Belarus to launch communication satellite by March 2016

Plans have been made to launch the Belarusian communication satellite Belintersat 1 by March 2016, BelTA learned from Andrei Abramov, the project’s supervisor, Deputy Director for Development of the Belarusian enterprise Precision Electromechanics Factory, during a roundtable session held as part of TIBO 2015 on 23 April.

Andrei Abramov explained: “The Belarusian-Chinese project to create the national satellite communication and broadcasting system in Belarus began in 2013. We plan to launch the satellite in the period from December 2015 through March 2016. Our Chinese partners say that it will be done before mid-March and are working hard to do it even sooner.”

In his words, orbital testing will begin after that. “Once the satellite passes orbital trials, we will be ready to provide services to consumers. We plan to do that in early Q2 2016. Frankly speaking, we plan to offer communication services before the Belarusian satellite is launched by relying on resources of the satellite of a partner company. We are now choosing the partner that will be able to offer minimal prices to our consumers,” he remarked.

Andrei Abramov stressed that the implementation of the project to create the national satellite communication and broadcasting system proceeds vigorously. “The designing of the booster rocket and the satellite is over. The ground infrastructure — a ground control station in Stankovo, 40km away from Minsk — is being built. The installation of buildings and structures is getting finished over there. The installation of antennas and equipment will last till autumn,” he said.

“Our project is export-oriented and we are interested in selling as much of the satellite’s resource capacity as possible. We can already offer the creation of corporate communication networks relying on our satellite to customers in Belarus. We are also going to offer all the modern telecommunication services such as Internet access, data transfer, voice, telephony, low-speed telemetry,” said Andrei Abramov. The executive said that the Belintersat project is a state one. “The system is being built in accordance with the presidential decree. The state provides all kinds of assistance with implementing the project and presents certain obligations such as the repayment of the borrowed resources and the provision of services for needs of the state. Breakeven tariffs will be offered to state enterprises,” he said.

The 22nd international forum on telecommunication, information, and banking technologies TIBO 2015 is scheduled to take place in Minsk on 22-25 April. The forum includes the 22nd international specialized expo TIBO 2015 and the 22nd Belarusian congress on information society technologies. The expo gathered representatives of over 200 companies from 13 countries (Belarus, Russia, Austria, China, Japan, and the USA). Foreign exhibitors account for 20% of the total number, with the share of new exhibitors at about 30%. The number includes major Belarusian and foreign manufacturers of telecommunication equipment, computers and software, security solutions, providers of all kinds of information and communication services.