With the satellite industry in the midst of a technological transition period, operators used the exposure of the 2012 OilComm conference to display new possibilities for wide-beam Ku- and C-band and spot-beam Ka-band. Several new offerings and platforms are set for launch to cater to an inevitable broadband/data market boom during the next few years. According to conference attendees, the oil and gas market will play a considerable role in satellite’s success.
   Intelsat, one of the world’s largest FSS operators, displayed its EpicNG Ku-band global broadband mobility platform at the OilComm show. The platform’s cornerstone is Intelsat 29e, the first of the Intelsat EpicNG satellites, which will kick off the service when it launches in 2015. Intelsat Vice President of Global Accounts and Strategic Sales Jay Yass said the introduction of EpicNG would meet a variety of needs in an even wider variety of geographic markets.
   “We will offer good connectivity over the rest of the Atlantic, from CONUS and throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Asia and South Asia with our Intelsat EpicNG platform,” said Yass. “Intelsat EpicNG is also a truly global offering. It’s not just a one-off, it’s part of Intelsat’s global mobility fabric. Panasonic is leveraging our Intelsat EpicNG and non- Intelsat EpicNG satellites, teleports and IntelsatONE fiber connectivity service.”
  During OilComm’s famous “Six-Minute Vendor Shoot-Out” session, Intelsat Regional Vice President of North America Sales Mark Rasmussen touted Ku-band as an ideal bandwidth for mobility for corporate networking, maritime and aero applications, balancing performance availability and the proper beam spot sizes needed for adequate throughput.
   “With Ku-band, we’re able to make smaller spots,” Rasmussen told attendees. “That’s not to say Intelsat is against Ka-band. In fact, we will have Ka-band frequencies available on the Intelsat EpicNG platform. But since we have all these frequencies at our disposal, we will match the appropriate frequency spectrum with the application.”
   MSS operator Inmarsat is taking a different approach to spots. The design of the company’s I-5 satellites and Global Xpress platform makes Inmarsat’s spots much larger in order to be global. The service is scheduled for launch in 2014.
   The operator made Global Xpress its top product at OilComm, in an effort to sign significant partnerships and advance its business strategy for the high-throughput Ka-band satellite broadband network. Inmarsat also looks to build off of long-term service delivery alliancse with Cisco and Honeywell for GX Aviation services.
   “These agreements will allow Cisco and Inmarsat to create new value propositions for our customers,” Imarsat CEO Rupert Pearce said in a statement. “Inmarsat will benefit tremendously from Cisco technology and distribution reach and Cisco will be able to provide connectivity for its services and products anytime, anywhere. We are going to foster a new satellite applications development environment that should provide great opportunities for our distributors, our customers and our companies.”
   The operator also recently signed VSAT terminal supplier L-3 Global Communications Solutions (GCS) to an initial launch partnership agreement for land satellite terminals for its Global Xpress service. “The partnership aims to deliver the L-3 GCS’s field-tested credibility that Global Xpress customers seek when upgrading to Ka-band speed and coverage by bringing L-3 GCS’ Panther – and Hawkeye-certified terminals together with Inmarsat’s global managed services,” the operator said.
   Global Xpress partner companies will manufacture a range of interoperable maritime, aeronautical and commercial land satellite terminals, specifically designed for high-performance operation in the Ka-band utilizing VT iDirect’s new Core Module. Utilizing its partners, the Global Xpress objective is to deliver up to 50Mbps downlink speeds with 60cm aperture terminals.