Intelsat unveiled its EpicNG platform — 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.
Target markets include wireless and fixed telecommunications, enterprise, mobility, video and government applications requiring broadband infrastructure across the major continents.
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.
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.
“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.”
“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.”
