Eutelsat Communications and network company Marlink signed multi-year extensions to their global maritime partnership to support expansion in Africa and the Middle East.
The deal also adds the Americas and Asia into Eutelsat’s portfolio through very-small aperture terminal (VSAT) operator Marlink, while the latter will see a boost to capacity and coverage of its maritime VSAT.
As part of the deal, Marlink committed to targets to boost the capacity of multiple Eutelsat geostationary satellites by several hundred incremental MHz, that cover Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe to guarantee high levels of connectivity in certain sea routes.
Marlink Group CEO Erik Ceuppens said: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Eutelsat, which has proven its ability to deliver the right platform and capabilities to suit our target markets and the flexibility to accommodate our high standards with respect to the latency of voice traffic, capacity management and deployment flexibility.”
Eutelsat chief commercial officer Philippe Oliva, added: “We are hugely excited to deepen our relationship with Marlink, confirming Eutelsat as one of the go-to satellite network operators for maritime connectivity. We look forward to continuing to support Marlink as it rolls out its best-in-class service to seafarers in all segments of the maritime industry, with existing and future capacity on our fleet.”
This deal follows from Eutelsat's recent win in being selected by Intersat to deliver connectivity to three countries in West Africa.
