Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat HTS. Photo: Astrium

[Via Satellite 05-30-2014] Wireless Innovation chose Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat satellite for its contract with Thales Alenia Space to help protect EDF Energy’s infrastructure in the United Kingdom. This protection consists of five mobile deployable communication and information systems, which will be stored at different locations throughout the country and can be deployed to an EDF Energy site in the case of an emergency. Ka-Sat will relay data to EDF headquarters from the power plant control centers.

Wireless Innovation was sub-contracted by Thales to supply and detail the communication element for these modules. This is just one element of a larger Thales contract for emergency management of EDF Energy.

“We looked at a number of options for the satellite connection but quickly settled on Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat satellite broadband solution because of the price performance ratio it offered,” said Phil Rouse, managing director at Wireless Innovation. “In the event of an emergency, this mobile solution will be transferring large amounts of critical data and no other satellite provider was able to offer the quality and data bandwidth capabilities necessary, alongside the flexibility and competitive rates offered by Eutelsat.”

Ka-Sat is the first High Throughput Satellite (HTS) in Europe and offers a multi-spot beam solution for broadband communications. Frequencies can be reused 20 times, which brings total satellite throughput to more than 90 Gbps.