Express-AM8 (14° W) Expands Availability to a Wider Range of Users in South America
On 26 October 2022, the General Secretariat of the Andean Community took a formal decision to include the Express-AM8 satellite operated by the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) in the official register of satellites authorised to provide communications and broadcasting services in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
"I would like to thank the Secretariat of the Andean Community and our Peruvian colleagues, who took our application with seriousness and foresight, and, having verified the technical characteristics of the Express-AM8 satellite, allowed it to enter their market," said Ksenia Drozdova, Director General of Intersputnik. "Out of 26 Intersputnik member states, 17 are developing countries. So, one of the main objectives of our Organization is to bridge the digital divide by offering quality services and technologies at reasonable prices."
This event was a result of almost two-years prior efforts of the Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications to promote the satellite and terrestrial services of the 26 signatories of the Operating Agreement of Intersputnik to markets in Latin America. In particular, the agreement signed between RSCC and the Brazilian company Romantis, a subsidiary of a German signatory of Intersputnik, which obtained a licence from the local regulator to use Express-AM8 in Brazil, has created excellent conditions for successful implementation of corresponding practices in other countries of the region.
RSCC has noted the growing interest in its services from new players in the Latin American market. RSCC has already got an experience of working with operators in LATAM countries: Brazilian regional TV channels and live sports events transmissions are currently broadcasted in the Latin American Express-AM8 satellite beam, which was also previously used for corporate networks in Suriname. Express-AM8 covered the G20 summit in Argentina in 2018, while the same year it broadcasted matches from the FIFA World Cup in Russia (Peru, Chile and Colombia received the signal from Russian stadiums). In the city of Uberlândia, a monitoring station was built together with partners in Brazil to cover the entire Latin American region. "We offer Express-AM8 bandwidth in the C- and Ku-bands to provide the whole range of services, such as TV broadcasting, broadband access, mobility communications, as well as corporate VSAT networks for companies from absolutely different sectors of the economy," said Alexey Volin, RSCC Director General.
The joint favourable decision by the regulators of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru to admit Express-AM8 to the domestic market of the Andean Community opens up an opportunity for Intersputnik to participate in local tenders and to provide broadband access, broadcast media content and deliver connectivity to mobility users, offering state-of-the-art communications infrastructure at competitive prices.