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Telenor’s THOR 7 satellite was launched last year in the1° West position, mainly to serve the broadcast industry. It isa pure growth satellite with an expected lifetime of around20 years, depending on fuel consumption. The new HTSsatellite cost around US$190 million in equity funding and isinsured by AON.

THOR 7 uses Ka-band, which is well-suited to the mobileVSAT market. It is expected to take around seven years toreach full capacity. Offering 6-9 Gbps throughput with up to25 simultaneously active spot beams, THOR 7 providesdownload speeds in the tens of Mbps, even from smallantennas, and delivers uplink speeds anywhere up to 6Mbps(depending on antenna size).

Morten Tengs, Telenor’s CEO, explained that althoughTelenor continues to strive ahead with new satellite capacity,“Assets aren’t everything. It’s everything that we build aroundit, like the competence and the skills. As we are still a relativelysmall player, we can respond quickly and adapt to customerexpectations. This is very important, otherwise we would justbe a commodity.”

Looking to the seaAlthough Telenor is a major operator in the Europeanbroadcast market, the company is now prepared to capitalizeon the expected growth in the maritime market as well.Demand for reliable connections in that field is growing

THOR 7 – Telenor’s pure growthsatelliteThe THOR 7 satellite, constructed by Space Systems LORAL (SSL), was successfully launchedby Telenor Satellite on 26 April 2015 from the Guiana Space Centre. Telenor Satellite’s first HTSis positioned to cover the North Sea, North Atlantic/Norwegian Sea, Baltic Sea, Black Sea,Caspian Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Mediterranean. The Ka-band HTS was designed for themobile VSAT market, with 6-9Gbps of throughput and 25 spot beams. In addition to its tradition ofserving the broadcast industry, Telenor has decided to target the maritime sector with THOR 7.Amy Saunders visited Telenor Satellite in Norway in February 2016 to find out more about theprogress made since the launch of THOR 7, to tour Telenor’s satellite control centre and theNittedal Teleport and to discover the company’s near-future plans.

THOR 7 was launched on 26 April 2015 from the Guiana Space Centre. Image source: Telenor Satellite

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exponentially due to the increased use of IP applications.Broadband Internet access, VoIP, video streaming, email andimproved access to corporate networks are all vitallyimportant to ensure that those at sea can stay in touch withbusiness operations, as well as improving the quality of lifefor crew working on board offshore vessels.

Currently, the market is suffering from overcapacity,partially due to the downturn in the oil and gas industry.Overcapacity is expected to continue for the next 2-3 years,after which a balance is expected to be reached as maritimedata consumption grows. “We think there will be a tremendousgrowth in data consumption in the maritime market. We havea good position, a good reputation, a good customer baseand a good satisfaction score, so we are very well positionedto be a part of that growth and increase our market share,”said Tengs. He added that although the downturn in oil andgas has impacted Telenor’s business, “We have been able tocompensate the downturn with normal maritime business.”

Business splitBroadcast makes up 70 percent of Telenor’s business, whiledata makes up the remaining 30 percent. Within the databusiness, maritime comprises 70 percent of Telenor’soperations.

Julien Crudge, Divisional Director of Network and DataServices at Telenor Satellite, noted that the broadcast marketis very stable and that, like Tengs, he expects the maritimemarket to more than double in the next seven years. Crudgeasserted that the growth would not be evenly spread. Ferries,for example, are not generally well-connected in terms ofWi-Fi. “People are crying out with their tablets andsmartphones for connectivity when they board a ferry for ninehours, so that, for us, is a good market as there’s a lot ofregional ferries. Similarly, there are around 4,000 superyachtsin the Mediterranean that can consume 5-25mbps.”

Some 30 percent of global shipping operations take placein Telenor’s coverage area, including early adopters and high

volume users such as cruisers, ferries and oil and gas supplyvessels. While commercial ships typically consume small datarates (250kbps), Telenor focuses on the niche market of shipsthat consume much higher data rates (10-20mbps), likesuperyachts.

Crudge asserted that the limits imposed upon dataservices today stem from terrestrial technology, rather thanthe satellites. THOR 7 can achieve 70/7mbps data rates,however, maritime antennas impose significant limits.Currently, for superyachts and ferries, anything up to 24/6mbps is possible using the current 60cm, 37kg antennasavailable on the market. Fishing vessels can achieve up to12/3mbps. Improvements for all consumers are expected astechnology progresses.

Telenor has also been looking at different sales models.By selling managed services instead of wholesale capacity,the service provider sells packages for individual ships thatare more cost-effective. “We’re selling bps, rather than MHz.The main reason is that, with HTS, there are multiple spotbeams. The selling of individual services gives a good fillfactor on all the spot beams, which means a lower price. Onthe older model, where people bought capacity only, it couldbe ten times as expensive and with few service providers,capacity would be filled quickly and prices would be high.” Inprinciple, with managed services, the customer gets the sameservice for a better price.

Beta testing and commercial developmentsIt is essential that, prior to the start of commercial operations,all satellites are thoroughly tested to ensure full functionality.The satellite itself undergoes in-orbit testing to verify that allof its systems operate to design, a process that typically lastsseveral months, followed by services testing with partnerson the ground.

Jan Hetland, Product and Services Director at TelenorSatellite explained that in orbit testing for THOR 7 was startedin the second half of June 2015 and ground infrastructuretesting was started very soon after, including the antennas,servers and service platforms.

The first commercial service was launched in August 2015with Kongsberg Satellite Services at the Troll satellite groundstation in Jutulsessen, Antarctica. The base is operated bythe Norwegian Polar Institute and relays data from polarorbiting satellites to Europe and the USA. A bandwidth pipeof several hundred Mbps has existed there since the start ofAugust 2015. During the presentation, Hetland initiated avideo call with a Kongsberg Satellite Services Engineer atthe Troll base, who said that THOR 7 had enabledcommunications with more than 99.9 percent reliability sinceoperations started.

Most recently, towards the end of 2015, Telenor launcheda fixed VSAT service in the Middle East, which has nowstarted to pick up and has more than 100 connected terminals.

Meanwhile, maritime testing started in September 2015.Telenor is currently running sea trials with 7-8 beta customers,which between them have 13-14 ships. “With these ships,we’ve been able to sail through almost all of the spot beams,”said Hetland. He added that there are still a few quality issuesto resolve, but Telenor was getting closer to commercialoperations and aimed to do so in the first half of 2016.Mechanical stress and stability issues remain ongoing

The dedicated 13m antenna for THOR 7 located at NittedalTeleport was built by GD Satcom. Image source: TelenorSatellite

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challenges, in addition to ensuring smooth operation of themodems. According to Hetland, THOR 7 is, “Probably themost optimized HTS for the maritime community launchedso far.”

Marlink, part of Airbus Defence and Space, took part inthe beta testing of THOR 7 in September 2015 with its testlab at EIK Teleport in Kjørmoveien, Norway. Tore MortenOlsen, Head of Maritime Activities at Airbus Defence andSpace, commented on THOR 7’s Ka-band capabilities: “Forus, the frequency spectrum is of less importance than thesystem design when it comes to the resilience and the qualityof the service. Price per mbps is important, but only so longas the service quality is respectable. Service quality has moreto do with the system design than the frequency spectrum.”

The existing test bed was changed from GX to Ka; theGX modem was changed to an iDirect X7, upon which velocitysoftware was installed and a 24 port switch was installedbetween the ACU and the iDirect X7. As EIK Teleport is astationary site, beam switching between three spot beamswas simulated to test the modems. During the beam switchingtests, when the remote reached the edge of coverage it wouldlock the second demodulator in the X7 modem to the nextbeam, keeping lock on both beams simultaneously for threeseconds and then unlocking the first demodulator. This madea seamless change with only one or two pings lost duringswitching.

Olsen commented that the operations improved duringthe trial and both Internet access and voice calling had workedwell. “We were positively surprised by the resilience of thesystem.” During rain fade tests, the signal dropped but thesystem continued to operate well. Multiple speed tests undera variety of weather conditions and various subscription plans

showed that 70mbps/6mbps data rates were achieved.

