Africa will in the next two years be having its own satellite; this was announced today in Johannesburg by Intelsat and their partner Convergence Partners.
Intelsat are the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, and have formed a joint venture with a South African investor group led by Convergence Partners. The group said it will utilise project financing to build and launch a new satellite into the 33º East orbital location, ideally positioned to serve the African continent.
The satellite, to be called “Intelsat New Dawn,” will feature a payload optimized to deliver wireless backhaul, broadband and television programming to the continent and is expected to enter service in early 2011. The satellite will be operated and marketed as part of the global Intelsat fleet.
Africa has been one of the fastest growing regions for fixed satellite services in recent years, fueled by demand for critical infrastructure from communications providers and television programmers. Wireless telecom operators, broadband service providers, corporate network service providers and direct-to-home television operators have experienced growth along with the economic development of the region. The New Dawn joint venture was established to provide solutions for African communication needs, and is expected to deliver new capacity for voice, wireless backhaul, Internet and media applications.
The joint venture recently concluded agreements for financing of the project, which is expected to cost a total of about $250 million. The project is to be funded approximately 15% with equity and 85% with debt, the debt being in the form of non-recourse project financing provided by African institutions. Nedbank Capital, part of the Nedbank Group (one of South Africa’s largest banking groups) and a leading telecom project financier in South Africa has arranged the debt financing. Nedbank and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, a self-financing national development finance institution, are the largest participants in the debt funding consortium. The equity is to be provided by Intelsat (74.9%) and the Convergence Partners-led group (25.1%), which also includes Altirah Telecoms. Intelsat’s cash contribution to the project is expected to be approximately $25 million.
Over 50% of the satellite’s 28 C- and 24 Ku-band 36 MHz transponder units are under contract, with pre-launch commitments received from leading wireless, network and video service providers such as Vodacom International Ltd., Gateway Communications Africa (UK) Ltd., Zain Nigeria and Gilat Satcom. Pre-orders for satellite capacity, or backlog, currently total more than $350 million, with some contracts for up to 15 years of service on the satellite.
By ItnewsAfrica.com
thanks to southafrican telecommunication engineers&intelsat,
wish u goodluck please involve students who have finished
the same course to see and learne practically what we have aquired from class
What happened to Nigerian solar panel handle and thier satelite? and how many solar panels does this one have. I mean Solar panels from my various research is not expected to facilitate explotion of a satellite, its like power failure from a NEPA but why it exploded the Nigerian satelllite is still mystery. This happened a fews days after the American solar panel enginneers went in to space. You guys can learn from us. Goodluck.