TORONTO – Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite closed 2005 serving approximately 35,000 data customers, company vice-president Paul Bush told delegates at the Canadian Satellite Users Association conference being held in Toronto.
In fact, demand was initially so high that it and its U.S. partner Wild Blue, had trouble meeting demand for the consumer equipment. “We had more demand than we had hardware,” he said in his opening remarks.
Ka is a “spot beam” technology that allows for two-way data transfer and is a key way for those outside urban areas to get far higher data transmission speeds than is available via dial-up.
Calling 2005 “a very good year for Telesat – the best in our history,” Bush outlined a bit more of what’s ahead for the Bell Canada Enterprises-controlled company.
He said Anik F3 will launch “in the August time-frame” and re-iterated the recent news about construction of Nimiq 4.
As for what’s next? Bush said that growth in its VSAT business is growing – such as training transmissions to large organizations like GM and Ford – and that Anik G1 (another Ka satellite), Anik G2 (to serve Latin America) and Nimiq 5 (more HD) are all on the drawing board.
