Satellite News

SES S.A. announced that Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE), a provider of content, connectivity, digital media and operations solutions to the travel industry, has signed new multi-year, multi-transponder agreements, doubling its SES satellite capacity, to meet demand for inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) services.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that it has successfully conducted the first ever voice and data ground test call over the next-generation Iridium Certus broadband network, currently under development. Iridium Certus is the new global broadband capability being introduced on Iridium NEXT.

Inmarsat has signed a contract to provide high-speed inflight connectivity services for passengers onboard Lufthansa’s European continental fleet.

Satellite, launch and communications provider Spaceflight announced its third and newest ground station in Invercargill, New Zealand is now fully operational.

Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) has signed an expanded satellite support contract with a total value of NOK205 million (EUR21,8 million) with the European Space Agency for the Sentinel satellites in the Copernicus programme.

Elara Comunicaciones, a provider of telecommunications and technology services in Mexico, has once boosted its capacity on the Eutelsat Communications fleet through a multi-year, multi-transponder and multi-satellite agreement with Eutelsat Americas that will allow Elara to provide data services in Mexico and across Latin America.

The world’s leading satellite operators, Eutelsat, Hispasat, Inmarsat, Intelsat, SES, Thuraya and Yahsat, under the umbrella of the EMEA Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) and the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), announced the signing of a Crisis Connectivity Charter with the global humanitarian community represented by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).

Eutelsat Communications and Facebook announced they are partnering on a new initiative that will leverage satellite technologies to get more Africans online. Under a multi-year agreement with Spacecom, the two companies will utilise the entire broadband payload on the future Amos-6 satellite and will build a dedicated system comprising satellite capacity, gateways and terminals.