Telesat Canada
Encyclopedia
Telesat Canada is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa
, Ontario
as well as having offices in the United States
and Brazil
.
On October 5, 2007 Loral Space & Communications
Inc. and the Public Pension Investment Board of Canada received the final regulatory approval necessary to complete the acquisition of Telesat from BCE Inc. for CAD $3.25 billion. The acquisition closed on October 31, 2007, with Loral owning 64 percent of Telesat.
At the same time, Telesat Canada merged with Loral Skynet, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications
. Loral Skynet was a full-service global satellite
operator headquartered in Bedminster, New Jersey. This resulted in the transfer of all of the assets of Loral Skynet to Telesat.
Telesat carries Canada's two major DBS
providers signals: Bell TV and Shaw Direct, as well as more than 200 of Canada's television channels.
Telesat's Anik F2 carries a 'Spot Beam' KA band
payload for satellite internet access for users in the United States (Wildblue) and tens of thousands of users in Canada (Xplornet). The KA band system uses 'Spot Beams' to manage bandwidth concerns, linking to multiple satellite ground stations connected to the internet.
Skynet’s customers included HBO
, Disney
, Cable & Wireless
, Singapore Telecom, Connexion by Boeing
, Global Crossing
, BT North America, Globecomm Systems, UPC and China Central Television
. These are now Telesat customers.
Loral Skynet provided a wide range of video and data transmission services. It became a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications
when Loral acquired it in 1997 from AT&T
.
Skynet’s fleet consists of Telstar
s-11N, -12, -14R(Estrela do Sul 2), and -18. In 2003, Skynet sold its North American satellite fleet (Telstars 5 through 8 and 13) to Intelsat
; they were renamed Intelsat Americas 5–8 and 13. This was done to help reduce debt after its parent, Loral Space & Communications
, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 15, 2003. As part of the agreement, Skynet was precluded from competing in the North America
n market until March 18, 2006. In June 2007, Loral Space & Communications made an unsuccessful bid to acquire Intelsat. http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20070615:MTFH11281_2007-06-15_20-43-48_N15308217&type=comktNews&rpc=44
, operated by a commercial company. The satellite was retired from use in 1981.
On December 18, 2006, Loral Space & Communications
announced that it, along with Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board
(PSP Investments), would acquire Telesat for US$2.8b.
On November 17, 2010: Telesat Holding Inc. hired JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG to start a formal sales process and offer so-called staple financing to interest buyers for $6 billion to $7 billion.
Telesat announced on December 30, 2009 that Nimiq 6 will be built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L). Bell TV, a Canadian satellite TV provider has agreed to fully lease this new satellite for its lifetime to serve the subscribers across Canada. Nimiq 6 will have a payload of 32 high powered Ku-band transponders. It will utilize the SS/L1300 platform and has a planned 15 year mission life. It will be launched in the middle of 2012 by International Launch Services
.
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
as well as having offices in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
On October 5, 2007 Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications Inc. is a satellite communications company headed by Michael B. Targoff and incorporated in Delaware. The company was formed in 1996 from the remnants of Loral Corporation when Loral divested its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin...
Inc. and the Public Pension Investment Board of Canada received the final regulatory approval necessary to complete the acquisition of Telesat from BCE Inc. for CAD $3.25 billion. The acquisition closed on October 31, 2007, with Loral owning 64 percent of Telesat.
At the same time, Telesat Canada merged with Loral Skynet, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications Inc. is a satellite communications company headed by Michael B. Targoff and incorporated in Delaware. The company was formed in 1996 from the remnants of Loral Corporation when Loral divested its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin...
. Loral Skynet was a full-service global satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
operator headquartered in Bedminster, New Jersey. This resulted in the transfer of all of the assets of Loral Skynet to Telesat.
Services
The company is now the fourth-largest fixed satellite services provider in the world. It owns a fleet of 13 satellites, has one other satellite under construction, and operates 13 additional satellites for other entities.Telesat carries Canada's two major DBS
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
providers signals: Bell TV and Shaw Direct, as well as more than 200 of Canada's television channels.
Telesat's Anik F2 carries a 'Spot Beam' KA band
Ka band
The Ka band covers the frequencies of 26.5–40 GHz. The Ka band is part of the K band of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This symbol refers to "K-above" — in other words, the band directly above the K-band...
payload for satellite internet access for users in the United States (Wildblue) and tens of thousands of users in Canada (Xplornet). The KA band system uses 'Spot Beams' to manage bandwidth concerns, linking to multiple satellite ground stations connected to the internet.
Skynet’s customers included HBO
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
, Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC is a global telecommunications company headquartered in Bracknell, United Kingdom. Cable & Wireless specialises in providing communication networks and services to large corporates, governments, carrier customers and resellers...
, Singapore Telecom, Connexion by Boeing
Connexion by Boeing
Connexion by Boeing was an in-flight online Internet connectivity service from Boeing. This service allowed travellers to access a high-speed internet connection while on board a plane in flight through a wired Ethernet or a wireless 802.11 Wi-Fi connection. Connexion by Boeing was formed as a...