Telenor’s satellite control centre operationsTelenor’s satellite control centre is based at its Headquartersin Fornebu. Peter Olsen, Space Division Director explainedthat THOR 10 02, THOR III, THOR 5, THOR 6 and THOR 7are all controlled from the centre, which has three mainfunctions:

1) To maintain the satellites within 70km wide ‘virtual boxes’for good service and collision avoidance. Each satelliterequires 2.5-4kg/month of fuel to maintain its position inorbit with a geostationary arc of ±0.05°C. The orbit canbe perturbed by non-uniform gravity from the moon andthe sun;

2) To maintain altitude and pointing; and3) To ensure the good health of the payload and all of the

supporting sub-systems like the antennas and repeater.

The control room remains in contact with all of thesatellites 24/7 to ensure smooth and reliable operations. Asmany of the satellite control centre operations as possibleare controlled automatically, and are supervised by multiplepersonnel at all times. The centre also contains a satellitesimulator, which enables employees to practice for morechallenging operational scenarios and tasks that cannot becompleted automatically, such as interactions with spacedebris.

Nittedal TeleportNittedal Teleport, Telenor Satellite’s largest teleport, startedoperations in 1986. It was built on a flat plane high in the

The master control room at Nettdal Teleport is manned on three, eight hour shifts. Image source: Amy Saunders

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mountains to enable reliable communications with satellitesin geostationary orbit. The teleport uses 30, 3.7-18m antennaswith C, Ku and Ka-band capabilities and more than 80 high-power amplifiers. Around 95 percent of the antennas are inuse, while a couple are kept in reserve.

The teleport carries out all of Telenor’s TV and multimediaencoding, contribution and distribution services continuously,as well as occasional use (OU) services with globalconnectivity. It transmits to more than 18 million homes inNorthern Europe, the Nordics and Central and EasternEurope and provides more than 500 IPTV CATV and OTTservices to the Nordic market, in addition to Europe-widecontribution services. There are more than 1,000 registeredterminals for both land and maritime services, dedicatedpoint-to-point (SCPC) services, wholesale capacity servicesand teleport hosting services.

Nittedal Teleport has a 24/7 customer service desk andmaster control room, complete with request handling, incidentmanagement, engineering support, fault finding and servicerestoration capabilities. There are around 60 full-timeemployees working in four main departments:

• Master control room;• Third line engineering support;• Networks and IP infrastructure department; and• RF and antenna and teleport infrastructure department.

One of the key systems in place at Nittedal Teleport is asemi-automated monitoring and control system that isintegrated with a service desk ticketing system. The systemprovides a full diagnosis in case of a fault and provides fullconfiguration control over the systems. If there is an incident,

the customer receives an automatic notification with all ofthe relevant information. This system is also used to informcustomers of any changes made to their service. “It’s verycustomer focused, it’s about keeping them informed of whatwe’re doing to their services,” said Jonathan Kennedy, DirectorOperations, Telenor Satellite.

Kennedy highlighted that Telenor had recently acquirednew land adjacent to the main site, where deforestation wasunderway in order to protect the existing infrastructure fromforest fires. Additionally, the new land provides opportunitiesfor future expansion.

Kennedy noted that local wildlife had previously causedseveral small problems. Wild moose have, on occasion,caused minor disruptions at the site, while in 2015, a beaverbuilt a large enough damn nearby to cause local flooding.The weather in Norway also poses a challenge. Snow hasthe same effect as rain on antenna operations, so the dishesmust be de-iced, using large amounts of power. Most of thepower is sourced from the main grid, although there are alsoback-up supplies that provide 90 minutes of power in case ofsupply disruptions.

The site has seen significant changes in anticipation ofthe start of commercial operations of THOR 7. “We need adedicated antenna for THOR 7. We have one 13m antennahere at Nittedal, in addition to another at a nearby site,” saidKennedy, who added that it takes five or six months to buildone of the large antennas.

The new dedicated antenna for THOR 7 at NittedalTeleport was built by GD Satcom. There’s also a HUB currentlyundergoing testing and integration with the site systems, aswell as new staff training ongoing in order to gear up for thenew THOR 7 services.

Nittedal Teleport is home to 30 satellites and more than 80 high powered amplifiers. Image source: Amy Saunders

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