Sat-ND, 11.8.97

• from: owner-sat-nd@tags1.dn.net
• Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 22:25:03 GMT

 

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LAUNCHES

Next Iridiums in September

Seven more Iridium satellites are to be launched in mid-September aboard a Russian Proton rocket.

The planned global communications network, which will consist of 66 operational satellites and 11 in-orbit-spares, so far has 17 satellites up but only 16 running. Recent tests of inter-satellite were recently completed successfully. The US$5-billion project was set up by a consortium led by Motorola.

SATELLITES

ARIES 1 to be built

Almost one year ago, the Australian government announced a feasibility study into ARIES 1, the first Australian Resource Information and Environment satellite (Sat-ND, 10.10.96.)

Here are the results. ARIES 1, developed by government scientific research body CSIRO, the Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES) and Auspace, a unit of Matra-Marconi, has passed the feasibility test.

"The study confirmed commercial and technical feasibility of the [A$-200 million] project and concluded the specifications of the system will meet customer requirements," the partners said in a statement. The construction of the satellite, which will be able to search for minerals as well as monitor environmental changes, is expected to start before the end of 1997 for launch in 2000.

According to Auspace managing director Ted Stapinski, ARIES 1 would circle the earth from north to south every 90 minutes and would be able to examine any region once every six to seven days. "When the satellite is not being used to image specific areas for customers we will be building an image archive of the whole world which should take about five years to complete," he said. The satellite has a life span of about five years, but a more advanced satellite, ARIES-2, is expected to be developed before ARIES-1 demises.

DIGITAL

AlphaStar dead

Despite last-minute efforts to keep in on the air, the bankrupt digital direct-to-home satellite television service AlphaStar was completely switched off last Friday.

The service had attracted some 51,000 subscribers in North America, 15,000 of them in the USA. But 60 percent of them live in areas outside the continental United States, in places like the Caribbean and Puerto Rico and Canada. Less than 1 percent of AlphaStar's customers were part of the DTH satellite population in the United States.

So, it's not a surprise when Hughes' DirecTV service now made an offer to AlphaStar subscribers to sign up for for any DirecTV Total Choice package and receive the reception equipment free, provided they arrange and pay for shipping, handling, and applicable taxes. The offer, however, applies only to former AlphaStar subscribers in the continental U.S.

In Canada, the digital TV service StarChoice has made a similar offer. Brian Neill, Chairman of StarChoice Television Network said, "We are disappointed about the demise of our competitor and are prepared to help compensate their customers should any of them wish to subscribe to our service which is not only operated by a debt-free company, but one with its sights set on long term market leadership." [It's up to you to go with that.]

FEEDS & LINKS

Vyvx commercials now digital

Vyvx Advertising Distribution Services has converted its extensive satellite network to the digital platform. Utilizing the latest digital technology, the Vyvx ADS digital network offers higher broadcast quality and faster transmission to advertisers and their agencies.

Nearly 600 television stations and cable systems across the U.S. that currently receive commercials by satellite from Vyvx have installed digital receivers to decode transmissions for onsite storage and playback. The new units are "plug and play" compatible for easy integration with stations' existing satellite, audio, video, printer and VTR interfaces.

The digital conversion of the advertising distribution network lays the foundation for Vyvx's plans to build a nationwide store-and-forward network of digital video servers.

This technology will enable Vyvx to deliver an expanded range of content to broadcasters in addition to commercials -- including news, sports and syndicated programming. Digital videofile servers will be deployed to Vyvx ADS affiliate stations by the end of the year.

BUSINESS

Thuraya -- again!

Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co. plans to announce the winner of a US$1.2 billion deal for its mobile telecommunications satellite system within a month .

Chairman Mohammad Hassan Omran told a news conference the company had received final bids from Hughes and Lockheed Martin (USA) as well as France's Aerospatiale to design, construct and launch the satellite system by the year 2000 to cover mainly Arab states and the Indian subcontinent. "We plan also to allocate five percent of the capital to the successful supplier," Omran said.

UAE telecommunications company Etisalat will be the biggest shareholder with 26 percent. Abu Dhabi Investment Co will hold a 20 percent stake while Arabsat and Qatar's state-owned Q-Tel will each take 10 percent. Other investors include Investment Co. and Gulf Investment Corp., Bahrain Telecommunications Co and Kuwait's Mobile Telephone Co.,.Egypt's National Telecommunications Organisation and Deutsche Telekom's unit DeTeCon.

"We estimate that over 12 years the cost of the project will be US$1.2 billion," Thuraya Project Manager Yousuf al-Sayed said. Thuraya's executive committee is expected to present its recommendations to a meeting of the board of directors on August 26.

Not so interesting, but at least there's a new translation fro Thuraya. According to news reports, it "means the Pleiades or Taurus star cluster." Other news reports earlier suggested it would simply mean "chandelier." Oh well.

FEEDBACK

Sat-ND, 7.8.97

As I know you love contradiction :)

There are LEO systems that are specifically not designed for phone applications. Example: Orbcomm.

(Jean-Philippe Donnio)

Cheers mate! Just put your feet up and take a pill ;-) Did I say "phone services?" Nah! I wrote that some LEO system, no matter which one, would "enable users to receive and transmit high-quality digital voice and fax communications from hand-held, vehicle-mounted or fixed-site telecommunications equipment at very low access and usage costs. [Just name one LEO system that will not.]"

Are you trying to tell me that Orbcomm will not deliver something just like that? You may want to have a look at their press releases where the system is described as "the world's first commercial low-Earth orbit satellite mobile data communications service provider."

From another one: "It is designed to provide continuous two-way message communications and position determination to subscribers world-wide via hand-held communicators or personal computers."

Maybe there's no phone, no fax, but as everything gets digital anyway, what's the difference anyway?

RupertWatch

By Dr Sarmaz

Pay-TV may damage your health

British Sky Broadcasting Plc is expected to report a 1997 pre-tax profit of at least £300 million next Friday, up more than £40 million from last year.

The results, forecast by analysts, mark the end of an era for BSkyB as its president Sam Chisholm is stepping down at the end of the year on health grounds. His deputy David Chance, who has also suffered health problems, is also giving up his post.

BSkyB, which will publish its results on Friday, is forecast to deliver pre-tax profit of £300-305 million as compared to £257.4 million a year ago.

The loss of Chisholm and Chance as well as BSkyB's withdrawal from the BDB terrestrial digital TV venture has led to a re-rating of the stock: BSkyB shares, which hit a 1997 high of 669p in February, fell as low as 420p last month.

Analysts said they remained cautious about BSkyB's medium-term prospects, citing regulatory issues such as scrutiny of the way channels are packaged, higher programming and marketing costs and the investment and uncertainty associated with the launch of digital broadcasting.

BIB plans to subsidise the cost of digital set-top boxes or decoders down to around £200. Recent media reports have said that delays in obtaining European and UK regulatory approval for the subsidies could mean that BSkyB may miss its planned spring 1998 launch digital satellite TV.

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