[Satellite Today – 2-19-08] The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumesat) signed a contract with T-Systems Business Services to secure the availability of EumetCast services for Europe until 2014, the organization announced Feb. 19.
    Under the 12.8 million euro ($18.8 million) contract, Media Broadcast, in partnership with T-Systems, will continue to provide satellite services to Eumetsat, supplying a bandwidth of 15 megabits per second with an annual increase of 1 megabit per second to distribute weather data.
    To increase availability, an additional link will be used through a ground station in Milan, Italy. Media Broadcast will be responsible for operating the system, which has been developed for meteorological applications, and also will manage communications between weather satellites and the Eumetsat control center in Darmstadt.