Astrium Enhances VSAT Coverage in the Barents and Mediterranean Seas

Oslo, 31 October 2013 – Astrium Services, the global innovative provider of satellite enabled telecom solutions, is expanding its already comprehensive global VSAT coverage following the signing of new separate Ku-band capacity agreements with Eutelsat and SES.

Enhanced capacity on Eutelsat’s E36B will provide improved services and more bandwidth for Astrium Services customers operating in the Mediterranean and Middle East, in addition to the area North of Norway and Russia (Barents Sea). Astrium Services offers coverage from multiple satellites over these regions, ensuring high service performance and availability for ship-owners operating there.

New Ku-band capacity on SES’ AMC-21 satellite will provide more comprehensive coverage over the US, enabling Astrium customers operating in the oil & gas and inland marine sectors to have better connectivity. As part of the capacity extension deal with SES, Astrium Services moves from AMC-9 to AMC-21, which provides enhanced signal and coverage over the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and part of the North Atlantic Ocean, so customers will see improved performance and availability of their satellite services.

“Astrium Services continues to offer the most extensive global VSAT coverage available across all bands,” comments Tore Morten Olsen, Head of Maritime, Astrium Services. “Our customer base is global, so it’s important for us to meet the bandwidth and service availability demands of vessels regardless of where they are operating. These latest coverage extensions strengthen our ability to provide services in mainstream maritime regions, meeting the current demand for globally available data usage and service quality but also with extensive capacity to ensure we can meet future bandwidth requirements from the maritime and offshore sectors.”