The Russian DTH platform operator Orion has stopped using the Abel Quintic conditional access system.
According to Satkurier and Obob, it had employed the system to give access to its Telekarta package to thousands of Rikor TV subscribers.
The latter, who had received a service known as Activ TV, from Intelsat 904 at 60 degrees East, were transferred to Orion in 2014 following a ruling by the regulator Roskomnadzor.
At the same time, Orion’s entire subscriber base received service from the 85 degrees East position.
Satkurier and Obob note that the decision to use Abel Quintic was a surprising one, given that Orion mostly employs Irdeto and Conax.
Furthermore, Abel Quintic cards did not work well with Viaccess and VideoGuard, used to encrypt Viasat and Eurosport at 85 degrees East.