Artist rendition of an Intelsat EpicNG satellite. Photo: Intelsat.

[Via Satellite 03-12-2014] Intelsat and Airbus have entered into a new agreement to bring maritime VSAT services to Intelsat’s High Throughput Satellite (HTS) EpicNG platform. The agreement, as part of Airbus’ Aurora Global suite, will provide global high throughput satcom services with secure access to IntelsatOneSM, the company’s Ku-band satellite capacity and terrestrially managed network.

EpicNG brings Airbus maritime customers the potential for new services that enable throughput in the 25-50 Gbps range, about 10 times the amount of traditional satellites. Each Intelsat EpicNG spot beam can support Airbus users with 1-meter antennas that feature downlink speeds of up to 290 Mbps and uplink speeds of up to 225 Mbps.

With its open-architecture and flexible backward-compatible platform, the EpicNG works with the existing Ku-band wide beam fleet, enabling customers to achieve higher speeds without replacing existing hardware.

“The combination of our satellite fleet and IntelsatOne network provides Airbus Defense and Space with the optimal combination of space and ground assets to capitalize on the commercial maritime sector’s burgeoning demand for broadband services,” said David McGlade, chairman and CEO of Intelsat. “Together, we will deliver the next generation of broadband services that enable our customers to have the same levels of availability, quality of service and connectivity regardless of whether their ships are travelling in remote or heavily congested locations.”