Four companies — Arianespace, ILS, SpaceX and Sea Launch — are still in the running for the deal, with SpaceX and Arianespace as the favorites. Though the decision is now ‘imminent,’ no final choice has been made, according to Halsaa.

   “We have been surprised to see how competitive the market is and the bids received shows that conventional wisdom is being challenged over and over again — there is no obvious choice; and we are evaluating offers from all very carefully. At this stage we are having constructive and open dialogues with a number of launchers including SpaceX and Arianespace. I am certain, the final choice will be a well a founded decision,” Halsaa said.

Arianespace launched Telenor’s Thor 6 satellite, and is hoping to get some repeat business. SpaceX winning a major European client would be another signal of intent with recent wins from Thaicom and SES.

   “In terms of SpaceX, it is very much a question of risk against price in this respect. So, that is the consideration we have to make. We have not been influenced by the fact that others have decided to go with SpaceX. However, the fact that SES has signed a contract for the Falcon 9 vehicle demonstrates that SpaceX will certainly be successful in the near future,” he says.

   TSBc announced this week that it had awarded the contract to build the Thor 7 satellite to Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) ahead of Thales Alenia Space. Explaining the decision, Halsaa said that, “in this case, we had extensive competition and commenced the bid process with six players, which then went down to two bidders (Thales Alenia Space and Space Systems/Loral). In the end, we chose SS/L. We went with SS/L because of their most favorable all-around design. On this occasion, we were evaluating the bids on price, performance and impact to business plan. As a result, we took advantage of the opportunities of various suppliers and combined their good parts with our requirements and price targets. It was clear in terms of price targets and performance that SS/L provided the better offer.”

    The company only launched its Thor 6 satellite in November 2009 and, according to Halsaa, is ahead of its business plan in terms of sales of capacity on this satellite, which is already more than 70 percent full. Halsaa says the operator hopes to have “a reasonable fill rate” on Thor 7 by the time it launches in late 2013.

   TSBc’s Thor 7 satellite will be fitted with two payloads. The first payload includes 11 active Ku-band transponders, all of which will be used to serve growing broadcasting requirements within Central and Eastern Europe. It will also include further Ku-band capability that will be utilized to provide restoration capacity for TSBc’s Thor fleet located at 1 degrees West. The second is a Ka-band payload, fitted with spot beams covering in areas including the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, the Red Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

   Halsaa admitted that the satellite TSBc eventually ordered was bigger than initially planned. “It is the biggest we have built so far. Our initial plans for Thor 7 were made a year ago. The satellite we have decided to build has a lot more capacity because we see stronger demand than we did a year ago,” he says.

   Halsaa also said the company would likely not order another new satellite for some time after Thor 7. “We certainly won’t announce anything in the next 12 months. Once we see good movement on pre-launch sales for Thor 7, we might start to think of other things. We have some thoughts about this (future satellites) but it is too early to talk about them. We have a new slot, 4 degrees West, which we are using for inclined orbit services — this could be one avenue for us to consider within our future plans. There are also replacement requirements for some other capacity in five years time,” Halsaa said.