Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk:The government is going to hire an internationally recognised and experienced firm to run the marketing activities of the country’s first satellite Bangabandhu-I, reports BSS.
The government will do it to grab the maximum financial benefit from both domestic and international market by selling the frequency of the satellite, said officials.
Talking to the news agency, Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Dr Shahjahan Mahmood said the ministry of posts and telecommunications have already floated tender for the job.
“We will hire an internally renowned and vast experienced firm for marketing of satellite (Bangabandhu-I) because it’s a new type of marketing,” he added.
Bangladesh’s first communication satellite would be launched to the orbit in the second or third week of April from the Cape Canaveral Launching Pad in Florida of the USA.
The satellite will have 40 transponders, of which 14 in C-band and 26 in Ku-band. One transponder is equivalent to 36 MHz.
The BTRC chairman said 20 transponders will be deployed for domestic users while the remaining will be sold in international market.
Referring to 37 television (TV) channels in Bangladesh, he said the TV channels spend over $ 14 million annually for the rent of foreign satellite. “But when the own satellite will be in the orbit, they will be asked to use it.”
Besides, it is also possible to sell the frequency to different countries with handsome foreign currency. “So, we can reach in the break even stage during the half of the life span of the satellite,” hoped Dr Shahjahan Mahmood.
The satellite has 15 years for mission life span while another 3 years for its design.
Replying to a query reading the satellite’s position into the orbit which will not be viable for country’s TV channels, the BTRC chairman said: “We will collaborate with other foreign satellite to ensure the presence of our TVs where they will desire.”
Officials said Ku-band will cover Bangladesh and its territorial water bodies of the Bay of Bengal, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines.
On the other hand, C-band will cover Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and portions of Kazakhstan.
Bangabandhu-I satellite will offer video services for Direct-to-Home (DTH), e-learning, Tele-medicine, Family Planning, Farming etc while voice service to cellular backhaul, disaster recovery etc and data service for internet, SCADA, SOHO as well as business-to-business (VSAT) etc.
In November 2015, the BTRC signed a $248-million deal with French company Thales Alenia Space to manufacture and launch the country’s first satellite. Falcon 9, one of the SpaceX’s finest launch vehicles will be used for the Bangabandhu Satellite-I.
Bangladesh will be the 57th country when the satellite would be launched into the orbital slot on 119.1 degree east longitude which (slot) was bought from Russian satellite company “Intersputnik” for US$ 28 million in January 2015.
