27 February 2006
Intelsat announced it has been granted rights by The Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) to operate its powerful, new Intelsat Americas-8 (IA-8) satellite in the Brazilian market. The IA-8, a hybrid Ku- Ka- and C-Band satellite launched in June 2005, is now available to serve a wide range of customers in Brazil, including broadcasters and telecom carriers.
The IA-8’s high power, linear C-Band and Ku-Band payloads, broad coverage area and connection to Intelsat’s hybrid network combine to offer the Brazilian market seamless satellite coverage within and outside of Brazil.
Because of the large coverage area of IA-8, Brazilian broadcasters and channels carried on the satellite have access to large numbers of viewers – both in Brazil and in most other Latin American countries. Additionally, the satellite’s power enables reception in DTH antennas as small as 65 centimeters in diameter.
IA-8 is the newest and most powerful satellite in the Intelsat system, which includes 28 satellites (14 of which cover Latin America and the Caribbean) and a terrestrial network with Points Of Presence in six countries. It operates from the 89°W orbital position and offers coverage of South America, the Caribbean and North America, including Alaska and Hawaii.
For coverage of South America, IA-8 employs six 72 MHz C-band and twelve 36 MHz Ku-band transponders with linear polarization for easy deployment. The high power and coverage area of IA-8 enables it to support broadcast content distribution, corporate VSATs and broadband applications, including high-speed Internet access, multicasting and streaming.
Broadcasters using IA-8 can take advantage of Intelsat’s large satellite network, allowing them to transmit programming to an extended audience and give their customers access to a large international programming community.
“The IA-8’s payload is optimally designed to cover Brazil,” said Erwin Mercado, Intelsat’s Regional Vice President, Latin America and Caribbean. “We expect our customers across the region will benefit from the higher power, robust network and reliable hybrid capacity IA-8 offers – allowing them to grow their businesses with greater efficiency.”
Mercado added, “IA-8’s coverage is also favorable to mobile operators who will be able to extend their networks into very remote regions, using a satellite-backhaul solution.
Similarly, Brazilian-based telecom service providers can use IA-8 capacity to deliver voice, broadband data and Internet to consumers in the region’s most remote locations.”
He concluded, “In addition, enterprise network service providers can use the highly efficient IA-8 platform to connect their corporate networking clients. These service providers will benefit from IA-8’s increased power and broad Brazilian coverage area, along with the high reliability for which the Intelsat system is well known.”
Intelsat has been a leading provider of satellite capacity to Latin American countries for 40 years. Its customers include Brazil’s largest broadcaster, major telecommunications companies and enterprise network service providers. Every day, more than 140 telecommunications providers and broadcasters in Latin America rely on Intelsat connectivity services to support their businesses wherever they operate.
27 February 2006
Representatives of Freedom House and RFE/RL, Inc. came together late last week to discuss the major challenges they and other NGOs face in continuing their operations in Uzbekistan. Branka Sesto and Thomas Melia of Freedom House, and Jeffrey Trimble of RFE/RL agreed that their organizations will not abandon their mission to promote democratic reform in Uzbekistan and other countries in Central Asia.
Branka Sesto, Uzbekistan Project Director for Freedom House, said the Uzbek government shut down all of Freedom House’s operations in the country within recent weeks, after a sustained campaign that included bringing a criminal case against the organization for providing Internet access to Uzbek human rights activists. Although Freedom House fought the government’s charges in Uzbek courts, it lost its appeals. Sesto noted that civil society programs Freedom House supported in Uzbekistan included a “civil coalition against torture,” since there is “systematic torture in Uzbekistan” and the government engages widespread human rights violations. She pledged that Freedom House will continue to try to assist the human rights movement of Uzbekistan, since “human rights is not a question of sovereignty, but an achievement of civilization” from which the people of Uzbekistan also deserve to benefit.
Thomas Melia, Deputy Executive Director for Freedom House, said “there is a coordinated campaign” across a number of countries, even continents, to question the “very premises of democracy promotion,” so that what has happened in Uzbekistan should not be viewed as an isolated assault on human and civic rights. Melia said that authoritarian governments are known to correspond with each other and discuss each other’s laws. For example, Melia said, the recent bill on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) passed by the Russian government is part of this campaign to criminalize NGO activities and de-legitimize them in Russian society. In addition, Melia said, the Uzbek government is seeking “to isolate [Uzbek] human rights groups from the international support network,” which includes Freedom House. Melia said that he believes the Uzbek government had “pretended” to support the development of a civic society in the past, but has now stopped.
