SES has struck up another of its special relationship agreements. This time it is Russia’s Gazprom and its Gazprom Space Systems division. SES now has a “strategic partnership” with the giant Russian company to provide new satellite capacity to serve the fast-growing Russian market.

The deal was announced at the Euroconsult Paris satellite conference.

“Under the terms of a multi-year agreement, SES has re-located its Astra 1F satellite previously located at 51 degrees East to the orbital location 55 degrees East. GSS will utilize 16 Ku-band FSS transponders on the Astra 1F satellite to provide communication services for Western Russia ahead of the arrival of GSS’ Yamal-402 satellite in 2012. In return, SES will use capacity on GSS’ Yamal-402 once it becomes operational at 55 degrees East. Yamal-402 is currently under construction and scheduled for launch in November 2012,” says the official statement.

The use of Astra 1F at 55 degrees East is part of a strategic partnership between SES and Gazprom to explore opportunities for the provision of satellite capacity for Russia. GSS will use the capacity on Astra 1F and later Yamal-402 together with Russian satellite service providers to deliver a wide spectrum of services including the transmission of TV bouquets for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV operators, the distribution of TV signals to cable and terrestrial networks and broadcasting stations, the delivery of broadband access for corporate clients and the consumer market, and point–to-point communication, as well as cellular backhauls and Satellite News Gathering (SNG) services.

Dimitry Sevastiyanov, General Director of GSS said: “The move of Astra 1F is good news for the Russian market. The additional satellite arrives at a time of high demand and scarce capacity and brings us in a position to meet the actual and growing capacity needs of our customers. The cooperation with SES is very productive and we may see additional joint projects in the future.”

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
2. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
3. IRIS2 already in trouble?
4. Intelsat contemplates next steps
5. SpaceX: 2.7m customers and $180bn value
6. Boeing, Virgin Galactic in court battle
7. Jupiter-3 a changemaker
8. Terran Orbital is again Compliant
9. SpaceX: Triple launch including Eutelsat

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