In spite of the fears that flooded the Argentine telecommunications market from where the entrance of Nahuel 1 in an inclined orbit scheduled for September was revealed, ArSat sources stated to Convergencialatina that the migration to the satellite AMC 6 of SES is advancing at full throttle and, by the end of the month, 80% of the users should be operating with the new satellite. The remaining 20% would be completed during the first days of September due to that with the entrance of an inclined orbit; clients that have tracking antennas will be able to use the service of Nahuel for some weeks more.

The end of Nahuel’s useful life, foreseen for the end of the year, has forced ArSat to close an agreement with SES to not leave big users (telcos, and TV channels) without capacity to sell. Likewise, both Nahuel 1 and SES operate on the Ku band in 72º west longitude.

Within the market operators feared the solution that ArSat would adapt and, some even threatened to ask for subsidies or initiate lawsuits against the State. Moreover, this migration to AMC 6 of SES (which operates on the extended KU band) forces many clients of ArSat to make hardware and electronic adjustments.

In fact, the satellite market is migrating close to 300 stations per day without service cuts, something never seen in the history of the sector. Even in the segment of VSATs, one of the businesses that mostly feared the change of antennas, companies have already started migrating their big clients, as oil companies.

The process with each client is carried out in the following way: first they migrate the Hub, later it is configured on the new satellite and the signal of Nahuel is shut off. A foreseen problem is when they have will have to transfer to the extended Ku band because it will require a bigger investment.

Recently, Pablo Tognetti, head of ArSat, presented in the event Redes de Gobierno (Government Networks), organized by Grupo Convergencia, the company’s business plan. The same foresees to develop two satellites through INVAP (a mixed company of the Argentine State and the province of Rio Negro) to cover the two orbital positions which Argentina has, 72º that Nahuel occupies and 81º west.

At the moment, the satellites are in the first engineering stage and their construction would begin in December 2008. The satellite launches are foreseen for 2010, and in 2012 a third satellite could be placed in orbit. In all the cases, it deals with medium sized satellites with 30 transponders.

Moreover, only in the first engineering stage a payment of US$ 4 million is foreseen and, in the case the project continues, officials will have to define the way they will finance it. The project of ArSat is ambitious because it would allow the country to have its own capacity in Latin America and in the United States. Nevertheless, until the satellite is not constructed, the company will have to continue acquiring capacity from other operators. In fact, the contract with SES is for five years.

The creation of ArSat was an answer from the Argentine government to the difficulties with NahuelSat, company that in the 90s decade placed in 72º west longitude the satellite Nahuel 1. This year, President Néstor Kirchner signed a decree to transfer the assets (satellite, orbital positions and the teleport) of NahuelSat to ArSat.