SATELLITE FLEET AND CONTROL INFRASTRUCTURE
As of 2015, the HISPASAT fleet is comprised of satellites located at the 30° West, 55.5° West, 61° West and 84° West orbital positions and provides coverage to Europe, North Africa and the Americas. It also has orbital rights at the 36° West position to provide additional services to Europe and the Americas, as well as a new orbital position at 74° West obtained through a bid in Brazil.
Over the course of this business year, the name of the satellites was modified. This change is in response to the growing number of Group satellites and orbital positions over the past few years.
From now on, all satellites in the fleet have used Hispasat as their base name, to which supplementary information relating to each satellite, such as the orbital position and order of arrival to that position, has been added. This does not apply to Amazonas satellites, which have been fully established on the market and are located at American positions, which will keep the original name.
The Hispasat 30W-4 and Hispasat 30W-5 (Hispasat 1D y 1E) satellites are located at the 30° West position and provide a wide range of communication services to Spain, Portugal, the rest of Europe, North Africa and the Americas. They have Ku and Ka band capacity and offer full connectivity between Europe and the Americas for voice, data, audiovisual content and Internet services, among others.
The Amazonas 2, 3 and 4 satellites at the 61° West position provide optimal telecommunications services to the Americas that are adapted to its specific communication needs. The offer has been expanded as a result of changes in orbital positions: 84º West where the Hispasat 84W-1 (Hispasat 1C) satellite was moved, and 55.5º Wars where the Amazonas 1 (Hispasat 55W-2/IS34) satellite was located in order to provide services in new markets with high demand. The Ku and C band capacity of the satellite fleet together with the Ka band capacity of the Amazonas 3 and Hispasat 30W-5 (Hispasat 1E) satellites offer a greater range of services with higher bandwidth and innovative technologies.
The HISPASAT Group has stations and control centres in Arganda del Rey and Tres Cantos in the province of Madrid, Las Palmas/Maspalomas on the island of Gran Canaria, and Guaratiba in Rio de Janeiro, in order to operate and monitor the satellite fleet from Earth.
In 2015 the adaptation and expansion process of the control ground segment continued for the operation of the new Hispasat 30W-6 (Hispasat 1F), Hispasat 36W-1 (Hispasat AG1) and Amazonas 5 satellites, currently under construction. This process involved new earth stations, a new transportable testbed in orbit, and equipment associated with the specific locations and operation centres. Civil engineering projects were also launched to build new control installations in Serviente, Brazil, and install new stations in Arganda and Maspalomas.
Moreover, HISDESAT Servicios Estratégicos, of which HISPASAT is a stakeholder, is developing a satellite communications programme to be used by Spain’s Ministry of Defence.
This programme currently has two state-of-the-art satellites, Spainsat (launched at 2006) and Xtar-Eur (launched at 2005), which are located at the 30° West and 29° East positions, respectively. The combined coverage of these satellites reaches two-thirds of the earth’s surface, creating mobility and interconnection that provide the system with great flexibility, autonomy and the capacity to offer immediate responses to the different needs of governmental communications. Both satellites have a minimum useful life of 15 years.
To control the Spainsat satellite, the system uses the available resources at the control centres located in Arganda del Rey and Maspalomas, whereas control of the Xtar-Eur satellite is carried out via the control centres in Ottawa, Canada, and Mt. Jackson, USA.
During 2015, HISDESAT continued to carry out the activities included in its programming schedule as planned.
NEW POSITIONS
In 2015, HISPASAT, through its Brazilian affiliate HISPAMAR, acquired new orbital rights at the 74° West position in an auction held by Brazilian regulator ANATEL. These rights allow the company to use the Ku band in that orbital position.
In October 2015, HISPASAT started to sell the available capacity of Hispasat 55W-2 (Intelsat 34) satellite in accordance with the strategic agreement reached between the two operators. As established by this agreement, Hispasat 55W-1 (Amazonas 1), which was moved to this position, stopped providing services once the services had been transferred to the new satellite.
Furthermore, an agreement with Eutelsat has been reached to operate the EUT 36WA satellite, previously called EUT-12WA, in the 36° West position and open this position earlier than planned, so that it occurs before the entry into operation of Hispasat 36W-1 (Hispasat AG1).
At the end of 2015, the company had six orbital position: 30° West, 61° West, 36° West, 55.5° West, as established by the agreement signed with Intelsat, 84º West and 74° West, after winning the auction held by ANATEL.
LANDING RIGHTS AND ORBIT-SPECTRUM RESOURCES
The HISPASAT Group has the required licences and authorisations, otherwise known as landing rights, to operate in all countries that receive coverage from its satellite system. This includes all countries in Western and Central Europe, the Americas and North Africa.
In 2015 progress was made in obtaining the landing rights for the Amazonas 4 (Amazonas 4A) satellite, as well as obtaining them for the Hispasat 36W-1 (Hispasat AG1) satellite.
During this year, sixteen new authorisations or licences related to the HISPASAT satellite fleet were obtained.
