KUALA LUMPUR – An anomaly detected on the Measat-3 satellite which affected broadcasts on the Astro television service has been resolved, the satellite’s operator Measat Global Bhd said today.
At the start of this week, Astro customers across the country had experienced problems and difficulties in accessing channels on the satellite television service.
Network owner Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd had explained on Tuesday that the disruption was due to an outage faced by its satellite operator.
In a statement today, Measat said that the anomaly was detected on Measat-3 at 2pm on Monday.
“The satellite has been under control by our team since 9.30am on June 24 (Wednesday),” it said.
“However, Measat will continue performing maintenance activities and closely monitor the situation over the next couple of days to ensure the satellite systems service is fully resumed at its optimum capacity.
“During this maintenance period, some customers may still experience intermittent service degradation,” it added.
Meanwhile, Astro confirmed on Twitter that the pay-television provider has recovered all the affected channels.
As the satellite stabilises, customers experiencing issues should start to see improvements in signal reception. Please bear with us during this process. (3/4)
— Astro (@astroonline) June 26, 2021
However, it said that customers whose satellite dishes are slightly out of alignment may not be able to receive some channels yet.
“Whilst our satellite provider is undertaking the complex process of stabilising the Measat-3 satellite, our full attention and best endeavours are on restoring services for our customers.
“As the satellite stabilises, customers experiencing issues should start to see improvements in signal reception,” it tweeted.
In 2019, Astro signed a 15-year agreement with Measat Communication Systems Sdn Bhd (MCS) for the usage of 12 transponder capacity on the Measat-3d (M3d) satellite worth RM1.49 billion.
Measat-3 is a Boeing BSS-601 communications satellite that was launched in 2006.
On Thursday, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said that the satellite was put into normal operating mode after overhaul work was carried out.
“The transponder has also been reactivated since 9.30am today (Thursday) to allow customers to resume their services and this process is expected to take several hours,” it had said in a statement.
“Although the exact cause of the incident is still unknown, initial investigation found that there was a thruster failure. To solve that, back-up thrusters have been used to control the satellite without any impact on the operation and lifespan of the satellite.”
According to MCMC, the incident has resulted in disruption to various services such as Direct-to-Home (DTH), distribution of video channels, as well as mobile phone and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services.
In a profile included in its statement today, Measat said that it is a supplier of communication and video services to leading broadcasters, DTH platforms and telecom operators. With capacity across five (5) communication satellites, Measat provides services to over 150 countries representing 80% of the world’s population across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Australia, it said. – The Vibes, June 26, 2021
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