Intelsat General selects XTAR to deliver X-band capacity to manpack terminals

Posted by Courtney E. Howard

ROCKVILLE, Md., 4 Nov. 2010. XTAR LLC, a U.S.-based commercial provider of satellite services in the X-band frequency, won a bandwidth contract from Intelsat General Corp. XTAR will provide Intelsat General with 16MHz of high-power, X-band services from its XTAR-LANT satellite stationed over the Atlantic Ocean. The capacity will be employed in support of military, mobile, manpack terminals prior to deployment into the field.

The contract expands the relationship between the two companies that began with a master sales agreement in May. According to Kay Sears, president of Intelsat General, “This agreement with XTAR will enable both companies to satisfy the customer’s unique requirements for flexible and advanced X-band satellite capacity.”

Philip Harlow, XTAR president and COO, hailed the contract award as a significant development in his company’s relationship with major satellite operator Intelsat General: “XTAR is committed to the success of all its customers by providing a superior experience which exceeds the unique mission requirements of governments worldwide. We are dedicated to providing highly secure, reliable services supported by consultative relationships and operational independence for our partners and clients.”

XTAR-LANT, located at 30 degrees W, entered service in April 2006, carrying eight 100W wideband X-band transponders in both right- and left-hand circular polarization. The flexible payload makes it well suited for X-band services in North America for homeland security applications and enables one-hop connectivity to Europe and the Middle East. The satellite covers a large geographic area with two global beams and three spot beams that can be relocated within the satellite’s coverage area.

“We continue to see demand for X-band services from U.S. and Allied governments to help fulfill their constantly growing need for high-capacity bandwidth to support a wide range of military applications, including communications on the move and high-capacity video among others,” Harlow states. “As governments keep looking to commercial providers for satellite bandwidth, they are increasingly turning to X-band providers as other frequency bands become more limited in availability. The X-band frequency is designated uniquely for government use and is therefore readily available to government customers without competition from commercial users, with no need to change user equipment from that normally used for WGS satellite operation.”