Southern Cone satellite watch

Argentine satellite service provider Orbith has reached 10,000 customers and connected 1,500 rural schools in Buenos Aires province.

Orbith operates in the Ka band with HTS satellites and offers services with speeds of up to 200Mbps.

It also covers the south of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, Mendoza and Neuquén, plus the Chilean regions of Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Santiago and O'Higgins.

Orbith is expanding to cover both countries completely.

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Argentine satellite company Arsat and SES signed an agreement on the use of the SES-17 satellite. Arsat aims to "enhance access to affordable, high-quality satellite broadband services for business and residential applications," according to a press release.

Services should start this month.

Arsat will also use the satellite to connect schools across the country.

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Brazilian regulator Anatel has authorized Worldvu Satellites to operate the OneWeb non-geostationary satellite system, comprising 774 satellites, for 15 years.

The company will use uplink frequencies of 27,500-28,600MHz, 28,600-29,100MHz and 29,500-30,000MHz, and downlink frequencies 17,800-18,600MHz and 18,800-19,300MHz for the Ka band.

In Ku band it will use 14,000-14,500MHz for upload and 10,700-12,700MHz for download.

The system must start operations within two years.

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Peru’s transportation and telecommunications ministry (MTC) created a working group to discuss building a telecommunications satellite. It has representatives from the ministry, aerospace R&D agency Conida and telecommunications program Pronatel.

The group has until December to propose alternative satellite solutions to help close the connectivity gap.

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Uruguay plans the creation of an aerospace agenda and agreements with private companies to boost the satellite industry, newspaper El Observador reported.

In February, the air force created the national space policy board to advise the executive branch on these issues. Creation of a space agency is also being mulled.

The government and Argentina's Satellogic recently signed an agreement to occupy the latter’s orbital position in exchange for a fee.

And another Argentine company, Tlon, is interested in launching nanosatellites from Uruguay.