Jeffrey Trimble, Acting President of RFE/RL, said a feeling of “back to the future” exists today in Uzbekistan and the surrounding region. The Uzbek government, in a letter dated December 12, Trimble said, officially notified RFE/RL that it was not renewing the accreditation of RFE/RL’s Tashkent bureau. He noted that, although RFE/RL’s Uzbek correspondents had been harassed, even beaten, over the last few years, the political climate had “changed dramatically after Andijon.” RFE/RL’s correspondent Nosir Zakirov had received a six month sentence and is still in prison for allegedly insulting an Uzbek government official over the phone, he added. Trimble said RFE/RL will continue to broadcast, despite the loss of access to the country: “We remain determined to work for the people of Uzbekistan.” He agreed with his Freedom House colleagues that it is becoming more difficult for journalists to work in the wider region, citing conditions at RFE/RL’s Moscow bureau, where correspondents working for the Uzbek Service have faced intimidation and physical threats from Russian officials.
27 February 2006
SES ASTRA, an SES GLOBAL company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), has announced that SES GLOBAL AFRICA has successfully extended its services into the African continent in 2005. By the end of last year, eight out of 41 commercially available transponders into the African continent have contributed to 2005 group revenues, bringing the utilisation to 20 per cent by year-end.
SES operations in Africa comprise 33 transponders utilising the African beam of the ASTRA 4A satellite at the orbital position 37.5° West as well as eight steerable Ku-band transponders on the ASTRA 2B satellite at the orbital position 28.2° East. On these satellites, SES GLOBAL AFRICA successfully concluded contracts with the telecommunications and satellite services providers GS Telecom, Skyvision, DCC Satellite & Network Nigeria, Accelon, Emperion and Unitel Hellas as well as with SES AMERICOM. Along with its partner Industrial Development Cooperation (IDC) of South Africa, SES is shareholder in Accelon which has commenced offering satellite solutions to Western Africa using the ASTRA 2B African capacity.
We are proud and satisfied that our ASTRA 4A satellite is a tremendous success in its first year of commercial use and that further demand for our offer is strong, says Alexander Oudendijk, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of SES ASTRA. By closing several important customer contracts, ASTRA 4A has become the satellite of choice for broadband and telecommunication operators across many African countries.
Commercial operation of ASTRA 4A commenced during June 2005. In the Americas, ASTRA 4A is known as AMC-12. ASTRA 4A has a high-powered C band payload which allows the use of smaller terminals and greater data throughput, making it ideally suited to data, telecommunications and broadcast applications. ASTRA 4A is able to reach Africa, Europe, and North and South America from uplinks located in any of these continents due to its on board frequency switching matrix.
27 February 2006
WORLDSPACE Satellite Radio, one of the world leaders in satellite-based digital radio services, announced the launch of subscription service in Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal state and the second largest city in the country. Kolkata has a population of over 11 million, including approximately six million consumers who fall into WORLDSPACE’s targeted listener base. This key market is the tenth city to be serviced by WORLDSPACE in India, expanding the company’s distribution on the subcontinent to nearly 63 million people, including nearly 35 million from the top three economic segments.
To ensure the service is readily accessible to subscribers in the state of West Bengal, WORLDSPACE satellite radios are available in over 25 retail outlets there, with more expected by the end of the quarter.
Andy Ras-Work, Chief Operating Officer, WORLDSPACE Satellite Radio, said, “WORLDSPACE has now launched in the top 10 markets of India, and we are pleased that our service offering is now available to listeners from all over the country. Subscribers can get more channels and more variety at home and in the workplace — music, news and entertainment that they want, whenever they want it.”
WORLDSPACE provides over 40 channels of digital quality programming to the subcontinent of India, spanning a wide range of musical genres, news, sports and information. Its Indian programming includes two Indian classical channels — Shruti (Carnatic) and Gandharv (Hindustani), as well as regional Indian channels — Tara (Bengali), which is of particular interest to the Kolkata market, plus KL Radio (Tamil), Sparsha (Kannada), RM Radio (Malayalam), Spandana (Telugu) and Tunak Punjabi (Punjabi). These services and more are now available to subscribers in Kolkata 24 hours a day, seven days a week — commercial free.
16 February 2006
Al Jazeera International, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, headquartered in Doha, announced that award winning news anchor Teymoor Nabili has joined the channel. Winner of Best News Presenter/Anchor at the Asian TV Awards in 2005, Teymoor has also received awards from the UK Royal Television Society, for coverage of the Utah Olympic bribery scandal, and from the New York Awards, for reporting on economic development in Malaysia.
Teymoor will be the channels male news anchor in Kuala Lumpur co-presenting the news with fellow award winning presenter Veronica Pedrosa, formerly of CNN International. Kuala Lumpur is one of Al Jazeera Internationals four regional broadcast centres strategically placed across the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC.
Speaking on Teymoors appointment from the channels Doha headquarters, Director of News Steve Clark said, Teymoor will be one of our key journalists in bringing news to English speaking viewers around the world. He has a wealth of knowledge on Asia, The Gulf and Europe
Teymoor brings 17 years of experience to Al Jazeera International: writing, producing, reporting and anchoring in television, radio and print. He joins Al Jazeera International from CNBC Asia in Singapore, where he has been anchor since 2001. Previous roles include news anchor for BBC Television in London, and anchor for European Business News.
