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The EU Satellite Operators Association

Posted: 10th Apr, 2003 By: MarkJ

The European Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) has concluded their annual meeting, which discussed everything from space to ISPs, by appointing Eutelsat CEO Giuliano Berretta as Chariman:

The key executives of Europes satellite operators met on April 4 in Betzdorf (Luxembourg) for a Board meeting followed by the yearly General Assembly of ESOA, the European Satellite Operators Association.

The Board elected Giuliano Berretta, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Eutelsat, as Chairman. He will succeed Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES GLOBAL whose term as Chairman of ESOA has now expired, and Mr Berretta will lead ESOA through its second year. Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of New Skies, was elected Vice Chairman of the Board. Both appointments are for a one-year term.

ESOA will pursue five priorities in 2003:

* Provide input into the development of the Green Paper on European Space Policy at the levels of both the European Commission and European Space Agency. ESOA recently proposed to the EC the setting up of a specific Satellite Telecommunications programme alongside Galileo and GMES, in order to address the development of new Satcoms applications and terminals in Europe and thereby provide support for the sector as a whole.

* Represent the views of European satellite operators in Europe and around the world to help remove trade, regulatory and market access barriers facing them. More particularly, ESOA will establish a road map for the preparatory work, in conjunction with the EC, for the next WTO Doha round of GATS negotiations and follow-through on its implementation.

* Actively support satellite service providers by stimulating the increase of research and development funding for ground equipment and satellite based applications.

ESOA members confirm the importance of the expansion of broadband services in the development and growth of Satellite Telecommunications. Satellites will be key to universal broadband access in the enlarged European market as well as globally, and facilitate a reduction in the Digital Divide. An important obstacle towards this in Europe, as has been repeatedly stated, is the availability of low-cost consumer terminals.

ESOA firmly believes that the specific proposal made at the Green Paper launch, and subsequently reported by the press, for Europe to make available an initial funding of just 100 Million Euro to ensure the availability of an initial supply of interactive, open-standard terminals would achieve a much needed boost to the whole industry.

* Promote the role of satellites in the European Commissions e-Europe broadband programme. e-Europe was launched in 1999 to bring Europe on-line. Satellites, with their total coverage of Europe and multi-casting capabilities, are an excellent spectrum-efficient method for delivering rich content.

* Continue to pursue the important issues of frequency use, frequency access and frequency availability for satellite communications, notably in the context of the upcoming WRC 03. ESOA is particularly concerned to see fewer constraints on the use of existing allocations in the uplink Ku-bands of 13.75-14.00 GHz and 14.25-14.50GHz, supports extra allocation of spectrum for MSS services in L-band, and underlines the importance of adequate available spectrum in the 20/30GHz Ka-band for the expansion of new services.

ESOA is also particularly concerned by initiatives taken by certain National Regulatory Authorities to increase the burden of regulation in satellite downlink bands which could impact on the deployment of new services and broadband in Europe.

Members of ESOA are Eurasiasat SAM, Europe* Star, Eutelsat S.A., Hispasat, Inmarsat Ventures PLC, New Skies Satellites NV, Nordic Satellite AB, SES GLOBAL, Telenor and Telespazio.