Intelsat expands deal with Alaska’s GCI. Photo: Intelsat

Intelsat has expanded its agreement with Alaskan telecommunications company GCI to include multi-orbit broadband services in Alaska, the company announced Jan. 8. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

In addition to  C-, Ku-, and Ka-band Geostationary Orbit (GEO) service in GCI’s satellite portfolio, the company now has access to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) service managed by Intelsat. GCI plans to support the growing demands of its customers including regional tribal health care providers, school districts, government agencies, and businesses.

Intelsat and GCI have worked together for more than a decade, and also expanded their GEO agreement four years ago for greater capacity and speed. GCI will rely on wholesale satellite capacity as well as Intelsat’s fully managed solutions.

GCI Senior VP of Corporate Development Billy Wailand commented: “Our expanded agreement will give GCI access to Intelsat’s broad portfolio of proven, high availability GEO services, next-generation LEO service, and deep expertise in managed satellite services.”

Intelsat did not name a LEO service provider in the news release, but has a partnership with Eutelsat Group and the OneWeb constellation for LEO services over six years. 

GCI has a separate enterprise reseller agreement with Starlink for LEO service as well.