Riyadh, June23, 2008
The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) announced today that the launching of its BADR-6 satellite will take place in French Guyana, South America on Friday July 4, 2008 at 21:20 GMT (00:20 Makkah time). BADR-6, manufactured by EADS-Astrium of France, will be launched by an Ariane 5-ECA rocket from Arianespace.
Eng. Khalid Balkhyour, Arabsat President & CEO, disclosed that BADR-6, a Eurostar E2000+ model, is a multipurpose communications satellite equipped with Ku-band and C-band transponders designed to deliver to the Arab world and neighboring regions and countries Direct-to-Home broadcasting as well as internet broadband services, with all the extra capacity required to accommodate the anticipated rapidly growing demand for High-Definition TV. BADR-6 is the second of Arabsat's 4th generation satellites that are considered to constitute a true milestone in its history since they are characterized by large capacities and high power encompassing the whole Arab world, Africa and Western Asia as the base enabling its strategic rapid expansion of services provision.
Mr. Balkheyour added that, as the capacities brought by the new BADR-6 are in high demand, a large part is already booked but Arabsat has however put aside an appropriate share of it to accommodate future requests supporting our customers' expansion plans. With the addition of BADR-6, perfectly complementing the recently launched BADR-4, Arabsat keeps building up a fully-integrated satellite services offering for the whole region, thus reinforcing its status of the only qualified organization with a complete fleet of satellites encompassing all space-based communications services.
The BADR-6 launch will be aired live via the Arabsat promotional channel on the following frequency:
Satellite: Arabsat BADR-3
Frequency: 11,843 MHz
Polarization: Horizontal
FEC: ¾
Encryption Factor: 27,500 M/S
Public Relations
About ARABSAT
With a 30-year heritage, Arabsat offers the Middle-East & Africa world an unrivalled range of satellite communications services: Direct-to-Home TV & Radio, telephony, Internet, Broadband, VSATs, and numerous other state-of-the-art services meeting current and emerging demand. Arabsat currently carries 340+ TV channels and keeps expanding its services in order to meet the evolving needs of its customers. With a 164 Million viewers audience in the Arab world alone, its 26°E "hot-spot" has become the video neighbourhood of choice. Its aggressive fleet deployment of one new satellite per year from 2008 to 2011, including the brand new BADR-6, will make it the youngest in the region, enabling Arabsat to now deliver an unparalleled level of services over the MENA area --and far beyond, with ultimate flexibility and unmatched reliability thanks to an industry-unique true in-orbit back-up. This massive inventory growth is also consolidating Arabsat's position as the sole High-Definition TV supplier in the whole region by making it the only one ready to accommodate the large space capacity requirements of its soon-to-boom number of channels. With a fully integrated fleet of satellites operating cutting-edge technologies on all frequency bands over the whole Middle-East, Europe and Africa, Arabsat allows its customers to deliver any type of content to audiences or end-users farther than ever. – More: www.arabsat.com
For more information contact:
ARABSAT PR Manager:
Mr. Saad al-Tehaif, saadt@arabsat.com
Tel.: + 966/1-281- 9603