06/10/2010. In the framework of the inauguration of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the International Telecommunication Union, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa announced that Mexico will launch three new satellites to perform security tasks, in addition to bringing communications to the most remote communities in the country, with the purpose of closing the digital divide.
Then, at a press conference, the Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT), Juan Molinar Horcasitas, delved into the issue explaining that the satellites will be orbiting and operating at the end of the current Administration, and will require an investment of between 1,200 and 1,500 million dollars.
Regarding the national security purposes that the satellites will have, Molinar Horcasitas explained that "they will be for the fundamental use of the security organs of the Mexican State." He indicated that they guarantee ubiquity in telecommunications throughout the national territory, including the heritage sea, even in difficult weather conditions, "even the most adverse. All kinds of land-to-ground, land-to-air, land-to-sea, sea-to-air, sea-to-land communications are going to be able to work."
The satellites will have an extended KU band, which will increase connectivity in the most remote areas of the country, and in this way it is intended to close the digital divide in the country.
He explained that they are a pair of twin satellites, one is a backup of another, which operate with L band and KU band, and one more satellite is for administration of these, which operate in extended C-band.
Molinar Horcasitas said that the different decisions related to the issue have been taken both in the National Security Council and in the SCT, which has been in charge of implementing the launch and operation of the satellites.
Although there is already a multi-year budget approved by the Chamber of Deputies for this year to support the satellite plan, it is not yet determined who will be the builder and the launcher, although he said that there are only three options they have to choose.
Source: milenio.com
