Guadalajara,…
President Felipe Calderón of Mexico has announced that the country is to order three new geostationary satellites. Calderón was speaking at the 18th Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The satellites will be crucial to national security, especially in light of the ongoing conflict between Mexico’s government and the narco cartels. The satellites will also bring telecommunications to remote and inaccessible areas of the country. Calderón said: “Through these actions, the Mexican government is working to ensure that those with least will be able to participate in development through information and communications technologies.” The president did not release any details on how much the project would cost, nor how it would be funded. However, Communications and Transportation secretary, Juan Molinar had earlier said that the satellites will cost up to US$1.5bn and that the government expects them to be ready for launch by the end of 2012. The cost would be divided up over four years, given its size. However, this would be 15% of the entire estimated infrastructure budget of Mexico’s Transport and Communications Ministry for the next three years, which includes highways, ports, bridges, so it is a very significant commitment. The programme is likely to be the largest single satellite project in Latin America for the next five years, analysts say. The government will soon be starting a tendering process, but details and dates were not released by the president. Speaking to local media, Enrique Melrose, a former telecoms official at the country’s telecoms regulator Cofetel, and now a telecoms research professor at the Mexico technical institute (ITAM), said the satellite project was an initiative of the National Security Council, in a move to combat the narcotics gangs. From a security point of view, having new satellites is of critical importance. Most of the satellite communications used by Mexico’s different security authorities come from Satmex 5. Following the satellite operator’s announcement at the end of January 2010 that Satmex 5 experienced an unexpected shutdown to its primary XIPS, the satellite has just over two years of remaining life. With Satmex struggling to raise the financing required to fund Satmex 5’s replacement, Satmex 8, the Mexican government has sought to acquire its own spacecraft.
