Satcoms

Troubled Israeli commercial satellite operator Spacecom has won a U.S.$55 million contract from an unnamed customer to use the AMOS-17 satellite to broadcast content to the African continent. AMOS-17 is being built by U.S. satellite manufacturer Boeing Satellite Systems International and is scheduled to be launched by SpaceX by mid-2019, and is to replace AMOS-5 – built by a Russian manufacturer – that failed in orbit in 2015 after only four years operation of what should have been a fifteen year mission.

Thaicom, one of the largest commercial satellite communication companies in the Asia-Pacific, has announced an agreement with MediaVision as part of the expansion of its broadcast platform in Africa.

Pakistan has revealed plans for its expanded space programme that includes a second high-resolution Earth observation satellite, a satellite navigation system, and telecommunication links with China as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project.

Following its recent £8.4 million contract win from the European Space Agency, Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd has secured its second phase investment of £24 million. Joining the growing club of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Greg Wyler who have demonstrated their passion for the high-growth space sector, UK businessman Peter Hargreaves, founder of leading finance and investment services company Hargreaves Lansdown, is investing the money, taking a stake in the iconic Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. in Cornwall, whose rich 56-year history of achievement in satellite communications is matched by an ambitious future-looking roadmap.

Inmarsat, a leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, announced on 9 May 2018 that it, in conjunction with Tillman Digital Cities and CivicConnect, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Smart Africa secretariat to accelerate the development and implementation of public-private partnerships (PPP) with the Smart Africa Alliance.

The infrastructure boom across Eurasia is creating its own demand for satellite data and services. In this essay, Dr. John B. Sheldon of ThorGroup GmbH looks at the growing interconnections between satellites and the expanding rail networks across Eurasia. The transformation of the geopolitical and geoeconomic order of Eurasia is perhaps the greatest phenomenon of our time, even with headlines pounding out the steady drumbeat of imminent war in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Japan is making further inroads to Africa, helping another African country, Rwanda, join the space club. The University of Tokyo has signed an agreement with Rwanda to help it build a small satellite and train its future engineers. The agreement, signed on 9 May 2018 in Rwanda’s capital Kigali during the Transform Africa summit, is between the Smart Africa Initiative and Rwanda, and the University of Tokyo.

The world's largest satellite communications provider, Intelsat, will partner with Israel's Gilat in a pilot program to provide a communications infrastructure for Uganda's rural populations as part of the effort to enhance that country's economic and social development.

As part of its reorganization and reassignment of its most senior executives since the appointment of Dr. Roger Tong as its Chief Executive Officer in April 2018, Hong Kong’s Asiasat has announced two new corporate promotions to important technical positions on the board.

Thaicom, Thailand’s biggest commercial satellite communications provider, and We Are IT Philippines Incorporated (WIT), announced in Manila on 3 May 2018 that WIT will lease the entire capacity on Thaicom’s IPSTAR satellite to provide broadband Internet coverage across the Philippines.