Satellite News

Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) was yesterday granted a 10-year licence to provide satellite services by the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

The move will allow Yahsat, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company, to instal, operate and manage a public telecommunications network and provide satellite telecom services.

“The licensing of Yahsat comes as confirmation of the role of TRA in driving the country’s telecommunications so it can compete globally,” said TRA Director-General Mohammed Nasser Al Ghanim. “Through this licence Yahsat will provide the region’s first multi-purpose satellite telecommunications system.

“The authority’s regulatory framework for licensing contains two categories of licenses, individual licenses and class licenses, based on international best practices in the field.”

This is the first individual licence of this nature that the TRA has issued.

Yahsat signed a $1.66 billion (Dh6bn) contract in 2007 with a French consortium consisting of Thales, Alenia and Eads Astrium to develop a fully-integrated satellite system. The company signed another contract with Arianespace and International Launch Services to launch the two satellites.

After signing these contracts, Yahsat began constructing a ground control station for the two satellites at Al Falah, which is 50km away from Abu Dhabi city. The project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.

Yahsat’s Waleed Al Muhairi said: “The satellites will be available in 81 countries. Yahsat will provide hybrid satellite communications services to commercial and governmental clients in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South-West Asia.”

He said there had been delay to the launch of the satellites due to an earthquake at French Guiana where the Ariane launching facilities were located. The first satellite had originally been scheduled for launch in the first quarter of this year and the second in 2011.

But Al Muhairi said the first would now be launched in the first quarter of 2011 and the second in the first half of 2011 because the earthquake damaged the facilities.

Al Ghanim added: “The TRA’s strategy is aimed at supporting government entities and corporations alike in delivering their services and products by facilitating the registration process. The licensing of Yahsat today is a testimony of our support for the ICT sector.”

Yahsat will offer a range of voice, data, video and internet connectivity solutions designed to accommodate the demand for emerging applications in the satellite industry such as HDTV and broadband satellite services for both the commercial and government sectors in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South-West Asia.

Yahsat CEO Jassem Al Zaabi said: “We would like to thank the TRA for their confidence in Yahsat. It is an important day for Yahsat and a great opportunity for a satellite company with firm roots in the UAE to address the satellite communications requirements of not only the nation but the region as well. We look to our continued cooperation with the TRA.”

Yahsat, the satellite subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Government-owned Mubadala Development, has inked deals to deliver broadband internet and television services throughout the Middle East and Africa by the end of next year.

Up to 10 deals will complement existing terrestrial offerings from telecommunications operators in those regions once the company’s first satellite, Yahasat 1A, is in orbit early next year, said Jassem al Zaabi, the chief executive of Yahsat.

The company will be able to provide high-speed internet, television and telephone services across satellite connections by next year.

Yahsat 1A will be able to reach about 26 countries ranging from Kazakhstan to South Africa.

“We are going to announce the list of our existing service providers at [the] Cabsat [exhibition],” Mr al Zaabi informed. “At that time, it will be about 10 service providers and at the end of the year, it will be many more.”

Cabsat Mena, which starts tomorrow in Dubai, is the third-largest digital media event in the world and the region’s most important showcase for the industry.

Mr al Zaabi declined to comment on how much each deal was worth or when Yahsat would become profitable but said it would offer broadband packages at US$40 (Dh146.92) per month, depending on the data speeds the satellite could relay back to earth.

Yesterday, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said it had awarded a 10-year licence, worth Dh100,000, to Yahsat to operate satellite communications in the UAE.

“This is a niche market so we made sure that the barrier to launch such services is as low as possible,” informed Mohammed al Ghanim, the director general of the TRA.

Meanwhile, construction of the Yahsat 1A is back on track with the completion of a main component despite a damaging earthquake at the production facility in L’Aquila, Italy, last year, said the project contractors.

The communications component of the satellite was completed last week and will be sent to EADS, a French aerospace firm, to be integrated into the body of the satellite, said Olivier Badard, the president for the Middle East at Thales, a French aerospace and defence electronics company that built the component.

