The Russian satellite operator RSCC is now one of the top 10 telcos in the country, based on ratings prepared by the CNews Analytics Agency.
Its revenues in 2016 amounted to R11.4 billion (€168.6 million) excluding VAT, or 23.7% more than in the previous year.
Commenting on the development, Yuri Prokhorov, RSCC DG, said: “The confident growth of financial performance from year to year demonstrates not only the well-coordinated work of our team, but also the growing demand for satellite communications. Today, our company participates in almost all government and social telecommunications projects in Russia. At the same time, RSCC is vigorously operating in all geographically accessible markets, increasing the number of international contracts, and serving customers in over 50 countries of the world.”
RSCC notes that it commissioned the Express-AMU1 satellite in February 2016, marking the completion of its satellite constellation upgrade for 2009-2015. It has almost completely revamped its space fleet, which has more than doubled the capacity of the Russian state-owned satellite orbital group. From 2009 to 2016, seven new spacecraft were built and put into orbit: Express-AM5, -AM6, -AM7, -AM8, AT1, -AT2 and -AMU1.
In March 2016, the government approved a new Federal Space Programme for 2016-2025. It envisages the building and orbiting of seven geostationary satellites for RSCC, providing FSS, television and radio broadcasting, as well as mobile communications for the Office of the President and for the Government. Also, four satellites in the highly elliptical orbit Express-RV are scheduled to be launched. The plan is to build the new GEO satellites based on extra-budgetary funds.
