Advanced Television

Alphasat Irish broadband by DTH goes bust

September 4, 2017

By Chris Forrester

Alphasat Communications Ltd (of Ireland), which supplied broadband by satellite to customers in rural Ireland, has appointed liquidators.

Alphasat, which was headed by former Irish football star turned pundit Niall Quinn, had a shareholder deficit of some €2.8 million, and creditors (in October 2015 when the last set of accounts were filed) of €3.5 million.  About €1.4 million was owed to Alphasat’s ‘parent’ company Q-Sat Holdings, of which Mr Quinn and his wife, are directors. Another €1 million was owed to the company’s ultimate shareholders, in a business registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Dublin-based Q-Sat/Alphasat bought bandwidth from Avanti Communications and earlier this year Avanti acknowledged that it was in dispute with its Irish clients to the tune of some £1 million. When Avanti signed up Q-Sat (Jan 2012) to a “seven-year” deal with a value of between £9.3 million – £13.6 million.  Avanti terminated their relationship earlier this year with Q-Sat/Alphasat for “persistent and illegal non-payment”.

According to reports in the Irish press Q-Sat/Alphasat had about 3,000 Irish customers. Avanti cut off its Irish client in May this year. The creditors meeting is scheduled to take place on September 11th.

Ireland’s Commission for Consumer Regulation is also involved in the matter, and has announced that Avanti has – since May 17th – continued to provide a satellite broadband service “at [Avanti’s] own cost” – until June 1st.

Q-Sat (NI) Ltd originally traded as Avanti (Northern Ireland) Ltd, and was registered in Dec 2008. According to current data the company is still ‘active’ and has Niall Quinn and Sarah Herman as directors.

Alphasat Communications is not related to the European Space Agency’s Alphasat projects.

Categories: Articles, Broadband, Business, Satellite