DirecTV Plans Additional Uplink Centers

[Steve Mehs]

Later this year, DirecTV will open two new regional uplink centers to support its future satellite, DirecTV 7S.

The centers will be located in Oakdale, Minn., and Winchester, Va. The DirecTV 7S satellite is scheduled for launch sometime in the fourth quarter.

News about the uplink center additions came as DirecTV restructured some of its operations at its Castle Rock, Colo., uplink center, a move that includes staff reductions at the facility. Castle Rock will be responsible for the uplink of DirecTV's local TV signals.

In addition to the two future and Castle Rock facilities, DirecTV has an uplink facility in Los Angeles.

From SkyReport (http://www.skyreport.com/skyreport/feb2003/022503.shtm#one) (Used with Permission)

[navy8ball]

if either E* or D* want to build an uplink center in henryetta, ok. we would welcome them. plenty of open land and plenty of peple to work there.

[Richard King]

The centers will be located in Oakdale, MinnThis is where the USSB uplink was located. I suspect they are simply taking over that facility (or a portion of it) or pulling it out of the mothballs since buying USSB.

[Mike123abc]

This is a major development for Direct TV 7-S. While it may not sound like much, but if they have 4 uplink centers they get a 4x frequency reuse on the UPLINKs.

Direct TV has 11 transponders on 119, with each transponder they have a matching uplink frequency that they use to send the signal up to the satellite. By having more than one uplink center they can reuse the uplinks to get more transponder signals up to the satellite for spots. With 2 centers they could get 22 signals up, with 4 they could get 44. A major problem with 7-S is that it has capacity for around 42 spots and did not have the uplink capacity for it. Now if they can uplink a lot more, they can do tons more LIL.

This will certainly put the pressure on Dish to buy R/L DBS. If Direct TV can get a total spot capacity around 84 to Dish's 50, Dish will lose the LIL race. Or maybe they are doing this because they feel the pressure from the threat of Dish buying R/L DBS.