SMS’ Rugby Teleport. Photo: SMS

[Via Satellite 06-29-2016] Satellite Mediaport Services (SMS) is scaling up infrastructure at its Rugby Teleport to prepare for an expansion of Ka-band and broadcast services. The U.K.-based independent teleport operator delivered its first broadcast TV bouquet last year, and also signed a contract with Trio, leading up to the building of a new 13.5-meter Ka-band antenna.

Recent upgrades include the addition of several new antennas, a new Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) system, and the deployment of Skyline Communication’s DataMiner network management solution for monitoring, troubleshooting and diagnostics. SMS’ Rugby Teleport now reaches more than 70 satellites from operators between 60 degrees east and 58 degrees west.

Eyal Dar, managing director of SMS, told Via Satellite that the company has several new opportunities ahead and is investing accordingly.

“We are investing a lot of resources and effort in broadcast services (traditional and Internet Protocol Television) and are looking to expand this area of activity to become part of our core business offering,” he said.

SMS offers teleport services to satellite operators and telecommunications service providers including broadband and IP connectivity, VSAT and broadcast services, TV channel aggregation, terrestrial connectivity and maritime services. Satellites from Intelsat, Gazprom, Arabsat, Eutelsat and several other operators all have footprints accessible from the teleport. Dar described 2015 as a strong year for the company, but one followed by a more challenging 2016.

“The failure of Amos 5 at the end of 2015 was completely unexpected and has hit hard many of our customers. We have had to act quickly — relocating customers, adjusting solutions, and strategic planning. Other challenges included the fall in oil prices and increase in satellite capacity, leading to some tough competition on pricing,” he said. “However, we are a strong business and have coped well. Q2 introduced some interesting opportunities as well as exciting new projects, including our partnership with Spacecom to support the launch of a new TV neighborhood on the Amos 6 satellite that is expected to be launched in two months’ time.”

Dar said many of SMS’ recent investments have extended services in maritime. In addition to finalizing the build of a new 11-meter station for broadcast services on the Amos 6 satellite, the teleport operator is also finishing the setup of a new 6.1-meter station for Telstar 12 Vantage, one of Telesat’s High Throughput Satellites (HTS), supporting additional maritime beams covering the Atlantic Ocean. Once complete, SMS will have a total of 25 large Earth station antennas.

Other network upgrades include the diversification of SMS’ fiber optic access and redundancy setup. The company recently started offering customers three points of presence at key data centers in London, providing multiple cross-connect alternatives and a fully redundant terrestrial setup.

SMS’ primary markets — Africa, the Middle East and maritime, have fluctuated considerably over the past year. Dar said this was mainly attributable not only to falling oil prices, but also political volatility in many countries.

“Political climate, as always, heavily impacts economy. War zones have managed (in some areas) to wipe out the entire VSAT business. However, where political stability had been secured, we have seen a tremendous increase in demand for broadband, in-line with global trends for developing markets,” he explained.

In the future Dar anticipates HTS will play a major part in satisfying increasing demand for capacity, including markets like Africa where terrestrial connectivity, although expanding, is far off from ubiquity. He listed video contribution along with trunking and cellular backhaul as big opportunities with HTS.

Looking further, Dar said SMS is also considering an entrance to the In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) market.

“We are also looking into potential services for the aviation industry, where we are seeing an interesting increase in demand, expected to lead to a significant market share in the coming five years,” he added.

While SMS has ratcheted up its ground infrastructure for these new business opportunities, the company has no immediate plans for scaling up satellite capacity. Dar said he anticipates increased demand for satellite capacity in line with positive market growth, but oversupply is warding off near term capacity decisions.

“At this point in time, we are trying to hold off acquiring any additional capacity — mainly because of the fluctuation in rates caused by large volume of capacity currently available. However, we are evaluating specific project needs as they arise and will be acquiring capacity, should we need it, on a case-by-case basis,” said Dar.