Vodafone has prolonged its partnership with satellite and terrestrial community operator Intelsat to offer wider protection of momentary and on-the-move satellite connectivity providers to organisations working in hard-to-reach areas or catastrophe zones.
The corporations imagine that their partnership will lead to companies, governments and charities with the ability to assist a number of purposes corresponding to monitoring helpful cargo, connecting new or momentary websites, offering further resilience and responding to emergency conditions.
In follow, the collaboration will see Vodafone including Intelsat’s Flex portfolio to its satellite connectivity product vary aimed toward each non-public and public sectors globally. Using the Intelsat service primarily based on a community of geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites, Vodafone will likely be offering two sorts of what it assures will likely be “secure, reliable and easy-to-use” satellite connectivity merchandise: communications-on-the-move (COTM), which makes use of a vehicle-mounted antenna; and communications-on-the-pause (COTP) connectivity, which includes a compact satellite terminal.
Intelsat’s service may even be used to assist Vodafone’s charitable arm, the Vodafone Foundation, with its related well being and training initiatives throughout Europe and Africa. Vodafone Foundation can be on standby to offer assist to NGOs, governments and aid businesses of their response to environmental and humanitarian catastrophe conditions.
Vodafone’s settlement with Intelsat enhances its work on direct-to-smartphone connectivity utilizing low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite know-how. The operator has already been working with Intelsat proprietor SES to supply 4G and 5G high-speed cell broadband providers in Papua New Guinea by a brand new cell service supplier.
It additionally sees additional traction for Intelsat in delivering connectivity to hard-to-reach locations. Earlier in 2024, it introduced a partnership with tools and providers firm CNH Industrial to offer farmers in rural Brazil ubiquitous entry to the web by way of a ruggedised satellite communications service and acquire field-ready connectivity to assist precision agriculture purposes.
Commenting on the extension of the businesses’ partnership, Vodafone Business CEO Marika Auramo mentioned: “Vodafone’s agreement with Intelsat adds depth and breadth to our global network. With these new services, we can provide additional connectivity and resilience to customers in some of the hardest-to-reach places, whether they’re on the move, or need to quickly establish communications following an environmental or humanitarian disaster.”
Jean Philippe Gillet, senior vice-president of media, mobility and networks at Intelsat, added: “The welfare of communities and their residents is more and more linked to the flexibility to entry dependable connectivity providers.
“The goal of our Flex services is to make it easier for our customers to leverage the reach and reliability of Intelsat’s network to deliver connectivity wherever they may operate, be it charitable initiatives like the Vodafone Foundation or connectivity for global enterprises, industrial operations, or rapid-response organisations.”
