Doha

In a major step to provide a secure and independent satellite system for Qatar, a contract has been awarded to build a state-of-the-art teleport facility at a site of north of Doha.
The new teleport facility will provide satellite control and communications support (TT&C) and capacity management, together with a wide range of services such as uplink, downlink, contribution, multiplexing, encoding, playout and broadcasting, tailored for business partners.
Es’hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company, has signed a contract with Promer Qatar Contracting Company to design and build the Es’hailSat Teleport.
A dedicated 50,000sq m site north of Doha has been chosen as the location for the new, state-of-the-art teleport facility, a statement issued by the satellite company yesterday said.
The high-tech teleport will also provide back-up studios for TV channels and serve as a disaster-recovery facility for broadcasters. The site will be connected with the key media broadcasters in Qatar by means of a redundant, dedicated fibre optic link.
Design for the new teleport is expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2016 and the site build and project completed by Q1 2017.
Es’hailSat currently broadcasts premium content for news and sports channels such as Al Jazeera and beIN SPORTS. Both Es’hail 1 and Es’hail 2, scheduled for launch in Q4 2016, have been designed with advanced anti-jamming capabilities, and with a dedicated ground infrastructure Es’hailSat has the optimum solution for broadcasters in the region not only in terms of technical capabilities and performance, but also in terms of security of content.
Es’hailSat’s CEO, Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari, said: “The establishment of Es’hailSat’s own teleport marks a significant milestone in our plan to provide a secure and independent satellite system to meet the needs of our customers now and in the future. The teleport is being designed from the outset to allow for significant growth and will feature all the major requirements to provide customers with satellite ground station and platform services”.
Es’hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company was established in 2010. Based in Doha, the company owns and operates satellites to serve broadcasters, businesses and governments.
Es’hail 1, which shares a spacecraft platform with the European satellite operator Eutelsat, was successfully launched on August 29, 2013. The satellite provides television, voice, Internet, corporate and government communications services across the Middle East and North Africa region and beyond.
Es’hail 2 is currently under construction and will be launched to the 26 degrees East TV broadcasting hotspot in Q4 2016.