Advanced Television

EchoStar, SES joint-venture

September 4, 2014

Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar and Luxembourg-based SES are continuing their close working relationship with the addition of a new satellite at 105 degrees West. The new craft will have two names. EchoStar will call it EchoStar 105 while SES will dub the craft SES-11.  Airbus will build the satellite and it will launch quite soon in Q4/2016 which is extremely fast for the industry.

The project will see the satellite carry 24-Ku-band transponders, and 24 C-band transponders. IN essence the new craft will replace AMC-15 at 105 degree West, and where EchoStar has been an anchor client of SES since 2006. The decision will mean that the C-band capacity on SES-11 will replace that on board AMC-18 at the same position. AMC-18’s footprint currently looks at the whole of North America including the Caribbean.

“The market for 50-state transponder capacity in North America has demonstrated significant growth for EchoStar Satellite Services over the past five years – the acquisition of EchoStar 105 renews our commitment to the fixed satellite services market in North America,” EchoStar Satellite Services President Anders Johnson said. “The replacement of AMC-15, with the increased capability offered by EchoStar 105, will allow us to meet the evolving demand from our customers for enterprise, broadcast, and government services applications. We are pleased to work with Airbus Defence and Space to provide our customers with new, high power satellite capacity at this established orbital slot.”

Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer of SES, added: “SES-11 is the sixth large satellite contract with our longstanding partner EchoStar. The new spacecraft will offer comprehensive coverage of the Americas, including Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean, from a well-established orbital position. Together with EchoStar we look forward to a successful mission in collaboration with our reliable industry partner Airbus Defence.”

Financial terms were not released.

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