Orange ramps up Africa satellite capacity with Eutelsat

Additional C-band resources booked on new EUTELSAT 3B satellite

Paris, 8 October 2014 — Eutelsat Communications (NYSE Euronext Paris: ETL) and Orange have concluded a multi-year agreement for C-band capacity on the EUTELSAT 3B satellite that broadens Orange’s satellite capabilities across Africa. The capacity will support a fast response to enterprises by Orange Business Services for communications anytime, anywhere as well as serve Orange’s own internal requirements.

The newly leased resources complement C-band transponders already leased by Orange Business Services on the EUTELSAT 5 West A and EUTELSAT 10A satellites. The additional capacity will notably benefit enterprises operating in Africa who need reliable VSAT connectivity between geographically dispersed offices, including offshore sites.

C-band resources: combining reliability and robustness
C-band satellite communications benefit from two key characteristics that make them central to Africa’s telecommunications environment: strong performance in all climate zones, including equatorial Africa, and availability of wide service areas. Both features ensure that users can benefit from secure and robust connectivity solutions in rural and remote locations across the world that are unserved by terrestrial networks, including equatorial Africa.

EUTELSAT 3B: 3 satellites in 1
Launched in May 2014, the EUTELSAT 3B satellite was designed to increase and diversify Eutelsat’s resources and footprint at its 3° East orbital position and reach Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Brazil. The first commercial satellite to assemble C, Ku and Ka payloads in a single platform, its innovative tri-band configuration enables users to select the frequency band and service area adapted to the services delivered.