By NNN-WAM
Abu Dhabi : Following the successful launch of its third satellite, Thuraya, the world’s leading satellite operator for mobile handhelds, is moving in full swing towards launching commercial service in the Asia Pacific region, a lucrative market of more than 2 billion people for which the Thuraya-3 satellite was designed.
Satellite post-launch activities have been underway since the spectacular orbital injection by Sea Launch on Jan 15 2008. The smooth in-orbit operations and testing of the satellite functionalities to date point to a great possibility to launch Thuraya services in East Asian markets by the middle of next month.
“It’s very thrilling to see the readiness spirit and the impressive communication quality at this very early stage,” said Thuraya’s CEO Yousuf Al Sayed last week upon making the first phone call over Thuraya-3 satellite at the company’s gateway in Sharjah. Earlier, the gateway successfully acquired a communication signal from Thuraya-3 on Jan 24.
Over the past four weeks, the company along with its technology partner Boeing Satellite Systems International, completed major post-launch milestones including Orbital Raising to place the spacecraft in its designated slot of 98.5 degree East Longitude, the deployment of the satellite bus comprising solar arrays, reflectors and radiators, and the initialisation of the satellite payload which were all successfully achieved by Feb 2 2008. That made Thuraya proceed to the final milestone before commercial operation which is the In-Orbit Testing (IOT) that is expected to continue until the end of this month.
The IOT will be followed by a 10-day testing of communications across the coverage area, which is a further quality-check measure ensuring commercial readiness. During this phase, calls will be made and tested from various countries, and test teams will be stationed throughout the new coverage area of the Asia-Pacific.
Underscoring this accomplishment, Thuraya’s CEO stressed that the expansion of Thuraya’s space system is part of the company’s unrelenting dynamism to expand, innovate and maintain the satellite handhelds market leadership.
“The service launch in Asia-Pacific will be a significant growth landmark, opening enormous commercial horizons for business, and bringing Thuraya to a whole new world of potential subscribers, distribution channels, application partners and technology-savvy markets,” he said.
Parallel to technical readiness which has been undergoing since early 2007, the commercial infrastructure has also been put in place in time, with highly promising distribution and marketing partnerships established with strong networks in such key markets as China, Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Macau.
Thuraya is currently the most widely used and most dynamic operator for satellite handhelds worldwide. Once operational next month, the new satellite will double the target market and potentially the subscriber base under Thuraya’s footprint, by covering two thirds of the globe’s population.