Orange will integrate its own global infrastructure with the global network coverage powered by SES Networks’ Skala Global Platform, which provides worldwide coverage via multiple geostationary satellites and gateways interconnected by a global terrestrial network.
The partnership will enable Orange maritime customers to scale up their bandwidth with seamless, ubiquitous and global services.
The companies said this s latest agreement further strengthens the partnership that the Orange Group and SES Networks have established in the last few years. Orange has leveraged SES’ innovative O3b satellite constellation operating in medium earth orbit (MEO) as well as SES’ geostationary satellites to deliver global fibre-like, low-latency services to their mining customers. Orange has also been using SES’s MEO and GEO services to provide international connectivity where needed and to deploy cellular services across remote areas of Africa. Orange is also the first announced network operator to adopt O3b mPOWER, SES’s next-generation MEO system, which is planned for commercial service availability in the second half of 2022.
“At Orange, we continue to believe that satellite is a future-oriented technology and that the many recent innovations in this industry will give it a growing place in the telco area, whether in Africa, in more developed areas such Europe or North America, or in specific industries such as maritime. This is why we are glad to reinforce our partnership with SES, as it will add a new component to our overall mission at Orange, that of building intelligent, open and innovative networks in order to support the digital transformation of our business customers and provide access to digital usage to the largest number of people,” said Jean-Luc Vuillemin, Executive Vice President, Orange International Networks Infrastructures and Services.
“We have been working closely together with the Orange Group the last couple of years to provide high-performance connectivity services worldwide to their customers in many different industries. As our partner, they were the first major telco player to embrace our upcoming O3b mPOWER and now collaborating together on our Skala Global Platform, SES will deliver new levels of connectivity, creating seamless, reliable global coverage for those in the maritime industry. Our flexible bandwidth solution removes any barriers that might be holding shipowners back from realising the full value when it comes to their digital investments,” said John-Paul Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks.
