COMMUNICATION: Andean Satellite in Orbit this Year

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Jan 22 1996 (IPS) - The five Andean Pact countries plan to try out their communications satellite, the Simon Bolivar, this year, renting space on a Mexican machine until they get their own into the air.

The new Latin American satellite will follow hot on the tail of the Mexican Solidaridad and Morelos transmitters and the Brasilsat, which has already replaced its obsolete “A” satellite with two second generation “B” devices.

Telecommunications authorities in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela will meet next Wednesday to Friday in the Caribbean, to create the business which will operate the new satellite system.

Jose Soriano, director of the Venezuelan Telecommunications Council, said his country and Ecuador will present working documents to regulate the operation and exploitation of the system.

The first decision for the Andean nations is whether to rent “transponders” (segments) on the Mexican Solidarity-I satellite until Simon Bolivar goes into orbit.

The nations are not keen on this idea, as the Mexican satellite “invaded” one of the three orbits assigned the Pact nations by the International Telecommunications Union.

Sources in the Telecommunications Commission of Venezuela, also told IPS that they will have to decide whether to buy a used satellite or commission a new one, specifically designed for their needs.

The new model would be a hybrid satellite (bands C and KU) with capacity for 50 transponders, would take two years to build and would last one year, at a cost of 300 million dollars to the member nations.

Half the money would go on the equipment, its insurance and launching.

On the other hand, the satellite would attract income of 42 million dollars per year from the sale of telephone, television, VSAT and other services. Additional income could be made from selling transponders to other nations.

The satellite has three possible lines of orbit, at 103, 106 and 109 longitude west, but the Mexican Solidaridad-I is in orbit at 109.2 degrees west – a path which could seriously interfere with the Simon Bolivar.

If the nations can overcome their annoyance at this “invasion of orbit,” they will rent transponders from Mexico. If not, they will have to accelerate their plans for their own satellite, to take advantage of the increasing demand for VSAT, cellular telephones and direct television services.

However, the satellite has competitors, as communications networks in some Andean countries are making massive advances, especially with fibre optic and undersea cables.

Also, the Association of Andean Pact Telecommunications Companies have a 15 year agreement with the Intelsat system, offering them rented transponders from them at preferential rates.

A transponder can cost up to 180,000 dollars per month, and a study by the Canadian Telesat company showed that an intensively used regional satellite would be cost effective.

The Andean telecommunications companies have been dreaming of having their own satellite for nearly 20 years. The plan produced the “Condor” project in the eighties, but severe economic crisis in several regional nations brought all this to a halt.

This project has now been revived under the title “Simon Bolivar,” with the proposal adapted as a non-governmental multinational business open to different types of international participation, especially funding.

It will provide a new support for the Pact countries, with its network of political cooperation, economic, trade, financial, cultural, education and health mechanisms.

The formation of the Simon Bolivar satellite business, its statutes, headquarters and modus operandi, will all be decided at next week’s meeting of 40 telecommunications experts in the Caribbean.