The satellite was originally supposed to launch early this year, but the earthquake damaged a manufacturing plant belonging to Thales and Aleania, an Italian aerospace firm. The components themselves were not damaged, and work was immediately diverted to a plant in Rome and other European cities, Mr Badard informed.

“Our facility was damaged and a recovery programme was put in place,” he said. “This marks an important milestone, but our part is far from over.”

Mr Badard said it was likely to take between six and nine months to integrate the component into the body of the satellite.

EADS and Thales won a $1.66 billion contract in 2007 to jointly build two satellites for Yahsat and deliver them over the next two years. The second Yahsat satellite is expected to be launched in the second half of next year.

In 2008, Yahsat signed a $1.185bn “club deal” between 15 banks that was split between a $1bn term loan, a $100m standby term loan and an $85m tranche. Mr al Zaabi said the company was not looking for any further financing.

Once fully operational, Yahsat will offer four different services for government and commercial customers. The company will offer YahSecure, a service intended to provide confidential and reliable satellite connections for military and top-level government use.

Other commercial offerings will include YahLive, a direct-to-home television service, YahClick, a broadband internet service, and YahLink, a data communication service.

Each will operate on the Ka-band frequency.

Mr al Zaabi said Yahsat’s commercial offerings would be “completely different” from what was offered by Thuraya, a satellite company in which Etisalat owns a majority stake, and would not roll out any satellite-based mobile phone services.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) awarded Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) a ten-year satellite services license for the installation, operation and management of a public telecommunications network and provision of satellite telecommunications services in the UAE. Under this license, Yahsat will offer a wide portfolio of voice, data, video and internet connectivity solutions designed to accommodate the demand for emerging applications in the satellite industry like HDTV and other broadband satellite services for both commercial and government for the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South-West Asia. The license comes under the Federal Law Decree No (3) for the year 2003 and its amendments.

The agreement was signed during a press conference by HE Mohammed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director General of TRA, and HE Waleed Al Muhairi, Chairman of Yahsat. The press conference was attended by executives and directors of departments from both sides and by local media.

Commenting on the licensing, Al Ghanim said “licensing Yahsat comes as confirmation of the role of TRA in driving the telecommunications market in the country to compete globally, through this license Yahsat will provide the region’s first multi-purpose satellite telecommunications system”. He added that “TRA’s strategy is aimed at supporting governmental entities and corporations alike in delivering their services and products by facilitating the registration process. The licensing of Yahsat for the installation, operation and management of a public telecommunications network and provision of telecommunications services that we issue today to Yahsat is a testimony of our support for the ICT sector”.

Al-Ghanim added: “The Authority’s regulatory framework for licensing contains two categories of licenses, individual licenses and class licenses, based on international best practices in the field”. This is the first individual license of this nature that the TRA has issued.

Furthermore, Al Ghanim noted that the TRA’s organizational objectives are derived from the UAE Telecommunications Law, its Executive Order and the UAE National Telecommunications Policy. These objectives may be summarized as: ensuring adequacy of telecommunications services throughout the UAE; achieving enhancement of services, both in terms of quality and variety; ensuring quality of service and adherence to terms of licenses by licensees; encouraging telecommunications and IT services within the UAE; promoting and enhancing the telecommunications sector within the UAE; promoting and developing the telecommunications sector in the UAE by training, development and the establishment of relevant training institutions; resolving any disputes between the licensed operators; establishing and implementing a regulatory and policy framework; promoting new technologies; and ensuring that the UAE becomes the regional ICT hub.

“We are honored and would like to thank the Telecom Regulatory Authority of UAE for their confidence in Yahsat. It is an important day for Yahsat and a great opportunity for a satellite company with firm roots in the UAE to address the satellite communications requirements of not only the nation but the region as well. We look to our continued cooperation with the TRA,” said Jassem Al Zaabi, Chief Executive Officer, Al Yah Satellite Communications Company PrJsc (Yahsat).