adminFrench Guiana, is poised to enhance connectivity in the African continent, among two continents it will serve.
The multi-mission facility carries Ku-band and Ka-band payloads for the delivery of high-performance Direct-to-Home and next generation broadband services in Europe and Africa. Yves Feltes, SES spokesperson, confirmed ASTRA 2F had successfully completed its in-orbit testing and immediately fully operational.
The official added, “ASTRA 2F is part of a larger fleet replacement and expansion programme at the 28,2/28,5 degrees East neighbourhood, consisting of ASTRA 2E, 2F and 2G, that provides replacement and growth capacity for the UK and Ireland as well as for other services in and outside of Europe.”
Feltes said ASTRA 2E and ASTRA 2G, also under construction with Astrium, are scheduled for launch in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Of the ASTRA 2F’ spacecraft’s payload, 48 Ku-band transponders cover Europe and 12 Ku-band transponders are dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa, while 3 Ka-band transponders will allow SES Broadband Services to support download speeds of up to 20 Mbps.
ASTRA 2F was built by Astrium in Toulouse using a Eurostar E3000 platform.
It is the Luxembourg-based company’s 52nd SES satellite and the fourth to serve Africa.
The satellite’s launch comes on the back of similar satellites that have gone live to enhance telephone connection, broadband, television transmission and radio throughout the continent. This follows surging demand for broadband. SES has previously launched three Africa-focused satellites in recent months.
The European companies’ investments in satellites that service Africa are also spurred by the continent’s transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. Deadline for the migration is scheduled for 2015. — CAJ News
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