Telenor prepares to start Thor 7 services to shipping

摘要

Telenor Satellite expects to begin providing commercial communications to ships on its new Thor 7 satellite from the beginning of March. Thor 7 will deliver Ka-band coverage for all types of vessel in the North Atlantic, the North Sea, and the Norwegian, Barents, Caspian and Mediterranean seas, as well as in the Middle East and the Black Sea. The Norwegian company expects Thor 7 to increase the bandwidth available to ships over this region for enhanced crew welfare and greater data communications. Thor 7 is a new generation of high throughput satellites with spot beams that can deliver fast bandwidth to ships and other vessels. The satellite was manufactured by Space Systems Loral (SSL) and launched by Arianespace from French Guiana in April 2015. It has 24 permanent spot beams and one roaming beam that can deliver additional capacity in an area where it is needed. Thor 7 is located adjacent to other Telenor satellites in a geostationary orbit, roughly six Earth radii above the equator. It is capable of transmitting radio frequency to the ships in the spot beams even in wet weather, where rain can interfere with the signal, because of its powerful amplifiers.