Kuala Lumpur, 7 June 2011 – MEASAT Global Bhd (“MEASAT”) announced today it had entered into a contract with Astrium SAS (“Astrium”) for the procurement of the MEASAT- 3b satellite. The agreement was executed by a MEASAT Global subsidiary company.
Based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, MEASAT-3b will provide an additional 48 Ku-Band transponders to the 91.5*E orbital location. Designed to operate in tandem with the MEASAT-3 and MEASAT-3a spacecraft, the new satellite will provide high powered Ku- Band capacity for Direct-To-Home (“DTH”) and Broadband VSAT services across Malaysia, Indonesia and India. The satellite has also been designed to support a fourth market. MEASAT-3b will have a contractual life of 15 years and is expected to be launched end 2013. The program is expected to cost around RM1bn.
“By more than doubling our Ku-Band capacity at 91.5*E, MEASAT-3b will allow the Group to continue to meet the increasing requirements of our DTH and telecommunication customers in Malaysia and across the region,” said Datuk Umar bin Haji Abu, Chairman, MEASAT Global Bhd. “Co-located with the MEASAT-3 and MEASAT-3a spacecraft, MEASAT-3b will also add further redundancy to our fleet creating the region’s most robust satellite network able to provide the highest levels of service assurance to our customers.”
MEASAT currently supports five (5) DTH platforms across Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Brunei providing PayTV services to more than 10 million households. The new satellite will allow the company to expand its support to existing customers while supporting the growth into new markets.
About MEASAT Global
MEASAT is a premium supplier of satellite communication services to Asia’s leading broadcasters, DTH platforms and telecom operators. With a fleet of state-of-the-art satellites, MEASAT is able to provide satellite capacity to over 145 countries representing 80% of the world’s population across Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe and Australia. MEASAT provides a complete range of broadcast and telecommunications services including high definition and standard definition video playout, broadband services, video turnaround, co-location, uplinking and IP termination. For more information, please visit http://www.measat.com.
About Astrium SAS
Astrium SAS is the number one company in Europe for space technologies and a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services.
In 2010, Astrium had a turnover of O5 billion and more than 15,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure, Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment, and Astrium Services for comprehensive end-to-end solutions covering secure and commercial satcoms and networks, high security satellite communications equipment, bespoke geo-information and navigation services worldwide.
For more information, please visit http://www.astrium.eads.net/
MEASAT Global Berhad MEASAT Teleport & Broadcast Centre, 63000 Cyberjaya, Malaysia Tel: +60 (3) 8213 2188 Fax: +60 (3) 8213 2120 www.measat.com
