Page 61 - SAMENA Trends - January 2022

SATELLITE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Intersat Boosting Satellite Internet Services in Gambia, Guinea Bissau,

Senegal Via Eutelsat Konnect

Intersat – a provider of VSAT internet enterprises, institutions and individuals located beyond the limits of terrestrial
solutions across Africa – has signed in Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Senegal. infrastructure’. The agreement represents
a multi-year deal with Eutelsat A press release highlighted that Intersat the entire available capacity of the satellite
Communications to utilise the latter’s will take advantage of Eutelsat Konnect’s across the three countries (‘several
Eutelsat Konnect high-throughput satellite reach to ‘provide a robust and high- hundred Mbps’).
for meeting the connectivity needs of quality Internet service to customers

Rural Satellite Internet Service Initiative to Improve Internet Access in 200

Locations in Kelantan

The Kelantan government has identified people in the state, especially those in rural facilitate their learning process,” he said.
200 locations in the state that still do areas,” he told reporters after officiating On the cost of using the Internet, Ahmad
not have internet access, said Mentri the Rural Satellite Internet Service (PeSAT) said it would be determined by the service
Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob. He said at initiative at Jeram Mengaji, Selising, provider. He added that, focus would also
the moment, the state government was here, today. Elaborating, Ahmad said be given to improving internet access in
working to improve internet access in all telecommunication transmitters would 18 Orang Asli villages in the state with the
the locations through cooperation between be installed in 50 schools under the support of the Malaysian Communications
Kelantan Gate and BinaNet. “Insya Allah, supervision of Yayasan Islam Kelantan and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
through this cooperation, we will be able to (YIK). “This will also enable students at
provide internet services via satellite to the the schools to get better internet access to

Intelsat Makes News in Both Disaster Relief and Aviation Services

Integrated satellite and terrestrial network operator Intelsat has emergency communications services to support humanitarian aid
made news recently – both in disaster relief and in the more sedate to Tonga and the archipelago for Digicel Tonga (whose efforts we
area of commercial and business aviation services. Intelsat has reported late last week) and Tonga Communications Corporation.
joined a number of big names in telecommunications that have Intelsat is providing space-based broadband connectivity on
been supporting the relief effort in Tonga, where last week a Horizons 3e and Intelsat 18, while partners Telstra and Spark are
volcanic explosion and subsequent tsunami knocked out a number providing the ground infrastructure, including VSAT hubs at their
of undersea internet cables, disconnecting a region that is home teleports, uplink, internet access and remote kits. The services
to over 100,000 people. Intelsat, in cooperation with Australian provided are now fully provisioned, expanding broadband and
operator Telstra and New Zealand operator Spark, has deployed voice services. Additionally, Intelsat is providing services in
conjunction with Optus, owned by Singapore’s Singtel, to the
New Zealand Defence Force, which will provide humanitarian
support in Tonga. Intelsat has also been in the news after
satellite networking technology company Gilat Satellite Networks
announced that it was expanding its strategic partnership in
commercial aviation with the operator. To enable the expansion of
commercial and business aviation services in Asia, Intelsat will be
using Gilat’s SkyEdge II-c system, which, in addition to providing
in-flight connectivity, is designed to deliver fixed and mobility
services for maritime and land mobility. Its management system,
TotalNMS, enables full configuration, control and monitoring
of all system elements and remote terminals. SkyEdge II-c is a
proven operational system that, Gilat says, allows aviation service
providers like Intelsat to streamline service fulfilment and provide
a superior user experience to airline passengers.

61 JANUARY 2022