Avanti’s HYLAS Satellite tested in an Anechoic Chamber.
Avanti’s HYLAS Satellite tested in an Anechoic Chamber
An Avanti’s HYLAS Satellite tested in an Anechoic Chamber prior to launch. The satellite is operated by Satellite Operator Avanti from the UK.
Avanti Communications Group Plc. is a satellite operator, selling wholesale data telecoms products to VSAT resellers, Telco’s, Systems Integrators, Mobile Operators, ISP’s and Governmental Organizations. Avanti is headquartered in London, UK and has significant operations in Cornwall (UK), Cyprus, Germany and the USA.
Avanti’s network consists of four high throughput satellites (HTS) in orbit, called HYLAS-1, HYLAS-2, HYLAS-3 and HYLAS-4 and an international fibre network connecting data centers in several countries. HYLAS stands for Highly Adaptable Satellite, a product of third millennium state of the art European Space technology (ESA).
Inmarsat provides the satellite control center infrastructure and services in London and near Rome in Italy (Fucino Teleport).
Avanti was founded by astrophysicist David Bestwick in 1996 to advise other firms on how best to use satellite technology.
When David Williams (now CEO) bought into the company in 2002 it was worth £9,000. His wife lent them £10,000 and they started the company in his spare room. Today it has a market value of £340 million and has raised some half a billion pounds of funding.
The HYLAS-1 satellite system has been developed through a Public Private Partnership between ESA and Avanti and was launched in November 2010. It was the first superfast Ka-band in Europe. The Ka-band earth stations for HYLAS-1 are located at Goonhilly and Lands End, Cornwall, UK.
HYLAS-2, was launched in August 2012 and extends Avanti’s coverage to Africa, the Caucasus and the Middle-East.
Also in 2012 Avanti announced a conditional placing of 26,785,714 Ordinary Shares with new and existing institutional investors to raise approximately £73.8 million to fully fund the cost of the design, construction and launch of HYLAS-3. The satellite was orbited on August 6th 2019 by launch operator Arianespace. HYLAS-3 will be a hosted payload and is providing Ka-band services, as with HYLAS-1 and HYLAS-2.
HYLAS-4 was launched by Arianespace on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guyana Spaceport on April 5th 2018. The launch was originally planned in early 2017 but has been delayed to 21 March 2018, and then to 5 April 2018.