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Deal With Telenor Gives Spacecom Foothold in North American Market
By BARBARA OPALL-ROME
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 02:45 pm ET, 15 March 2004
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telenorarch_031504
TEL AVIV — Spacecom Ltd., the Tel Aviv-based owner and operator of the recently launched Amos2 communications satellite, has secured what executives here hope will become an expanding bridge connecting the Middle East and Europe to North America’s Eastern corridor.
Under a cooperative agreement, Telenor-USA Satellite Services of Rockville, Md., has erected a 9-meter antenna at its Southbury, Conn., teleport facility to support Amos2 operations in the United States and Canada. The agreement obliges Spacecom to dedicate at least two of Amos2’s 22, 36-megahertz, Ku-band transponders to the teleport for uplink and downlink services provided by Telenor-USA.
The deal expands Telenor-USA’s portfolio of satellite services and promises a North American market for Spacecom, which until now has operated exclusively in the Middle East and Europe. Telenor-USA will provide the marketing services.
"We’re looking to provide the foundation for Spacecom’s communications bridge from the Mideast and Europe to the United States and Canada," said Thomas Surface, a spokesman for Telenor-USA. "They have a very strong beam that comes down from Canada through the East Coast of the United States, and we aim to use it to deliver very cost-effective VSAT (very small aperture terminal) networks linking these parts of the world, as well as to deliver high-powered broadband services."
A secondary market to be pursued through the Telenor-Spacecom alliance is television. "With the capabilities that Amos2 brings us, we’ll be able to focus on building business with cable and satellite television companies and retransmission centers," Surface said.
David Pollack, Spacecom’s president, characterized the arrangement as a "win-win situation for both our companies, since they enjoy increased utilization of their teleport and we gain manned, around-the-clock service, maintenance, backup and security at standards that we’ve found to be well above what is normally offered by commercial service providers."
In a Feb. 22 interview, Pollack said Spacecom was willing to dedicate another four Amos2 transponders to the Southbury site if the firm succeeds in establishing its presence in the U.S. market. Moreover, Pollack said the company intends to dedicate many more transponders from its planned Amos3 satellite to the North American market.
While construction of Telenor-USA’s Amos2 satellite dish has been completed, Surface warned that full operations cannot begin until the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approves transmissions from the Israeli satellite.
"Although we can provide services over a portion of [Amos2’s] Ku-band frequencies, the satellite’s extended Ku-band frequencies are not normally used in the United States," Surface said. "To this end, we have submitted our request for a license to operate over these frequencies and are awaiting final approval from the FCC."
Surface said that once FCC approval is obtained, as expected, Telenor projects a significant market for Amos2. "This is brand new for us and for Spacecom. They just got their satellite up and running and we’re still working out final details from our end. But we would not have entered into this cooperative arrangement if we didn’t think the unique characteristics and qualities of Amos2 would deliver the projected market," he said.
Amos2 was launched in December 2003 from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome by a Russian Soyuz rocket. The 1,370-kilogram satellite is co-located with its 996-kilogram Amos1 sister satellite in geostationary orbit at 4 degrees west longitude. Both satellites and their ground control center were designed and manufactured by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) of Lod, Israel.
Pollack said IAI successfully completed Amos2 in-orbit testing Feb. 18, and delivered the satellite to Spacecom Feb. 19. "We just received the satellite for commercial use, and right now, we’re starting the gradual process of turning on the transponders one by one," Pollack said.
Spacecom already has begun service on two of Amos2’s transponders, and will begin operations on another four by early March, Pollack said. "Our first customer to begin operations with Amos2 was Home Box Office in Budapest. Our second customer was [the Israeli direct broadcast satellite service provider] Yes, which turned on transponder No. 13, and very soon, we will announce operations for service for the Israel Broadcast Authority."
According to Pollack, Spacecom already has sold 70 percent of Amos2’s capacity to customers in Israel and Europe, and is hoping to fill the remaining 30 percent via its bridge to the U.S. East Coast. "The American market makes the difference for us between a fully sold satellite or an underutilized satellite. I admit this is a calculated risk on our part not to sell more capacity in the Mideast and Europe, but we’re confident that our efforts will prove successful in this new market," Pollack said.
Meanwhile, Pollack said Spacecom is preparing to solicit bids from IAI and other manufacturers for the Amos3 satellite by early summer, and hopes to award a production contract by the end of the year. Planned for launch in 2007, the Amos3 is expected to have 24 to 26 transponders and 20 percent more transmission power than Amos2.
Comments: opallrome@barak-online.net
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