Spacecom Satellite Communications Ltd. (TASE:SCC) today announced that Israeli communications satellite Amos 17 will be launched into space on schedule on Sunday, August 4 or the following day, depending on the weather, from the Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida. The satellite by Spacecom, was built by US aviation corporation Boeing and will be launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Spacecom said that the selection of these companies and their advanced technologies made it possible to build a unique satellite with an expected service expectancy of 20 years, which would establish Spacecom's international standing as a provider of innovative communications services. The satellite is designed for a location 17 degrees east above the African continent, so that it can provide television broadcasting and Internet services at every point in the growing continent.
Spacecom currently operates three communications satellites: Amos 3, Amos 4, and Amos 7, the latter of which it has been renting for the past two and a half years. The current launch is the first by the company since its previous satellite, Amos 6, exploded before launch in September 2016.
Ahead of the planned launch of Amos 17, named for its location in the sky, Spacecom today held a brief for journalists, led by CEO David Pollack. During the briefing, Pollack said, "We had an agreement on the late Amos 6 with Facebook to provide Internet for everyone in Africa. It was a dream agreement. I still remember the explosion of Amos 6, and we lost this agreement, but I hope that we can do this with Amos 17."
"Following the malfunction with Amos 6, Facebook decided that they would no longer make agreements with customers before satellite launchings. We hope that after the launch, agreements will emerge with companies like Facebook," Pollack added. He also confirmed that Facebook had already been contacted on the matter.
"We have the ability, which we did not have in the past, to contact national governments and provide them with full service," Pollack stated. He also said that Facebook had changed the model after Amos 6. Today, they no longer adopt a single satellite for themselves; they make agreements with satellites for different services.
Spacecom said that it already had a $58 million orders backlog for communications services in Africa and additional services. The company expects that following the launch, it would be able to step up its sales and sign more large contracts. One of the contracts that Spacecom hopes to obtain is with Facebook, thanks to the technological supremacy that the new satellite brings to Africa, in comparison with Spacecom's competitors above the continent.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 28, 2019
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