Page 55 - SAMENA Trends - Oct-Nov 2023

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

stature, will unlock investment prospects of Oman”. “We are positively contributing these professionals, to ensure the widestr
and facilitate growth in broadband network to telecommunications service providers possible coverage of fiber optic networks
infrastructure in Oman. Continuous in the Sultanate of Oman. Our support and across the Sultanate of Oman. We are
improvements and upgrading are assistance, combined with operating the dedicated to expanding and improving the
going to remain essential to make the largest fiber network in the country, is led network infrastructure, allowing residents
Sultanate an attractive destination for by a professional and competent Omani in urban or rural areas to have access to
foreign investments. “Oman Broadband team and is supported by our talented a reliable high-speed broadband internet
Company is the government's arm in contractors and technicians across connection, thereby contributing to the
the construction and development of all governorates. We are committed to growth and sustainability of our national
broadband infrastructure in the Sultanate providing training and empowerment to economy.”

U.S. Department of Defense Awards Low Earth
Orbit IDIQ Contract to SES Space & Defense

SES Space & Defense, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of SES, has been awarded a five-
year, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity
(IDIQ) contract for proliferated Low Earth
Orbit (pLEO) satellite-based services
(SBS). The IDIQ vehicle was awarded
through the Defense Information Systems
Agency’s (DISA) Defense Information
Technology Contracting Organization
(DITCO) by the U.S. Space Force. Under
the multi-award contract, valued at up
to USD 900 million, the U.S. Department
of Defense (DoD), federal agencies, and
international coalition partners can acquire enable a comprehensive range of new networks. This enables DoD users to enjoy
fully managed low-latency LEO SBS from connectivity capabilities for the U.S. DoD. resilient, redundant, and secure multi-orbit,
16 selected awardees, including SES Non-geostationary satellite orbits (NGSO) multi-band network solutions. “The pLEO
Space & Defense. As the industry’s leading - LEO and MEO - provide low-latency and IDIQ is the first multiple award contract
COMSATCOM operator and integrator, flexible, fiber-like connectivity ideal for to deliver pLEO COMSATCOM services to
SES Space & Defense possesses distinct high-bandwidth, real-time applications, the government and military,” said SES
advantages in providing the U.S. DoD while GEO satellites enhance global Space & Defense President and CEO, David
with value-added solutions at the tactical resiliency and redundancy enabling a Fields. “The contract structure is part of
edge. The company leverages SES’s global broader scope of government use cases. the U.S. Space Force’s new approach to
fleet of more than 70 Geostationary Earth SES Space & Defense also offers enterprise acquiring SATCOM. These awards are
Orbit (GEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) management and control (EM&C) foundational for COMSATCOM integration
satellites, coupled with LEO partnerships, capabilities, facilitating a seamless, and proliferation into new waveforms
to create a fully managed and integrated integrated network of COMSATCOM and and orbits enabling connectivity and
terrestrial and space network. Satellite MILSATCOM systems and extensive communication at the tactical edge.”
services delivered via multiple orbits experience in building and operating global

SES’s Fifth and Sixth O3b mPOWER Satellites Successfully Launched

SES announced that two additional O3b (MEO) satellites required to offer high- investment is expected to be covered
mPOWER satellites were successfully performance network services delivering within SES's existing committed CapEx
launched into space by a SpaceX Falcon high throughput, predictable low latency, envelope. The first four O3b mPOWER
9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force unique flexibility and service availability. satellites launched in the last year have
Station in Florida, United States, at 4:08pm Last month, SES announced it will add to arrived at their target orbital position and
local time. With the fifth and sixth O3b the constellation two more satellites built are undergoing in-orbit checks, including
mPOWER satellites launched, the system by Boeing, bringing the total number of O3b a series of system validation tests
completes the six medium earth orbit mPOWER satellites to 13. The additional encompassing both space and ground

55 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2023