Artist’s rendition of Hispasat’s Amazonas-5 satellite. Photo: Hispasat

Hispasat, a Spanish satellite communications operator, has made a significant move in the Mexican broadband market. It is now offering a new service to the Mexican telecommunications market with the aim of responding to the need of bringing broadband connectivity to remote or hard-to-reach areas of the country where there is no access to high-quality internet. This will be key in helping reduce the digital gap that currently exists in Mexico. Hispasat’s Amazonas 5 satellite, which has been operational since last November, includes HTS (High Throughput Satellite) technology and has seven coverage beams over Mexico in Ka-band. This satellite covers 77 percent of the Mexican population and it will be able to reach 100 million people, which represents approximately 27.2 million homes.

Ka-band satellite coverage is more concentrated and enables the power of the satellite to be directed over smaller regions. This, along with the availability of a higher bandwidth and the possibility of reusing frequencies that allows for HTS technology, represents a direct increase in information that can be transmitted, reaching higher speeds, and securing more competitive rates for the end customers. Furthermore, the user terminals required in order to receive these signals are compact and easy to deploy. This has enabled significant improvements in the performance of connectivity services via satellite, according to Hispasat.

Hispasat has also built a new teleport in Ixtlahuaca de Rayón (State of Mexico) to operate this service and has chosen the telecommunications company Gilat as the supplier of the satellite bandwidth platform SkyEdge II-c, through which it will manage the connectivity service.