When the Taiwan earthquake severed six major undersea fibre optic cables, disrupting telecommunications throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Intelsat was able to restore services for many voice, video and data providers, some within hours of the event.
Intelsat restored traffic to customers in Asia and the Middle East through its flexible satellite network and its GlobalConnex Managed Network Services infrastructure.
Traffic delivery to the area has primarily used Intelsat's teleports and its six satellites serving the Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, Intelsat re-established international and intra-regional links for more than 20 telecommunications operators, broadcasters and network service providers.
"Continuing to serve the Asia market with our Hallmark Channel programming would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of Intelsat following the earthquake that hit Southeast Asia," said Chuck Zabilski, Vice-President of Sparrowhawk Broadcast Services. "Intelsat went the extra mile and provided critical assistance in communicating with our uplink provider and getting the equipment properly configured, enabling us to resume our transmissions. We thank everyone at Intelsat for making this a priority and getting our restoration in place."
"Unfortunate events such as this earthquake spotlight the vital role that satellites play in providing backup to fibre-based networks," said Stephen Spengler, Intelsat's Senior Vice-President, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific Sales. "When satellite connections are an integrated part of a diverse telecommunications network, critical business continuity can be achieved for uninterrupted communications during emergency situations."
From the first reports of fibre communications disruptions, Intelsat was working around the clock to provide additional satellite capacity to customers throughout Southeast Asia. "Today, voice, video and Internet connectivity has been restored for customers throughout the region. In one instance, we were able to establish a new 56Mbps of Internet service for a Southeast Asian telecommunications provider within four hours after the fibre outage," Spengler added.
Intelsat has played a key role in providing capacity and critical network restoration services following many of the recent natural disasters including the 2004 tsunami, the 2005 Central Asian earthquake which severed the SEA-ME-WE3 fibre communications in Pakistan, and the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that devastated the US Gulf Coast.
Share
Intelsat is the largest provider of fixed satellite services worldwide and is the leading provider of these services to each of the media, network services/telecom and government customer sectors, enabling people and businesses everywhere constant access to information and entertainment.
Intelsat offers customers a greater business potential by providing unrivalled resources with ease of business and peace of mind. Our services are utilised by an extensive customer base, including some of the world's leading media and communications companies, multinational corporations, Internet service providers and government/military organisations.
Real-time, constant communication with people anywhere in the world is closer, by far.
Editorial contacts