Bangabandhu-1 making smooth journey: France

France, the designing and manufacturing country of Bangladesh’s first satellite Bangabandhu-1, has congratulated Bangladesh for its launching and said that the satellite is making a smooth journey towards its orbit. “The Embassy of France is very happy to join in sharing the pride of Bangladesh after the successful launch of the satellite Bangabanhdu-1, on May 11th, 2018.

Bangladesh is now the 57th nation in the world and the fourth in South Asia to own a communication satellite,” said a press release forwarded yesterday.

“We congratulate the government and the people Bangladesh for “entering a new era”, as underlined by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It is an important step forward in the country’s digital advancement,” it said, adding, “The satellite will open up a wide range of opportunities for Bangladesh among which broadcasting services, weather forecasting services and high-speed internet connectivity in hard-to-reach areas.”

“The government of France has supported the satellite Bangabandhu-1 project from its inception and wishes to thank the French company Thales Alenia Space, designer and manufacturer of the satellite, as well as the US launching company Space X, for their full success in its realization and launch,” said the release.

“Initial connections have already been established with the Gazipur and Rangamati ground stations, while the satellite Bangabandhu is running its smooth sailing towards its orbit,” it said.

Meanwhile, a foreign ministry press release yesterday said the spacecraft will provide broadcasting and telecommunication services to rural areas and introduce direct-to-home (DTH) television programming across Bangladesh and neighboring countries. Two ground stations for controlling the satellite have already been built at Joydebpur of Gazipur and Rangamati's Betbunia on the land owned by Bangladesh Telecom-munications Company Ltd.

Bangabandhu-I will offer video services for DTH, e-learning, tele-medicine, family planning, farming etc while voice service to cellular backhaul and disaster recovery, etc and data service for internet, SCADA, SOHO as well as business-to-business (VSAT) etc. The satellite will contain 40 transponders; Bangladesh will use 20 and rent out the rest.

Editor: John Li