SES to launch 2 new satellites for Echostar

[A_Noland]

You can read the press release here.

I wonder what E* will do with these?

 

[smodak]

More HD? Or maybe, More Locals? Has to be more locals as Charlie does not like more HD

 

[GaryPen]

It's for the new Uzbekistan Package, 12 more shopping channels, and 5 channels in that African tongue click language.

 

[Mr Tony]

Isn't one of them replacing the one at 105 so it covers the whole US?

 

[BobMurdoch]

I'm assuming these are the replacements for the birds that caused the 180 on the Superdish rollout last year..... Anyone have hard info yet?

 

[GaryPen]

More HD? Or maybe, More Locals? Has to be more locals as Charlie does not like more HD

More HD for Cable, anyway:

The company said on Friday its AMC-11 satellite would be ready for launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on May 19 to support high-definition cable television services in the United States.

 

[jlhugh]

I guess the other 2 are for E*

 

[Stargazer]

One is to replace the 105 FSS satellite, maybe the other would be used for additional locals, two-way internet satellite that is supposed to launch in 2005, more HD content, backup, etc.

 

[James Long]

SES said the first of the three satellites would go into orbit in the first quarter of next year, the second in the first quarter of 2006, and the third in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The 105 replacement bird (AMC-15) will be going up this year, so it isn't one of the three. E* is planning a new spotbeam satellite next year, which may be one of theirs. In addition, they need to do something with the 148 and 157 slot birds ... once the auction is over this summer and they know if they got the rest of 157.

JL

 

[bcshields]

157 won't do anybody any good on the east coast... unless you're up high. I mean high.

My thinking was E*X goes up this year to 110, and one of the two replacement AMC's goes to 105.. don't know where the third will go.

That'll give lots of capacity for HD and locals.

 

[A_Noland]

The AMC-15 bird for 105 is going up Q3 of this year. Read about it here. ]here.[/URL]

 

[James Long]

157 won't do anybody any good on the east coast... unless you're up high. I mean high.

About the same use as 61.5 is for Hawaii and Alaska. 157 would have use for the non-contiguous US plus the western time zones.

My thinking was E*X goes up this year to 110, and one of the two replacement AMC's goes to 105.. don't know where the third will go.

Don't forget these new birds are for NEXT YEAR. AMC-15 for 105 is this year (hopefully solving the HD problem ... if E* decides to try HD at 105 again).

And the third bird in the press release is for Europe.

JL

 

[Ken F]

AMC-15 is scheduled for 105 in 3Q 2004.

This agreement with SES-Americom calls for two new satellites to be launched for use by Echostar, AMC-14 and AMC-16. AMC-14 is a DBS bird that will be built for launch to 105.5 (or 114.5) in 2006, assuming Dish can convince the FCC to permit 4.5 degree DBS spacing. AMC-16 is an identical copy the AMC-15 bird, and scheduled to go up in 1Q 2005. The launch slot for AMC-16 is not yet known.

AMC-16 would make sense as a supporting satellite at 105 if this particular A2100AX design can be used in double power mode. When AMC-15 was first announced, it was reported to operate at 120 watts. The SES-Americom now lists it at 140 watts. If both it and AMC-16 can function in double power mode at 280 watts per transponder, that should allow for a substantially smaller Superdish.

For those curious, the A2100AX (of AMC-15, AMC-16) is the same basic design used in the E*III, E*IV, E*VII, and Rainbow DBS (VOOM) satellites. All of these particular implementations support double-power mode, so there is a reasonable likelihood that AMC-15 and AMC-16 do as well.

 

[Stargazer]

If it would be a substantially smaller SuperDish then could it be as small as the DBS dishes (ParaTodos dish that DirecTv uses or Dish 500) at around 20-24"? I bet it would be a bit more subject to rainfade. Perhaps they would plan on swapping out many if not all of the Dish 300's and Dish 500's to a new dish in order to receive locals and/or HD and/or internet content in the future if they can have a lot more capacity with 4.5 degree spacing.

 

[Ken F]

Stargazer,

They'd still need a larger dish to differentiate between the slots. However, they might be able to do something closer to 28x20, which would be much smaller than the 36x21 and 34x24 they are using now.

As JohnH noted on DBSTalk, Star Choice wouldn't be too thrilled about Dish doubling up its high-power transponders on 105.

Perhaps they would plan on swapping out many if not all of the Dish 300's and Dish 500's to a new dish in order to receive locals and/or HD and/or internet content in the future if they can have a lot more capacity with 4.5 degree spacing.

This is still a long way off -- 2006 -- and it may not materialize unless the FCC agrees. If service were offered at 105.5, it would probably be dedicated to HD, thus only a small minority of customers would need to be swapped. By moving the HD from 110 to 105.5, they would also free up capacity on 110 for more SD channels.