North Africa is to get a massive television and satellite boost after operator Arabsat inked a series of new contracts with Astrium, Thales Alenia Space and Arianespace worth some $400 million to launch the first 6th generation satellite, Badr-7.
Analysts tell Bikyanews.com that they are optimistic that the move will help continue to develop the fast moving satellite television for North Africa, where the region has seen a massive rise in the number of users in recent years.
“The new satellite will provide capacity for television broadcasting, telecommunications and data services in Ku-band and Ka-band,” the company said in a statement to the media.
“It will cover the Middle East, Africa, Asia and many parts of Europe. Badr-7 will be manufactured by the Astrium consortium, while Thales Alenia Space will design and build the communications payload,” it added.
Satellite television is the number one means of receiving television signals in North Africa and satellite transmissions have seen a large amount of infrastructure development in the past few years.
Arabsat believes that by launching the new satellite, it will help spur more growth for their network.
Joseph Mayton
