Eutelsat Orders Powerful Satellite for Sub-Saharan Africa

摘要

Satellite fleet operator Eutelsat on Oct. 28 said it had contracted with manufacturer Thales Alenia Space to build a high-throughput Ka-band satellite to provide Internet connectivity to most of sub-Saharan African starting in 2019. Paris-based Eutelsat said it had no partners or customers committed to the satellite but that it was sufficiently confident in the pent-up demand in the 30-nation coverage area to begin construction. Eutelsat Chief Technical Officer Yohann Leroy, in a briefing with reporters, said Eutelsat had several possible Ka-band orbital slots at its disposal but had not yet decided which to use. The announcement follows Eutelsat's agreement with Facebook to lease the Ka-band capacity aboard Israel-based Spacecom's Amos-6 satellite, scheduled for launch in 2016 over sub-Saharan Africa. Eutelsat and Facebook have taken out a five-year lease, leaving an overlap in time between the arrival of the new satellite and the end of the current lease.