New satellite to deliver more business broadband

TELECOMS

British satellite firm Avanti will invest over USD118 million on a new comms satellite for MEA.

The satellite, HYLAS 3, will deliver high-speed business broadband connectivity, particularly in remote, rural areas.

The company announced this week that it had successfully raised financing for the project.

HYLAS 3 will be a “hosted payload”, flown on a new European Space Agency (“ESA”) satellite. HYLAS 3 will provide Ka band services, as with Avanti’s earlier satellites, HYLAS 1 and 2.  

Avanti’s first satellite, HYLAS 1, launched in November 2010. HYLAS 2 is
currently on track for a June 2012 delivery date and Avanti has notified Arianespace, its launch service provider, of its intention to launch within a one month window from 30 June 2012. 

The company says sales of capacity on HYLAS 1 and pre-sales on HYLAS 2 to date, demonstrate that demand for Ka band satellite capacity is evident at the expected prices. Avanti expects to sell-out the capacity on HYLAS 1 within three years of service launch. Expectations are high for capacity sales on HYLAS 2, which is three times the size of HYLAS 1 in terms of bandwidth capacity.

HYLAS 3 will have up to 4GHz of Ka band capacity. This will be configured across eight beams within a single steerable antenna that can provide coverage of an area equivalent to a region the size of Southern Africa and can be moved throughout the life of the satellite. The satellite will be positioned in one of Avanti’s orbital locations with an earth view covering Africa and the Middle East. Delivery into orbit is expected in 2015.