Advanced Television

No news on ABS-2 fault

September 2, 2014

By Chris Forrester

Asia Satellite Broadcasting’s ABS-2 suffered a Ku-beam problem on July 26th which resulted in a number of transponders and channels being lost from its services to Russia. Most channels were transferred to other transponders but in some cases with reduced power levels.  ABS-2 operates from 75 degrees East.

ABS-2 is an almost brand new satellite, only launched in February and built by Space Systems/Loral. It has a total of 10 different beams. Back on August 1st we reported the satellite’s anomalies and the loss of service to Vladivostok’s ISP Alliance operator.

On August 5th the satellite operator confirmed the problem saying “This resulted in an interruption of some services, which we are working to restore with SS/L. No other beams were impacted and the satellite is otherwise operating normally.”

However, ABS is remaining tight-lipped on what progress has been made over the past month, other than to say: “We were able to restore most of the traffic and the satellite is providing good down link power. ABS-2A is a backup and expansion satellite to ABS-2, so we will insure in orbit redundancy and continuity of the business at 75°E.”

This suggests, at the very least, that problems remain. Asia Broadcast’s back-up satellite for 75 degrees East is ABS-2A which is being built by Boeing Satellite Systems International, and is an all-electric satellite due for launch in Q4/2014. However, this Boeing 702-SP craft will likely not be on station and ready for operation until early 2016.

Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite