The European Investment Bank is investing some $53m in Hispasat, a Spanish consortium of technology companies, Newsbytes reports. The money will be used to launch two television and general telecommunications transponder satellites, and suitable ground station equipment, by the end of this year, with transmissions due to start early next year. The satellites will form the hub of a satellite-based television distribution system for Spain and the Canary Islands, as well as providing international satellite telephone links to other countries. Currently, most of Spain’s international phone calls are routed to third-party countries via cable and microwave transmission, before being linked up to satellite. The Spanish television stations expressed early interest in joining the Astra consortium which operates Astra 1A and 1B, the two European television satellites which currently broadcast 32 channels across Europe. No financial deals came of this however – the Hispasat consortium says it plans to launch its own satellites.
