EchoStar
 | |
| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: SATS |
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Inverness, Colorado, United States |
Key people | Charlie Ergen, chairman; Michael Dugan, chief executive officer |
| Products | Digital Set-Top Box, Satellite Services |
| Subsidiaries |
Sling Media Hughes Communications |
| Website | www.echostar.com |
EchoStar Corporation is a global satellite services provider and developer of hybrid video delivery technologies. It is the owner and operator of the satellite fleet for closely affiliated Dish Network. The company also designs and manufactures set-top boxes to receive the Freeview broadcasts in the United Kingdom, and receivers for Bell TV in Canada. It also owns Sling Media, which designs and builds the Slingbox TV streaming device, and satellite internet provider Hughes Communications. Prior to 2008, it operated the Dish Network service brand, which was spun off as Dish Network Corporation on January 1, 2008.
History
EchoStar was originally formed in 1980 by its chairman Charles Ergen as a distributor of C band TV systems. In 1987, it applied for a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) license with the Federal Communications Commission and was granted access to orbital slot 119° west longitude in 1992.
On December 28, 1995, the firm successfully launched its first satellite, EchoStar I. On March 4, 1996, it established the Dish Network brand name to market its home satellite TV system.
In 1998, EchoStar purchased the broadcasting assets of a satellite broadcasting joint venture of News Corporation's ASkyB and MCI Worldcom. With this purchase the firm obtained 28 of the 32 transponder licenses in the 110° W orbital slot, more than doubling existing CONUS broadcasting capacity at a value of $682.5 million. The acquisition inspired the company to introduce a multi-satellite system called DISH 500, theoretically capable of receiving more than 500 channels on one dish.
"Legacy" represent the 950 to 1450 MHz frequencies used to deliver the signal throughout the home; the signal is broadcast to the home on the Ku band from satellite (12.2-12.7 GHz). Ku frequencies will not work on home wiring, the signal is downconverted to the intermediate frequency (IF) of 950-1450 MHz at the dish antenna. Newer technology (DishPro) also uses 1650-2150 MHz in addition to 950-1450.
Also in 1998, the firm, in association with Bell Canada, launched Bell TV. On September 25, 2007, the firm announced it had agreed to acquire Sling Media, Inc.
On January 2, 2008, the Dish Network business was demerged from the technology and infrastructure side of the business. A split in the shares created two companies, DISH Network Corporation which consists mainly of the DISH Network business, and EchoStar Corporation which retains ownership of the technology side including the satellites, Sling Media, and the set-top box development arm. DISH Network completed its distribution to Echostar of its digital set-top box business, certain infrastructure, and other assets and related liabilities, including certain of their satellites, uplink and satellite transmission assets, and real estate (the "Spin-off"). Since the Spin-off, EchoStar and DISH Network have operated as separate publicly-traded companies. However, as a result of the Satellite and Tracking Stock Transaction, DISH Network owns shares of EchoStar and their subsidiary's preferred tracking stock representing an aggregate 80.0% economic interest in the residential retail satellite broadband business of their Hughes segment. In addition, a substantial majority of the voting power of the shares of DISH Network and EchoStar is owned beneficially by Charles W. Ergen, Chairman, and by certain trusts established by Mr. Ergen for the benefit of his family.
On February 14, 2011, EchoStar announced that it would acquire Hughes Communications in a deal valued at US$1.3 billion.[1]
TiVo patent lawsuit
On June 3, 2009, satellite service provider EchoStar was found by Marshall, Texas, federal district court judge David Folsom to be in contempt of a permanent injunction against using some of TiVo's technology and was required to pay the DVR pioneer $103.1 million plus interest.
On May 3, 2011, Dish Network Corporation and EchoStar Corporation agreed to pay TiVo Inc. $500 million to settle a dispute over the use of some of TiVo’s technology.[2]
Satellite fleet
- Orbital locations may change
Since EchoStar frequently moves satellites among its many orbiting slots this list is not immediately accurate. Refer to Lyngsat.com for detailed satellite information.
