ChinaStar-1 Satellite Going Well Above Earth

China Orient Telecomm Satellite Co, whose ChinaStar-1 went into operation two years ago, has its sights fixed on both the heavens and the earth.

The 5-year-old company will continue to build a team to track and control the telecommunications satellite while expanding its Chinese transponder market, a senior company executive said yesterday. A transponder receives and retransmits radio-type signals.

"The ChinaStar-1 has performed well since it was placed into orbit on May 30, 1998," said Hao Weimin, president of China Orient, in an interview with China Daily.

"It has weathered dramatic outer space environmental changes, such as meteor showers and eclipses," he said.

China Orient was approved by the State Council to boost the country's satellite communications.

The satellite, which can cover China and most of Asia, has established and expanded domestic trunk lines and regional telecommunications services as well as private network satellite services, Hao said.

The telecommunications satellite was made by the US-based Lockheed Martin Corp.

ChinaStar-1 has 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. As of today 56 per cent of ChinaStar-1's capacity has been leased, company sources said.

Experts said that as the telecommunications market expands and Asian economies improve, the satellite service demand should also pick up.

China now has three companies that own and manage satellites: China Orient, Sino Satellite Communications Co. Ltd, and China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp. Hao said they and a host of foreign satellite companies are competing for transponder users in China.

The quality service and competitive price have enabled China Orient to take up 24 per cent of the domestic transponder market, according to official statistics.

As the Internet expands in China, Hao said he expects more Internet service providers to use satellites for high-speed, broadband Web access. The transponders on ChinaStar-1 have widths of 36MHz and 72MHz.

The Guangdong Telecommunications Management Bureau is using a ChinaStar-1 12-Mhz-Ku band to give it DirectPC, a high-speed ISP service, China Orient sources said.



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