Russia has invited China to participate in a project to build a satellite system for Ka band high-speed Internet access. The offer of cooperation was announced by Deputy Minister Naum Marder during a joint Russian-Chinese meeting on communications and information technologies held in Nizhny Novgorod in late August.
According to Marder, Russia is ready to offer China the transmitting capacity of the new satellite and access to the ground infrastructure.
The “Ka band,” stands for “Kurz-above” band, which stems from the German word “kurz” meaning “short.” It refers to a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that covers the frequencies of 26.5–40 GHz.
In 2009, Russia decided to create a Russian-made Ka band satellite network to provide high-speed Internet, particularly in areas with low population density.
But the Express-AM4 satellite, which was transporting the Ka band transponders designed to cover almost all the territory of Eastern Russia and Central Europe, crashed just after launch on August 18. Marder said the project to replace the satellite could take two years.
Source: Interfax