Ghana leads queue for NigComSAT-1R transponders

WITH satellite coverage of over 40 African countries in the orbit, NigComSAT-1R may have started to attract the commercial attention it deserved with Ghana leading the queue to have access to the services of the replaced Nigerian Communication Satellite (NigComSAT-1R) launched last month in China.

This is coming barely a fortnight after the launch of NigComSAT-1R, which was monitored globally, even as Ghana has ordered for two transponders.

A communications satellite’s transponder is the series of interconnected units which form a communications channel between the receiving and the transmitting antennas.

A transponder is composed of an input band limiting device known as a band pass filter, in addition to having an input low-noise amplifier (LNA), designed to amplify the normally very weak, because of the large distances involved signals received from the earth station. Even as it’s a frequency translator; normally composed of an oscillator and a frequency mixer and used to convert the frequency of the received signal to the frequency required for the transmitted signal.

Experts at Wikipedia, an online open source encyclopedia explained that most communication satellites are radio relay stations in orbit, and carry dozens of transponders, each with a bandwidth of tens of megahertz. Most transponders operate on a “bent pipe” principle, sending back to earth of what goes into the conduit with only amplification and a shift from uplink to downlink frequency.

Confirming this at a maiden media interaction after the launch of NigComSAT-1R, the chief executive officer, NigComSAT, Mr. Timansaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, said that Ghana and Congo are some of the countries on the continent keenly interested on receiving service offering from NigComSAT, just as Ghana has asked for two transponders.

He noted that the replacement satellite is of no cost to Nigeria, while the commercialization potential of NigComSAT extends beyond the current 40 African coverage to China and Asia as well as Europe among others.

NigComSAT, Ahmed-Rufai said, is specifically for Africa and has been globally positioned.

He disclosed that talks are on with MainOne, a cable company in Nigeria to enter into partnership with NigComSAT through deployment of its services and compliment the efforts of MainOne in extending broadband availability to homes in the country.

This step, he said, would usher into homes what he described as ‘Internet surfing without tears.”

Ahmed-Rufai who was accompanied at the session by the Executive Director, Marketing, Ms Bimbola Alale, Head, Legal Services, Ms Alima Udoye and General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Planning, Mr. Olabode Oroge, said that Nigerians are fully in control of the recently launched satellite which arrived its orbital home successfully on December 27, 2011, which is approximately seven days or 168 hours after it was launched, stressing that it will remain there in the next 15 years plus when its lifespan is expected to expire.

He underscored the fact that the satellite was built on a DFH-4 platform and was successfully launched on a Long March 3B/E launch vehicle into the geo-transfer orbit (GTO) on Monday, December 19, 2011 at exactly 5.41pm local time, from Xichang satellite launch centre in China.

As said by him, following the separation of the satellite from the launch vehicle, the satellite was injected into the geo-transfer orbit and subsequently began its journey to the final orbital position of 42.5degree East in the GEO-stationary orbit.

“This operation is referred to as Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) operations of the satellite lasted for one week with about five orbital maneuvers carried out successfully,” he said, maintaining that the satellite was placed in its final orbital position of 42.5 degrees East at exactly 00:58 GMT, on Tuesday, December,27, 2011.

He said that the satellite now positioned, is within the view of the two NigComSat ground control centres based in Lugbe, Abuja and Kashi in China respectively, of which NigComSat-1R is now monitored and controlled from the Abuja ground station; where the data from the satellite are presently being received real-time.

Hence, he said that In-Orbit Testing (IOT) has commenced and will last another 40 days from the date of arrival at orbital home, before commercial activities could take off, to ensure that the tests satellite conform with the design requirements.

“Upon the successful completion of IOT, it is expected that commercial services shall commence in the first week of February 2012. In anticipation of this, the Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform, broadband Internet services and other services are being prepared for hosting on the satellite as soon as commercial activities flag off,” he said.

Remmy Nweke

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