Thai satellite operator Thaicom has signed a three-year deal to sell bandwidth on its IPSTAR satellite in China, in collaboration with local partners.
Thaicom announced it has signed a framework agreement with China Telecom Satellite (CTS) and Synertone Communications Corporation covering the sale of around 24% of IPSTAR's total capacity.
Under the agreement, the details of which are yet to be finalized, Thaicom and official partner CTS will sell all capacity available to China on the satellite to Synertone, which will then on-sell it in the Chinese market.
Thaicom will receive a cut of the revenue from Synertone's bandwidth sales in China, and will also take a stake in the company as part of the collaboration.
IPSTAR - also known as Thaicom-4 - has a total capacity of 45 Gbps, of which 24% is available to China.
Thaicom CEO Suphajee Suthumpun said that with the agreement “we have reached one of our most important goals. With capacity utilization in China, we have gone far beyond the break-even point of IPSTAR.”
DBS Vickers Securities analyst Chirasit Vuttigrai told the Bangkok Post that the deal is sorely needed for Thaicom because IPSTAR sales in the Chinese market have so far been “very disappointing.”