Intelsat Announces the Intelsat EpicNG Satellite Platform

Intelsat S.A  has introduced the Intelsat EpicNG satellite platform, a new series of satellites based upon a high performance, open architecture design.

 

Intelsat EpicNG will be deployed for wireless and fixed telecommunications, enterprise, mobility, video and government applications requiring broadband infrastructure across the major continents.
 
The Intelsat EpicNG platform is an innovative approach to satellite and network architecture utilizing multiple frequency bands, wide beams, spot beams and frequency reuse technology. A complementary overlay, Intelsat EpicNG will be fully integrated with Intelsat's existing satellite fleet and global IntelsatONESM terrestrial network.
 
Combining Intelsat's spectral rights in the C-, Ku- and Ka-bands with the technical advantages of high throughput technology, the Intelsat EpicNG platform will be fully open architecture.  Intelsat's customers, the world's leading communications and media companies and government entities, 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.
 
"The Intelsat EpicNG platform represents the next generation of satellites, a progressive evolution of the Intelsat fleet," said Intelsat Chief Executive Officer Dave McGlade. "As the global demand for bandwidth surges and penetration of communications reaches ever further into developing regions and mobile applications, we are strategically investing in this platform to support our customers with a highly reliable and efficient broadband infrastructure as they launch new services and enter new geographies."        
 
Customer Benefits
The new Intelsat EpicNG series will offer the following benefits to customers:  

•  Higher performance and lower cost per-bit
•  Wide beams and spot beams provide the benefits of broadcast and high throughput
•   Multi-band frequencies aligned to region- and application-specific requirement
• Open architecture:
• Backward compatibility; use of existing network infrastructure and customer-preferred network topology
• Forward compatible as ground technology advances
• High throughput, high efficiency, high availability enables smaller terminals, supporting growing applications such as mobility and aero, and benefitting increasingly data-centric services like cellular backhaul                                                                                                          

"The driving force behind the creation of our Intelsat EpicNG next generation platform comes from listening to our customers, and building a technical and strategic understanding of their business requirements and long-term objectives," said Intelsat EVP of Sales, Marketing & Strategy Steve Spengler.
 
"The open architecture design of Intelsat EpicNG will allow our telecommunications customers to customize and control their own service offerings, determining critical elements such as speed, hardware and network topology. This freedom of choice is not currently available in other high throughput satellite solutions, but it was essential to our design considerations because our customers will be able to differentiate their service offerings to better serve their respective market segments," continued Spengler.
 
Spot Beams for Better Performance
Intelsat EpicNG leverages the high throughput characteristics of spot beams and frequency reuse without sacrificing performance and flexibility, enabling new service offerings not currently available from other systems.
 
"With Intelsat EpicNG, we will deliver innovation that creates immediate value for our customers," said Intelsat SVP and Chief Technical Officer Thierry Guillemin. "As bandwidth demand grows, speed and throughput is critical. However, equally important is the operating environment. Our customers operate vast infrastructures, with millions of dollars invested in capital equipment and operational teams that must be managed efficiently. Intelsat EpicNG  caters to this environment, with an architecture open to a wide array of network topologies and terminal technologies. Combined with multi-band frequency reuse, this is high throughput with the benefits of backward and forward compatibility. Operational excellence is core to our approach, and Intelsat EpicNG is designed to support the same in our customers' businesses."
 
Initially, the Intelsat EpicNG platform will feature two next generation satellites, and Intelsat is currently evaluating proposals by several manufacturers. These first two satellites, Intelsat 29e and Intelsat 33e, have projected in-services dates in 2015 and 2016, and feature wide coverage and high throughput capacity; combined they will serve every populated region in the world.
 .