OTTAWA – Satellite owner Telesat announced today that it has launched commercial services on its brand new Anik F3 satellite that launched a few weeks ago.
The new satellite provides broadcasting and telecommunications capacity and business communications throughout North America and also carries a Ka-band payload to supplement services now being carried on the Anik F2 satellite.
"With Anik F3, Telesat continues to grow its fleet of domestic satellite services to Canada and the US," said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s president and CEO, in a release. "Anik F3 will provide services to EchoStar… in the US market, as well as broadcasting and two-way Internet services."
Anik F3’s Ku-band capacity has been pre-sold to EchoStar for DTH distribution in the US. Telesat is in discussion with several companies regarding the use of the C-band capacity in both Canada and the US.
Telesat’s Anik F3 payload consists of 32 Ku-band transponders, 24 C-band transponders, and a small Ka-band payload. Anik F3 operates from the orbital position at 118.7 degrees West Longitude and has an estimated mission life of 15 years.
Manufactured by EADS Astrium, Telesat’s Anik F3 is the company’s second European-built satellite. The satellite was launched (right) on April 9, 2007 on a Proton/Breeze M rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It was Telesat’s seventeenth successful satellite launch.
