SES World Skies has reached an agreement with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) regarding the long-term use of the 67W orbital position.
The deal is mutually beneficial. SES gains a very attractive orbital slot that allows for Ku-band coverage over…
SES World Skies has reached an agreement with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) regarding the long-term use of the 67W orbital position.
The deal is mutually beneficial. SES gains a very attractive orbital slot that allows for Ku-band coverage over the Americas and the Caribbean, while CAN has found a satellite to fill the position prior to the International Telecommunications Union’s September deadline. The ITU had previously agreed to extend the deadline to fill the slot by three years back in November 2007.
Rob Bednarek, president and CEO of SES World Skies, said: “This agreement allows us to assist the Andean Community in developing this orbital slot, and offers an additional opportunity to SES World Skies to efficiently serve Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Freddy Ehlers, Secretary General of the CAN, said: “We are very pleased with this agreement with SES World Skies for the development of the Andean orbital rights at 67 degrees West. Through this agreement, the Andean Community will deepen and strengthen the economic integration and socio-cultural cohesion of its member countries, as well as expand communications throughout the region.”
Established in 1997, the Andean Community consists of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. CAN has been looking at collectively ordering a communications satellites for the past few years and had originally planned to team up with Venezuela to order a bird before the latter separately signed a deal with China Great Wall for Venesat 1.
The Colombian government has been on the verge of ordering a satellite on its own since 2008 but reports that it was set to procure a spacecraft, to be called Simon Bolivar 2, never came to fruition. Bolivia, on the other hand, has followed Venezuela’s example and recently moved to order a debut communications satellite from China (see article below).
