US equipment and satellite services provider EchoStar Corporation plans to use its newly acquired rights to use Ku-band capacity in Mexico to deliver fixed satellite services for enterprise customers, Marc Lumpkin, EchoStar’s director of corporate communications told BNamericas.

EchoStar announced last week it had acquired rights to use this capacity from SES’s local affiliate, SSM, for its AMC-15 and AMC-16 satellites.

Lumpkin said EchoStar had been looking at numerous ways to expand services in other countries and it now has operations in Mexico and Taiwan as well as the US.

“Using AMC-15 and AMC-16 to deliver services to companies seeking satellite leasing in Mexico is part of our efforts to expand elsewhere,” Lumpkin said.

EchoStar announced the deal with SES just days after a deal to buy a controlling stake in Mexican satellite operator Satmex fell through, after Satmex priority bondholders rejected its US$374mn offer.

A deal with Satmex would have given EchoStar access to five satellites with coverage in Mexico, Central America, the US and the Andean countries and with a strong portfolio of clients including Loral, Hughes and Telmex (NYSE: TMX), Signals Consulting wrote in a recent blog entry.

“Satmex has landing rights in countries beyond just Mexico and would have been a beachhead for launching services into other countries,” Lumpkin said.

The deal would have also strengthened the commercial alliance between EchoStar and its partner in Mexican direct-to-home TV service provider Dish Mexico, MVS Comunicaciones, according to Signals.

Besides providing service through SSM, another part of EchoStar’s expansion goal includes plans to use capacity on QuetzSat’s QuetzSat-1 satellite due to be launched in 2011 and located at 77 degrees west longitude, with coverage of the US and Mexico.

“The QuetzSat satellite will enable the joint venture, Dish Mexico, with MVS Communications to expand services for DTH in Mexico, such as increasing the number and types of channels. Today, we use other EchoStar satellites at the 77 degree orbital location to broadcast channels for Dish Mexico,” Lumpkin said.

Asked whether EchoStar might consider attempting to renegotiate with Satmex bondholders, the executive declined to comment.

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