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Intelsat to service remote sites

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 25 Jul 2012

Intelsat has partnered with US-based Harris CapRock Communications in a deal that will see its new Epic platform deployed for fixed and mobile services on land and sea.

Intelsat, which provides satellite communications services across Africa and globally, yesterday announced Harris CapRock has selected the Intelsat EpicNG platform to provide broadband infrastructure across its communications sectors, encompassing remote and harsh environments.

“Under a multi-year agreement, Harris CapRock will utilise the next-generation Intelsat EpicNG platform to expand its service offerings and offer new applications to its global customers across the energy, maritime and government markets. Harris CapRock currently has Ku-band capacity on multiple satellites on the Intelsat fleet, which will expand to Intelsat 29e when it is launched.”

Intelsat says the agreement, which will enable the provision of more than one gigabit of throughput on the Intelsat EpicNG satellite platform, furthers Harris CapRock's global relationship with the company.

“Connectivity [in the energy, maritime and government] environments is mission-critical to enabling constant monitoring and control of valuable assets and mobile platforms in remote locations. Intelsat's global satellite infrastructure enables broadband connectivity to virtually any point on the Earth's surface.”

Epic array

Intelsat last month announced plans to launch two new satellites in the Epic range - the Intelsat 29e and Intelsat 33e - with expected service dates in 2015 and 2016. According to the company, the Epic satellites - based on a “high-performance, open architecture design” - are set to significantly enhance the capacity available across all populated continents.

The Epic platform, says Intelsat, is a new approach to satellite and network architecture that uses multiple frequency bands, wide beams, spot beams and frequency reuse technology.

Tom Eaton, president of Harris CapRock, says the company chose the Intelsat EpicNG platform for its design, backward compatibility and high throughput performance. “We looked at a number of emerging technologies that have been receiving a great deal of attention recently and, after thorough analysis, we determined that Intelsat EpicNG was the best platform for our customers, whose operations require high-performance and maximum network uptime.”

Steve Spengler, executive VP of sales, marketing and strategy at Intelsat, says the need for reliable broadband and high throughput on maritime and remote platforms continues to grow.

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