A new satellite ground station has opened in Iraq.

Communications Minister Mustafa Sanad recently inaugurated a new Iraqi satellite ground station in Baghdad, known as the Teleport-IGWS (International Gateway Stations) project. The new facility will support government agencies, aviation, and connecting remote regions, bringing communications infrastructure and data inside the nation when before it had been supplied overseas.

"This project is the most important component of our project toward satellites, as satellites would be of no benefit without this station," Sanad told the Iraqi News Agency, going on to mention stronger communications and “data sovereignty”.

The director general of Iraq-based General Company for Telecommunications and Informatics (ITPC), Ali Yassin, told local press it’s the first satellite teleport established in the country since 2003, and will be manned entirely by Ministry of Communications Personnel. The site has subscribed to 10 megahertz of satellite capacity, with the option to expand.

Yassin did not elaborate upon the events of the Iraq War he invoked, waged between 2003 and 2011.

The station has been connected to the MoC’s fiber-optic network, integrating satellite to terrestrial networks. Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service was the first user to operate at the new gateway.

Wael al-Khalidi, deputy executive director of British company Commercis Group, told the press that additional ground stations could be on the way outside Baghdad, while Sanad said foreign customers had contacted Iraqi authorities about satellite services.

The region is one in which foreign customers and financiers span both East and West, though the ITPC announced a deal in September to route telecommunications capacity by transit cable from the Gulf to Europe in conjunction with the Qatari Ooredoo Group’s subsidiary Asiacell. It’s one of several telecoms infrastructure deals serving Europe and companies like Nokia, spanning the last three years.

In July, Iraq’s Ministry of Communications declared it had held talks with a delegation from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on cooperation toward future infrastructure and public services.

The Communications Minister explained the ground station was the result of combined efforts across the Communications and Media Commission, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Governance, and other public institutions. The project had been years in the making, with key stages delivered by previous ministers, advisers, and those at the state-owned General Company for Telecommunications and Informatics before Sanad’s time.