Photo/CASC

China is scheduled to launch its first high-capacity broadband satellite by the end of 2018, and to begin satellite communications services by 2019, according to the satellite system's blueprint.

The blueprint was revealed as part of a contract signed between the Shenzhen government and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) on July 23, according to CASC's official WeChat platform. A new company, APT Mobile SatCom Limited (APSTAR), co-founded by the two bodies, was also unveiled.

APSTAR will shoulder the responsibility for construction of the high-capacity broadband satellite system, the costs for which are estimated at 10 billion yuan.

Cheng Guangren, president of APSTAR and also an expert on communications satellites, said the company will launch two more high-capacity broadband satellites to serve in the Americas, Europe and Africa, creating a global broadband satellite communications system by 2020.

According to CASC, the system will have three to four satellites, each with a capacity dozens of times that of normal broadband satellites.

“With the help of high-capacity broadband satellites, we can now offer better service in remote areas, in the air and on the sea where there used to be no communications services,” Cheng was quoted as saying.

When it is complete, China's global communications system will offer a continuous, reliable and autonomous service that supports the Belt and Road Initiative as well as other overseas development projects, the CASC post explained.