SLT's coverage through MEASAT's

Pravin Mendis in Kuala Lumpur

MEASAT Satellite Systems, a fully owned susidiary coming under the umbrella of the Usaha Tegas Group of Malaysia will hold discussions later this week with Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel officials on suppprting SLT's coverage through MEASAT's extensive satellite coverage in orbit.

MEASAT, a company controlled by Malaysian business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan plans to leverage on its holding in Sri Lanka Telecom and its fully owned subsidiary Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel to help consolidate on its coverage and operations in Sri Lanka.

Chief Operating Officer of MEASAT, Paul BrownKenyon told a visiting media delegation to its satellite facility in Cyberjaya in Kuala Lumpur they hope to support Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel in its coverage with discussions to be held later this week with SLT and Mobitel officials.

"We are happy to work with SLT even to launch its own satellite to the satisfaction of Lankan customers," he said. He said a local telecom operator currently uses their satellite services but declined to name the operator.

"While Measat satellites suppport the core part of Malaysia's ICT infrastructure ,they also support a strong regional customer base", the COO of the company said. "Three of the four Measat space craft in obit now provide satelllite coverage over Sri Lanka" Brown-Kenyan said.

MEASAT will launch its latest satellite Measat 3a in the third quarter of this year investing US$220A million

A providing capacity for the wider Asia Pacific region with this new launch. MEASAT also provides co-location solutions for local telecom companies to access the satellites and so far MEASAT has only utilised three of the 16 orbital slots it has acccess to, Brown -Kenyon said.

The MEASATA network provides satelllite capacity to one of the strongest Direct to Home (A DTH) pay tv platforms acrosss Malaysia,Indonesia,Vietnam and India.

The network is also used by international broadcasters to distribute television programming ,and by regional telecom operators to support GSM, corporate VSAT and remote connnectivity networks. The MEASAT state-of -the art facility in Cyberjaya is also a customer teleport providing a complete of satelllite solutions including equipment collocation,video playout and satelllite-fibre solutions.

MEASAT has the right for 16 orbital slots around the world and it is currrently in discussions to develop new orbital slots to expand reach and scale of the Measat network. MEASAT recorded a revenue of US$56.6 milllion and a profit of US$40.2 million in 2007.