Intelsat has selected Boeing’s 702MP platform for its first EpicNG high-performance satellite
Scheduled for launch in 2015, Intelsat 29e will offer high-performance communications coverage spanning North and South America, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the North Atlantic aeronautical route connecting North America and Europe.
Intelsat’s recently unveiled EpicNG platform promises a new approach to satellite and network architecture utilizing multiple frequency bands, wide beams, spot beams and frequency reuse technology. EpicNG will be the company’s next generation of satellites, promising higher throughputs and lower cost per bit. It will be a complementary overlay to the company’s existing constellation of satellites and global IntelsatONE terrestrial network. In Junee, Intelsat said its EpicNG platform will bring high throughput technology to its spectral rights in the C-, Ku- and Ka-bands. Customers will be able to use existing hardware and network topologies, and in many cases, define their own service characteristics, enabling them to offer customized solutions to their end users and build upon their current business success.
“Our customers require an advanced architecture specially designed to meet their fixed and mobile communications needs,” said Intelsat SVP and chief technical officer Thierry Guillemin. “With higher throughput, strong economics and a degree of control that meets our customers’ business requirements, Intelsat EpicNG caters to this environment. Its architecture combines multi-band frequency reuse with the benefits of backward and forward compatibility, resulting in a high-performance solution not previously available in the commercial satellite sector. We selected Boeing because they were able to meet this challenge.”
With Intelsat 29e, the first Intelsat EpicNG satellite, Intelsat completes its four-satellite order with Boeing. The first satellite in the order, Intelsat 22, is nearing six months of flawless operations in geostationary orbit. Intelsat 21, recently launched by a Sea Launch rocket, is now fully deployed and undergoing in-orbit testing. The third satellite, Intelsat 27, is set for launch in the first quarter of 2013.
