Satellite-assisted high-speed internet service now available in Russia’s Far East and Siberia

 

On 16 March 2015, RSCC commissioned the eastern segment of the satellite high-speed internet system (SHSIS) using the Ka-band capacity of the Express-бн5 (140њE) satellite.

 

For the first time in Russia, satellite-supported communications in the Ka-band will be provided using the capacity of a Russian-built spacecraft. The satellite-assisted high-speed internet service has a distributed structure: the first complex to be commissioned (the eastern segment of SHSIS using the capacity of the Express-бн5 at 140њE) with its central switching exchange and antenna systems is located in the “Khabarovsk” Satellite Communications Center (SCC), which is the Far-East branch of RSCC. The second complex to be commissioned (the western segment of SHSIS using the capacity of the Express-бн6 at 53њE), also including a central switching exchange and antenna systems, as well as network control, is being built at “Dubna” SCC in the Moscow Region.

Starting on 16 March 2015, RSCC is commissioning the first complex. When fully operational, the facility will provide broadband Internet access to users within Kamchatkaљ and Sakhalin, in the Amur and Chita regions and the eastern part of the Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions, and in the Maritime, Khabarovsk, Altai and the southern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territories, in the Khakass, Altai, Tyva, Buryatia Republics and the southern part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Services to end users will be provided by the operators which have signed distributorship contracts with RSCC, among them ZAO Ka-Internet and пбп Iskra DB.

The plan is to set up the SHSIS western segment using the capacity of the Express-бн6 at 53њE, making broadband access available to users in European Russia, Siberia, and the Urals. The western segment is scheduled to start commercial operations in the 1Q of 2016.

 

Yuri Prokhorov, RSCC CEO, has stressed that, “The launch of the satellite-assisted broadband access in Eastern Russia is a milestone event for the domestic satellite communications industry. The wealth of expertise gained by the market players while operating in the European Russia plus the innovative technology platform selected by the operators will make it possible to offer to the residents and business community an affordable high-quality service of fast access to internet.”

Vitaly Vashkevich, CEO, Zбп лБ-Internet, says: “This is a very important and happy day for our young company. We are beginning test operations of the first Ka-band service from a Russian-built satellite. It has been a long journey to reach the point where we are now. We started out with drafting a contract with Hughes Network Systems and getting equipment deliveries, we built a new facility at Khabarovsk, and lived through the currency market calamities last fall. We also had a measure of apprehensions regarding the use of the perfectly innovative Jupiter platform. We no longer have to be holding our collective breath, we have done it! In the next few days, we will proceed with the broadband access tests in all ten of our beams.