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Azerbaijan to lease two global orbital positions for a national satellite

15 January 2009 13:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Aynur Veliyeva - APA-Economics. Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies will soon rent two global orbital positions for orbiting its national satellite.
Ali Abbasov, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies, said Azerbaijanâ€™s own orbital positions with limited coverage area are for the domestic use only.
He said that over Azerbaijan is working closely with the International Telecommunications Union over past two years on the acquisition of global orbital positions. In this regard, Azerbaijan has already signed memorandums with several countries.
Earlier, the ministry said the national communications satellite, AzerSpace, is slated for launch in late 2010 or early 2011.
The countryâ€™s TV broadcasts are being transmitted through satellites of other countries at present.
Launching a communications satellite costs about $100-160 million in the world practice, but Azerbaijan has not set how much will it cost and whether the project will be financed by the government or investors.
Azerbaijan intends to launch a satellite that will deliver broadcasting services though a broader area covering the entire Europe (excluding Scandinavia) and half of Asia with most of Kazakhstan.