Hylas-4 at Orbital ATK’s satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia. Photo: Business Wire

Comsat, a satellite connectivity provider for the U.S. Department of Defense (DO)D), signed a seven year Master Distribution Agreement (MDA) with Avanti Communications. The agreement will allow Comsat to offer advanced, complete service packages to its customers, with focus on Africa and the Middle East and on particular high‐value deployments currently planned or underway.

Comsat will benefit from the Avanti advanced satellite fleet and particularly from the Hylas 4 satellite, a High Throughput Satellite (HTS), focused on the Middle East and Africa. In turn, Avanti will gain immediate access to U.S. global governmental and military activity that may otherwise take multiple years to gain approval to serve. Hylas‐4, with four steerable HTS beams and 64 fixed beams, will enter service in September, 2018.

“With Avanti, we have found a well‐balanced partner to better serve our customers. Our decades of experience and technical capability will blend with their state‐of‐art, Wideband Global Satcom (WGS)‐compatible, Hylas‐4 satellite, built by U.S. manufacturer, Orbital ATK,” said Comsat President David Greenhill in the release.