Al Yah Satellite Communications


Al Yah Satellite Communications, AlYahsat is a satellite communications company wholly owned subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, the Abu Dhabi Government's strategic investment company. The company offers voice, data, video and internet services for broadcast, Internet and VSAT users for both private and government organisations.

Corporate History

Incorporated in January 2008 the company had an aim of developing, operating and using multi-purpose communications satellite systems for the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South-West Asia regions.
In July 2008, Yahsat approved a consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia to construct Yahsat's own satellites, manufacturing took 36 months to be completed in Europe. Arianespace were appointed to launch the first satellite Al Yah 1, currently positioned at 52.5° East.
In August 2008, Yahsat signed a 15-year lease agreement with the UAE Armed Forces to provide secure satellite communications in the UAE as Yahsat's first government customer. As part of this contract, Yahsat will supply the ground terminals and gateway infrastructure for satellite network services.
In August 2009 Yahsat entered into a partnership with European satellite operator SES to create a new company operating under the brand name YahLive offering Direct-to-Home television capacity and services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South West Asian region.
The first satellite was launched from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on 22 April 2011.
A second satellite, weighing approx. 6 tons, has been launched by International Launch Services on a Proton Breeze M vehicle from the Baikonour Kosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 24, 2012, at 22:18 GMT.

Yahsat Satellites

A satellite filecasting service known as Toosheh, or "Knapsack" in Persian, currently distributes content through the Yahsat Y1B satellite at 52.5° E. to Iran and the Middle East bypassing any local censorship of the Internet. This service works by using a common inexpensive satellite television receiver with PVR function to record video to flash media for later watching, the saved video stream is later decoded using Toosheh's software, the decoded media can then be viewed or decoded software can be run on a computer or mobile device, the service beams down 2Gb of data a day.