Page 60 - SAMENA Trends - January 2022

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SATELLITE NEWS

Oman Issues Omansat-1 Satellite Tender

Omani Space Communication Technologies has
launched a tender for the design, manufacture and
launch of its first satellite called "Omansat-1", Al
Arabiya reported citing state television. The Sultanate
intends to launch its first satellite dedicated
to telecommunications in 2024. The company
intends to launch a high-capacity communications
satellite and its related services, covering the whole
Sultanate, its economic waters and the foreign
markets associated with it, the company said in a
filing. It invited technical and commercial bids and
said the last date to purchase the tender document
is July 15, while bids are due by September 21.
Space Communication Technologies is one of the
Omani Telecom and Information Technology Group
companies.

Intelsat Taps Thales for Latest Satellites

Intelsat, which is set to emerge from terrestrial coverage, after teaming with this year. Vodafone Group-backed AST
bankruptcy protection this year, arranged start-up Omnispace. In January 2021, SpaceMobile plans to begin offering mobile
the purchase of two satellites from OneWeb secured $400 million in additional service from its network of satellites in
Thales Alenia Space to support its aim to investment from Hughes Network Systems 2023, while Russian operator MegaFon is
provide 5G services from space. The US- and SoftBank Group, and is targeting exploring options to close coverage gaps.
based satellite service provider signed completion of its first full commercial fleet
an agreement with the joint venture
company of Thales and Leonardo to build
the geostationary orbit satellites. Intelsat
41 and Intelsat 44 (IS-41 and IS-44,
respectively) are scheduled to be in service
in 2025 and will complement two Airbus-
built satellites, IS-42 and IS-43, which were
announced in January 2021. IS-41 and IS-
44 will provide capacity over Africa, Europe,
the Middle East and Asia for commercial
and government mobile services, and
backhaul. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler
stated the latest satellites will enable it to
“blanket the earth” with software-defined
satellites, “progressing the world’s first
global 5G software-defined network,
designed to unify the global telecoms
ecosystem”. Several companies are
pursuing space-based connectivity. For
example, aerospace and defence company
Lockheed Martin is also developing a
satellite-based 5G system to supplement

60 JANUARY 2022