Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) is one of a number of operators that sees a great opportunity in the maritime market. The company, which is planning on launching its Thor 7 satellite in the early part of 2014 is seeing increased demand for services from the shipping community.
   Thor 7 will have a Ka-band payload on board and give TSBc extra opportunities to sell into this vertical. The Ka band payload is fitted with spot beams covering in areas including the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, the Red Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. The Ka band payload will address the surge in demand for high bandwidth requirements from the maritime industry and aims to deliver a bandwidth efficient service with high bit rates to meet customers’ expectations.
   Cato Halsaa, CEO, TSBc told the Comsys 2012 E-Daily, “Our Ku-band capacity on Intelsat 10-02 is nearly exhausted. In order for us to continue to grow new markets we needed to find new capacity. Ka-band is just an excellent opportunity for us to get this expansion capacity. Everybody needs always on connectivity and the need for capacity is growing. If you think about these ships, they are very big capital investments. The ship owners want to integrate these platforms the same way companies wants to integrate their factories. This is where all this is coming from. To retain crew in today’s world, you need to offer them strong communications services.”
   The company is already seeing strong revenue growth in this market, and this is likely to continue once the Thor 7 satellite is launched. “We are seeing strong revenue growth in this market. We are in the middle of completing the swap of capacity where we have directed Middle East capacity back into Europe. As a result, we have managed to grow with a number of good maritime customers for Ku-band, and some of them have already indicated a willingness to expand into Ka-band,” says Halsaa.
   TSBc launched its Thor 6 satellite back in 2009, which bought the operator a great deal of expansion capacity. It recently commissioned its Thor 7 satellite in 2011, when Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) won the contract to build this satellite. In terms of what might be coming down the pipe for new satellites for the company, Halsaa says, “Our strategy is that at first we need to be successful with Thor 7 which will commence commercial operation in 2014. We need to make sure we have some customers signed up. We have Thor III protecting our frequencies at 4 degrees West and have an opportunity to put a 40 channel satellite up there. However at this stage it is to early to speculate on what we might do there. We are toying with various options to find the market potential for those channels. In terms of Thor 7, we have already made some good inroads and signed our first co-operative agreement with Norsk Romsenter.”
   While commissioning a new satellite maybe some time away, the operator’s next satellite could be an all electric satellite. Boeing signed deals earlier this with Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and SatMex, and Halsaa admits this is one option TSBc may well look at in the future. He says, “When we start thinking about the next satellite, this will surely be one option which we will look at very closely. Electric propulsion has been around for a long time. With the Boeing business it has for the first time blossomed into an interesting satellite proposition for smaller operators. We think it is great that a company is trailblazing in this way with new technology.”
   The operator is mainly targeting growth in the maritime market as well as the broadcasting markets of Central and Eastern Europe. With much talk recently of OTT as well as ultra-HD (4 and 8K TV), the operator hopes the recent industry buzz around ultra-HD will come to fruition. Halsaa adds, “4K is much more promising than 3-D TV. 3-D TV did not offer a lot of new bandwidth for us. It is complicated in the servers and homes. It is complicated for broadcasters. 4K will be a driver like HD has been. But, HD is by no means complete. I think 4K will become as important to the satellite industry as HD was.”