At the same time, given the growth of current operators and the emergence of new operators, the analysis of documents published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and coordination activities with other operators and governments were intensified in 2015 with the goal of maintaining HISPASAT Group’s orbit spectrum resources.
Likewise, the intensive search continued for new orbit-spectrum resource opportunities that could be useful to the Group in the framework of its growth strategy.
SPACE CAPACITY OPERATIONS AND BROADBAND
SPACE CAPACITY
The space capacity of the satellite fleet is controlled in PMC (Payload Monitoring Control) centres, which perform the functions of the Network Operations Centre, managing space capacity, 24/7 support and customer care, line-up/down of carriers, monitoring of signals, interference detection, peak and pol, and resolution of service incidents.
PMC has centres operating 24/7 in Arganda del Rey and in Rio de Janeiro, and remote measurement stations (CMS) located in different coverage beams in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and the United States. Likewise, they have baseband analysis systems and tools to allocate space and transmission capacity (SIGO).
PMC has an office for occasional use (booking) for space capacity to provide occasional, short-term services, and supports the digital platforms of broadband services.
The increase in satellite occupancy has led to a significant rise in tasks related to monitoring and customer support for all orbital positions and satellites (30° West, 55.5° West, 61° West and 84° West).
The entry into operation of the Hispasat 55W-2 (IS34) satellite has allowed services provided at the 55.5° West orbital position to continue. Test broadcasts have also been carried out through a temporary “gap filler” satellite in Ka band frequencies at the 36° West orbital position.
The agreements reached in regular operational meetings with clients, the preventive actions carried out by PMC, and the correct use of space capacity by system clients have ensured the high quality and availability of HISPASAT services, with values close to 100% for most satellites.
As for monitoring systems, the expansion of the radio frequency measurement system (CMS) has been launched, involving new stations and measurement systems to obtain additional capacity and incorporate new satellites in 2016-2017. Expansion of the management system (SIGO) is also underway to cover the needs of the business.
Relationships with the operators Intelsat and Telesat, which have orbital positions adjacent to those of the HISPASAT fleet, have been strengthened with the aim of controlling ASI (Adjacent Satellite Interference). Operational coordination is essential since each operator must identify the coordinates of the client stations that potentially create or receive interferences from other satellites out of their control.
In addition, HISPASAT joined the Space Data Association (SDA), a global operational coordination forum made up of satellite operators from different regions (EMEA, Latam, etc.), in order to share operational data and preventive actions that eliminate or mitigate interferences and share orbital coordination in different problem situations.
BROADBAND, MULTIMEDIA AND INTERNET
The HISPASAT broadband platform is an international leader in the provision of distinct mobility services on trains, based on bidirectional satellite technology, as well as deployment in areas lacking proper infrastructure, thus contributing to the economic and social development of technologically disadvantaged communities. HISPASAT has several platforms that offer the best solution for the corporate, residential and mobility (ships, high-speed trains, vehicles and planes) sectors.
Residential broadband services
HISPASAT, in line with the aim of reducing the digital divide, reached an agreement with Euskaltel to deploy Internet services via satellite in remote areas without connectivity and in areas with limited connectivity, where other services such as fibre optics are not available. To do so, a new hub on the Ku band was deployed. It will also offer services on the Ka band with multi-spot configuration once said capacity is available for the future satellites Hispasat 30W-6 (Hispasat 1F) and Hispasat 36W-1 (Hispasat AG1). In addition, talks with Internet providers (ISP) have resumed in order to offer more competitive services following the completion of Plan Avanza.
Broadband mobility services
HISPASAT has developed and implemented a pilot project on a RENFE high-speed train (AVE) to provide Internet service with a bandwidth of up to 40 Mbps, combining satellite and 4G technologies.
Furthermore, the multicast video service has been validated and works simultaneously with data services to offer TV channels aboard the train. The successful test results helped get HISPASAT incorporated into the Telefónica-led consortium, which RENFE awarded the contract for the connectivity in Spain’s AVE trains.
Likewise, the services available for France and Belgium’s high-speed Thalys train have been successfully transferred to the new i-Direct technology in order to obtain greater efficiency and flexibility in mobility solutions.
Finally, the company continues to offer on-board Internet service to ISPs in the maritime sector and, in particular, Syntelix has expanded the fleet of ships using HISPASAT services.
Corporate broadband services
During 2015 the use of manufacturer Gilat’s corporate platform was established in European and Latin American markets. In Spain, new projects with small- and medium-sized ISPs and with the operator Cellnex have been launched. In addition, the transfer from the old hub to a new Gilat hub was completed, with significant coordination efforts involving the operators and end customers. In Latin America, new projects with local ISPs have been launched and most services have been transferred to Gilat’s new hub with satisfactory results.
The distinct activities performed have helped expand and improve the corporate broadband service portfolio in the various coverage areas. For example, some clients are specialised in the Internet of Things (IoT) and provide back-up and SCADA (telemetry/telecommand) services to security companies to strengthen and prevent any weaknesses in their services, and to be able to provide these services in remote areas without connectivity.