, Global Crossing
Global Crossing
Global Crossing Limited was a telecommunications company that provides computer networking services worldwide. It maintained a large backbone and offered transit and peering links, VPN, leased lines, audio and video conferencing, long distance telephone, managed services, dialup, colocation and...
, BT North America, Globecomm Systems, UPC and China Central Television
China Central Television
China Central Television or Chinese Central Television, commonly abbreviated as CCTV, is the major state television broadcaster in mainland China. CCTV has a network of 19 channels broadcasting different programmes and is accessible to more than one billion viewers...
. These are now Telesat customers.
Loral Skynet provided a wide range of video and data transmission services. It became a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications Inc. is a satellite communications company headed by Michael B. Targoff and incorporated in Delaware. The company was formed in 1996 from the remnants of Loral Corporation when Loral divested its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin...
when Loral acquired it in 1997 from AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
.
Skynet’s fleet consists of Telstar
Telstar
Telstar is the name of various communications satellites, including the first such satellite to relay television signals.The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 was launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962...
s-11N, -12, -14R(Estrela do Sul 2), and -18. In 2003, Skynet sold its North American satellite fleet (Telstars 5 through 8 and 13) to Intelsat
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
; they were renamed Intelsat Americas 5–8 and 13. This was done to help reduce debt after its parent, Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications Inc. is a satellite communications company headed by Michael B. Targoff and incorporated in Delaware. The company was formed in 1996 from the remnants of Loral Corporation when Loral divested its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin...
, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 15, 2003. As part of the agreement, Skynet was precluded from competing in the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n market until March 18, 2006. In June 2007, Loral Space & Communications made an unsuccessful bid to acquire Intelsat. http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20070615:MTFH11281_2007-06-15_20-43-48_N15308217&type=comktNews&rpc=44
History
Telesat launched Anik A1 in 1972 as the world's first domestic communications satellite in geostationary orbitGeostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...
, operated by a commercial company. The satellite was retired from use in 1981.
On December 18, 2006, Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications Inc. is a satellite communications company headed by Michael B. Targoff and incorporated in Delaware. The company was formed in 1996 from the remnants of Loral Corporation when Loral divested its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin...
announced that it, along with Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board
Public Sector Pension Investment Board
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is a Canadian crown corporation established by an act of parliament in September 1999. Its mandate is "to manage employer and employee contributions made after April 1, 2000 to the federal Public Service, the Canadian Forces and the Royal Canadian...
(PSP Investments), would acquire Telesat for US$2.8b.
On November 17, 2010: Telesat Holding Inc. hired JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG to start a formal sales process and offer so-called staple financing to interest buyers for $6 billion to $7 billion.
Satellites launched for Telesat
- Anik A1 - 1972
- Anik A2 - 1973
- Anik A3 - 1975
- Anik B - 1978
- Anik D1 - 1982 - decommissioned 1991
- Anik C3 - 1982
- Anik C2 - 1983 - sold to Paracom S.A. 1993
- Anik D2 - 1984 - sold to GE Americom 1991 and ARABSAT 1993
- Anik C1 - 1985 - sold to Paracom S.A. 1993 and decommissioned 2003
- Anik E2 - 1991
- Anik E1 - 1991
- MSATMSATMSAT, short for Mobile Satellite, is a satellite-based mobile telephony service developed by the National Research Council of Canada. Supported by a number of companies in the US and Canada, MSAT hosts a number of services, including the broadcast of CDGPS signals...
- 1996 - Nimiq 1 - 1999
- Anik F1 - 2000
- Nimiq 2 - 2002
- Anik F2 - 2004
- Anik F1R - 2005
- Anik F3 - 2007
- Telstar 11N - entered service March 31, 2009http://www.telesat.com/File/B594215A79394AD69A24FA7A237275E7
- Nimiq 4 - 2008
- Nimiq 5Nimiq 5Nimiq 5 is a Canadian communications satellite, which will be operated by Telesat Canada as part of its Nimiq fleet of satellites. It will be positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 72.7° West of the Greenwich Meridian...
- 2009 - Telstar 14R - 2011 - North solar array did not fully deploy.http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1105/25telstar14r/index.html
Future satellites
Telesat has recently announced plans to build and launch its 20th and 21st satellites.Telesat announced on December 30, 2009 that Nimiq 6 will be built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L). Bell TV, a Canadian satellite TV provider has agreed to fully lease this new satellite for its lifetime to serve the subscribers across Canada. Nimiq 6 will have a payload of 32 high powered Ku-band transponders. It will utilize the SS/L1300 platform and has a planned 15 year mission life. It will be launched in the middle of 2012 by International Launch Services
International Launch Services
International Launch Services is a U.S.-Russian joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Proton rocket launch services from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.- Ownership :...
.