| Satellite | Location | Launch date | Launcher | Satellite bus | Usage / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EchoStar I | 77° W | 28 December 1995 | Long March 2E | Lockheed Martin AS-7000 | |
| EchoStar II | 148° W | 10 September 1996 | Ariane 4 | AS-7000 | On 14 July 2008, EchoStar reported to the SEC that EchoStar II "experienced a substantial failure that appears to have rendered the satellite a total loss". |
| EchoStar III | 61.5° W | 5 October 1997 | Atlas II | A2100AX | Satellite has experienced many failures causing limited use; it will be replaced in the near future. |
| EchoStar IV | 77° W (incline) | 8 May 1998 | Proton-K | A2100AX | Positioned in a Mexican-controlled orbital slot to serve customers of Dish Mexico. |
| EchoStar V | 148° W | 23 September 1999 | Atlas II | SSL FS-1300 | Replaced at 129° by Ciel 2 to serve national HD and local HD/SD stations. Echostar V was later shut down and emergency deorbited. |
| EchoStar VI / Bermudasat 1 | 73° W | 14 July 2000 | Atlas II | FS-1300 | Moved to Bermuda-owned slot at 96° W in April 2013, leased to Bermuda’s telecommunication company and renamed Bermudasat 1. |
| EchoStar VII | 119° W | 21 February 2002 | Atlas III | A2100AX | |
| EchoStar VIII | 77° W | 21 August 2002 | Proton-K | FS-1300 | |
| EchoStar IX / Galaxy 23 | 121° W | 7 August 2003 | Zenit-3SL | FS-1300 | Customers use SuperDISH 121 to receive this non-DBS, medium-powered signal. Satellite is jointly owned by EchoStar and Intelsat: Ku band and Ka band (unused) payloads owned by EchoStar, C band payload owned by Intelsat and designated Galaxy 23. |
| EchoStar X | 110° W | 15 February 2006 | Zenit-3SL | A2100AX | |
| EchoStar XI | 110° W | 16 July 2008 | Zenit-3SL | FS-1300 | |
| Echostar XII / Rainbow 1 | 61.5° W | 17 July 2003 | Atlas V | A2100 | Rainbow 1 was launched by Cablevision/Rainbow DBS and used for the Voom DBS service at 61.5° W until the satellite and transponder licenses were sold to EchoStar in 2005. DISH Network renamed it EchoStar 12 in March 2006. |
| CMBStar[3] | none | Never launched | — | LS-1300 | Satellite was planned to be deployed over China; it never launched. |
| EchoStar XIV | 119° W | 20 March 2010 | Proton-M | LS-1300 | Designed to provide more spotbeams for local channels. |
| EchoStar XV | 61.5° W | 10 July 2010 | Proton-M | LS-1300 | |
| EchoStar XVI | 61.5° W | 20 November 2012 | Proton-M | FS-1300 | Provides additional capacity at the 61.5° orbital location. It holds an archival disc called The Last Pictures, which is micro-etched with 100 images of modern human history and made of ultra-archival materials meant to last for billions of years into the future as a time capsule.[4] |
| EchoStar XVII | 107° W | 5 July 2012[5] | Ariane 5[6] | Provides 100Gbit/s of capacity for HughesNet Gen4 product, offering two-way satellite Internet speeds of up to 15 Mbit/s and data allowances up to 40 Gb.[7] | |
| EchoStar XVIII | ? | 18 June 2016 | Ariane 5[8] | SSL 1300 | DISH service in the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Cuba. High-power Ku-band multi-spot beam. |
| EchoStar 19 | ? | 16 December 2016 | Atlas V | High-speed Internet services for HughesNet in North America | |
| EchoStar 21 | ? | 22 December 2016 | Proton-M | Mobile broadband services over Europe with an S-band payload for EchoStar Mobile Ltd (formerly known as TerreStar 2) | |
| EchoStar 23 | ? | 18 December 2016 | Falcon 9 | SSL 1300 | Direct-to-home television broadcast services over Brazil. Based on a spare platform from the cancelled CMBStar program. |
| EchoStar 105 / SES-11 | 105° W | Q1, 2017 | Falcon 9 | Direct-to-home TV broadcasting services over North America, including Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean. Owned by SES of Luxembourg. | |
Reference: [9]
References
- ↑ de la Merced, Michael (14 February 2011). "EchoStar in $1.3 Billion Deal for Hughes Communications". New York Times.
- ↑ Steven Russolillo (May 3, 2011). "Dish, EchoStar Settle TiVo Patent Litigation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
- ↑ "Gunter's Space Page:CMBStar 1".
- ↑ "The Last Pictures launches with EchoStar XVI satellite". Kurzweil.
- ↑ "EchoStar XVII Launch Page". EchoStar. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
- ↑ "Ariane launches communications, weather satellites". spacetoday.net. July 6, 2012.
- ↑ "New satellite to offer speeds comparable to DSL and Cable to residents living in rural areas.". A-SAT. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
- ↑ "Ariane 5 launches Echostar 18 and BRIsat". nasaspaceflight.com. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
- ↑ Space Flight Now Launch Schedule