|
Worldspace has now encrypted nearly all its services on both the AfriStar and AsiaStar satellites. Worldspace still has ambitious plans to break into the Chinese, Indian and European markets and obviously thinks that its current charging model is correct. In Europe Worldspace wants to launch a new satellite called AfriStar1 to provide mobile satellite services as XM and SIRIUS do in the USA. Some seven or eight consortiums are now giving the idea serious consideration but predictions are that nobody will be ready before 2009 or 2010. By then the whole process of digitization on the terrestrial bands in Europe will be nearly complete and the broadcasting landscape will have undergone a dramatic change.
The idea of mobile satellite in Europe is not a new concept and a handful of hopefuls have come and gone over the past few years. However Europe does not have the same love affair with the motor car that Americans do so providers will have to come up with some very compelling programming to lure listeners away from DAB.
The front runner is probably Worldspace who could use their Ameristar satellite (possibly co-locate it with Afristar) that is probably somewhere in storage or they could re-target the western beam of Afristar to cover more of Europe. Worldspace does refer to Afristar I but it is not clear if this will be a brand new satellite. Unfortunately the business has not drawn in enough subscribers just yet so additional finance is going to be needed to launch the satellite if that is the plan.
Worldspace’s Afristar satellite’s coverage does spill over into Europe so presumably some degree of frequency co-ordination has already been agreed. Also it is likely that Worldspace would continue to use L-Band frequencies in the range of 1467-1492 MHz, which is a good proportion of the allocated broadcast space of 1452-1492 MHz. Worldspace’s current satellites use L-band frequencies so there will be coverage black spots especially in urban areas. Worldspace has already carried out some experimental work on adopting a similar technique as the USA’s XM satellite operator of using a large number of terrestrial repeaters to fill in the gaps. Worldspace and L-DAB use different technologies so there may be some interference issues to be addressed. This is one of the downsides of using satellite delivery that functions best in a line of site mode.
Worldspace overcame objections from Ondas of Spain in January 2006 and now has FCC permission to launch the Afristar II satellite and place it in orbit alongside Afristar I at 21o W. For the moment Worldspace is more interested in India so developments in Europe will have to take a back seat.
|
