Altice Portugal and the Canadian company ThothX have established a partnership to refurbish the telecommunications antenna at Fajã de Cima, which will serve as a teleport with Deep Space Radar capability.

Built in the 1980s, the 30-meter telecommunications antenna, which was part of Marconi's Ponta Delgada Earth station, will be refurbished through this protocol, becoming part of
ThothX's global coverage strategy, which currently holds a 46-meter antenna in Canada, as well as a project to refurbish a 30-meter antenna in Australia.

ThothX is a Canadian company that develops and operates radar systems for tracking objects in space, using the Earthfence GEO radar system, as the company's CEO Brendan Quine revealed to Açoriano Oriental.

According to Brendan Quine, the Earthfence GEO system is a state-of-the-art radar capable of detecting and tracking objects the size of a meter in geostationary orbits, up to 50,000 kilometers.

"Earthfence GEO, which operates 24 hours a day in all weather conditions, is a valuable tool for Space Domain Awareness (SDA), given its ability to detect, track and catalog objects in space," he explained.

This tool has several applications, including space security, space traffic management and space science, as well as helping to ensure that objects in space are accurately tracked, allowing the risk of collisions to be reduced, managing space traffic, which is important for avoiding congestion, and ensuring that satellites can operate safely.

In addition, Earthfence GEO can be used to track unknown objects in space, which could also allow scientists to learn more about the universe.
The Canadian-based company plans to start refurbishing the infrastructure located in Fajã de Baixo as soon as possible, so that it can be operational within two years.

"We have already inspected the antenna and found that it is in very good conditions," Quine said, explaining that building an identical antenna would cost around 50 million dollars, while refurbishing this infrastructure will cost around 10% of that amount.

Settling in the region and generating business and specialized employment in the Azores are also objectives of the Canadian company.
In a statement, Altice Portugal emphasized that this new project is part of its strategy to develop and support projects of national and international prominence that will influence the future of national innovation.

"This agreement reinforces, on the one hand, Portugal's position as a strategic European telecommunications hub and the Azores archipelago as an Atlantic hub for Space; on the other hand, it reinforces Altice's strategy as a player on the communications map and gateway to Europe,
interconnecting continents by space, air, land sea," said the company.

Altice Portugal also recalled that it has a teleport in Alfouvar, in the municipality of Sintra, which is the largest infrastructure in the country; in addition to operating a set of satellite services for MEO customers, it houses four gateways of the largest global telecommunications satellite operators.

"The importance of this infrastructure in mainland Portugal is leveraged by the country's geographical location and the teams’ high level of know-how," Quine said.

He also pointed out that Altice Labs is involved in satellite communications (5G Nanosatellite) as it intends to present itself as a supplier of bidirectional telecommunications solutions between space and earth for Non-Terrestrial Networks. To this end, Quine added that the Altice Group's innovation hub, the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) and the University of Luxembourg are setting up a consortium to apply to the European Space Agency for a project in this area.