Satellite Booming in the Middle East and North Africa

The 13 commercial satellite-fleet operators active in the Middle East and North Africa showed a 73 percent fill rate on their 41 Ku-band satellites in mid-2008 when measured in booked megahertz compared to total megahertz of capacity, according to a mid-2008 survey of capacity taken from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by the London Satellite Exchange (LSE) and Euroconsult. The satellites were spread over 31 orbital slots.

The Ku-band fill rate jumps to 97 percent if the measure is made in the less-precise count of transponders used versus transponders unused, because some transponders are booked only partially, the survey found.

The survey is the latest confirmation that the region is among the world's most dynamic, and it explains why operators without satellites in the region want to get in there, and those already there are planning new capacity.
Transponder demand has risen at a rate of 12 percent per year during the last five years, with most of the new capacity in Ku-band. Commercial satellite-lease revenues have grown by 17 percent per year on average since 2003, reaching $752 million in 2007, according to Euroconsult estimates.

Not all operators are sharing the benefits, in part because fill rates are a function of the uses to which satellites are put.

A company focused on satellite television, such as Nilesat of Egypt, is booked solid on its two satellites, both in terms of available megahertz and available transponders. Television broadcasters typically lease entire transponders in multiyear contracts. Nilesat recently ordered a new satellite, to be launched at the company's 7 degrees west orbital slot in early 2010.
But television and radio broadcasts represented just 42 percent of the uses to which the observed satellites were put when LSE measured demand from Dubai in mid-2008.
A majority of the satellite capacity in the region was devoted to voice and data traffic, whose customers tend to sign shorter-term contracts, often for partial transponders. This gives their fill rates a higher volatility. LSE and Euroconsult said in their survey, "Ku-Band Loading Report: Middle East and North Africa," that for these applications any snapshot of demand may be less reliable.

Peter B. de Selding, PARISSpace News Staff WriterSPACE.com peter B. De Selding, Parisspace News Staff Writerspace.com