The new satellite will be built by Airbus and will replace the existing MEASAT-3 as well as MEASAT-3a which were launched in 2006 and 2009 respectively. Hence, the MEASAT-3d will be co-located at the same area as the older satellites at 91.5 degrees East. MEASAT-3d is apparently designed to help serve the needs of 4G & 5G networks in Malaysia. At the same time, it will also serve as part of the company’s HD, 4K, and 8K video distribution in the Asia Pacific region. What even more interesting is that the MEASAT-3d is also designed to deliver high speed broadband with 100% coverage of all Malaysian households through its Ka-band payload. The satellite will also host an L-band navigation payload for the Korea Augmentation Satellite System on behalf of KTSAT. Given all the information above, it is going to be interesting to see whether the upcoming MEASAT-3d will open up new features and services on Astro since MEASAT is the primary satellite service provider to the company. Of course, we will only know the answer when the new satellite is launched into space in 2021. (Source: Arianespace // Airbus.)
