Satellite operators Intelsat of the US and SKY Perfect JSAT Corp of Japan have formed a joint venture to launch a new satellite for the Asia Pacific region.
The satellite, to be called Horizons 3e, will be launched to the 169° East orbital slot in the second half of 2018.
As the fourth satellite to be owned jointly by JSAT and Intelsat, Horizons 3e will have an optimised C-band and high throughput Ku-band capacity to cater to the region's increasing mobile and broadband connectivity demands.
"Horizons 3e is a significant project for both Intelsat and JSAT," said Shinji Takada, president and CEO, JSAT.
"This new state-of-art satellite will lead to the expansion of our next generation business in the Asia and Pacific region utilising the HTS technology. Satellite communications demands for the region will definitely continue to grow, and the project is essential for us to uptake of the growth demand for the region."
Stephen Spengler, CEO, Intelsat, added: "With Horizons 3e, we will introduce the Intelsat EpicNG platform to the Asia Pacific region, completing our global high throughput footprint and enhancing our IntelsatOne Flex service platform. The scalability, power and flexibility of Intelsat EpicNG will provide commercial and governmental aeronautical and maritime services with unprecedented seamless, contiguous broadband coverage over the most widely trafficked routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific."
The two parties will hold equal ownership in the satellite, which will be constructed in the next two-and-a-half years.