SES (News - Alert) NEW SKIES, an SES company, has entered into a multi-year, multi-transponder agreement with India’s Essel Group for the provision of C-band satellite capacity to support the digitalization of India’s vast cable infrastructure comprising more than 70 million homes.

 

The agreement is for capacity ramping up to six transponders over a five-year period, and initially covers capacity on NSS-703 at 57° East, transitioning to NSS-12 in 2009.

 

The new, state-of-the-art NSS-12 satellite will be available for commercial service in 2009, replacing NSS-703 at 57° East, and bringing increased C- and Ku-band capacity, as well as optimized transmission power to a key orbital location at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.

 

With 88 C- and Ku-band transponders NSS-12 will be among the largest and most powerful spacecraft in the SES NEW SKIES (News - Alert) fleet. The satellite will deliver a broad array of services, ranging from direct-to-home broadcast and video contribution, to maritime services and enterprise or government networks.

 

At the crossroads of three continents, NSS-703 at 57º East provides vital cross-connectivity for Europe, Africa and Asia. NSS-703 is ideal for video contribution from Europe to India and Africa, and is capable of bringing signals from London to India and Australia in one hop.

 

The Essel Group will use SES NEW SKIES’ satellite capacity to support a new digital headend-in-the-sky (HITS) platform to distribute pay-TV signals to cable headends serving millions of Indian homes. To that effect, WWIL, an Essel Group company, plans to convert its existing analog cable service to “HITS”and to roll out a service of up to 150 digital channels across India.

 

The initiative is in line with the stated objective of the Indian government to speed up the deployment of digital infrastructure, and to enable conditional access services and value added services to more than 100 Indian cities and towns with populations greater than one million inhabitants.

 

"SES NEW SKIES is a valuable partner for the Essel Group and this capacity initiative complements and grows the very important relationship we have in place with SES for services which range from direct-to-home satellite, VSAT and now for “HITS”capacity.

 

The Essel Group will continue to offer the widest range of entertainment choices and state-of-the art solutions to the Indian consumer with the support of partners like SES NEW SKIES," said an Essel Group spokesperson, in a statement.

 

The Essel Group is one of India’s prominent business houses with a diverse portfolio of assets in media, packaging, entertainment, technology-enabled services, infrastructure development and education.

 

Deepak Mathur, vice president of sales, South Asia, for SES NEW SKIES, said, “We are delighted to continue our strategic collaboration with the Essel Group. SES NEW SKIES already provides Ku-band capacity for Dish TV on NSS-6, VSAT capacity on NSS-11 in cooperation with Antrix Corporation (the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization), and now C-band capacity for this key digitalization initiative of Essel’s cable infrastructure. The Essel Group is one of our most valued customers globally and we are thrilled to have been selected to support the nationwide roll-out of “HITS,” which is set to provide more digital television choice to millions of Indian cable homes.”

 

SES NEW SKIES is an SES company offering satellite communication services to a range of customers including telecommunications providers, broadcasters, corporations and governments around the world. SES NEW SKIES has a global fleet of seven satellites in orbit, with three additional spacecraft under construction (NSS-9, NSS-12 and NSS-14) and ground facilities around the world.