Dele Ogbodo in Abuja
The Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) officially commenced the provision of In-Orbit Test (IOT) service for the Belaruse National System of Satellite Communications and Broadcasting called Belintersat over the weekend.
The service, which NIGCOMSAT won through international bidding, THISDAY learnt, will rake in $6 million for Nigeria for the 15-year period the service will last.
At the flag-off ceremony in Abuja, the Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT, Ms. Abimbola Alale, said while welcoming the Belaruse officials led by Mr. Andrei Yanovich and the China Great Wall Corporation (CGWC), that with the commencement of service from Abuja, the jinx that Nigeria cannot provide high technology to European countries has been broken.
According to her, the Belintersat has the KU and C bands which covers parts of Africa from Europe, adding that with their antenna in Nigeria, NIGCOMSAT will be able to monitor their payloads which is part of the service that it is rendering to them.
She said: “Within the next 15 years, we shall be monitoring their payload and at the same sending the information on real time to Belaruse as they have ground station there.
“NIGCOMSAT started this business before them, we have the experience as we have been here in the last 10 years. In the next two week, we shall also start the Carrier Spectrum Monitoring (CSM), which also involves monitoring the traffic on the payload without sending any command since they have clients that are based in the African continent.”
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