ABU DHABI - Airbus has been selected by Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), to build Thuraya 4-NGS, the next generation mobile telecommunications system that will drive the continued advancement of Thuraya’s L-band business. Thuraya 4-NGS will deliver higher capabilities and flexibility while increasing capacity and coverage across Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, enabling next generation mobility solutions for all customer segments, including defense, government and enterprise.
The new capabilities will drive leadership across many strategic product lines, such as maritime, IoT, and data solutions offering a wide spectrum of throughput capabilities.
Thuraya’s next generation system will provide opportunities to customers, service partners, hardware manufacturers and integrators, enhancing user experience across land, sea and air to support multiple customer segments, including government, consumer and enterprise.
All existing products and services will continue to be supported by Thuraya’s space and ground segments, enabling service continuity during and after the transformation program.
This latest commitment from Yahsat takes its total committed investment to date to well over $500 million, and more is anticipated in the coming years, including an option with Airbus to build Thuraya 5-NGS (an additional satellite identical to Thuraya 4-NGS), strengthening its coverage and capabilities across the Asia Pacific region.
Based on the Airbus Eurostar Neo Platform, Thuraya 4-NGS will incorporate a large 12-meter L-band antenna and a payload with on-board processing providing advanced routing flexibility of up to 3200 channels with dynamic power allocation over a large number of spot beams. It is scheduled for operation in 2024.
