By Martyn Wingrove From Marine Electronics & Communications

Arianespace has launched the third of Intelsat’s EpicNG satellites that will deliver high throughput broadband to ships in the North Atlantic and cruise lines in the Caribbean. The Intelsat 32e satellite was launched on the Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on 14 February.

Once the satellite is commissioned and tested, it will increase the throughput available in the congested Caribbean and North Atlantic routes. This should provide resiliency for mobility network service providers servicing shipping and other maritime industries.

Some beams on Intelsat 32e will overlay coverage from Intelsat 29e, which was commissioned last year. A third satellite, Intelsat 33e, started providing high throughput Ku-band coverage over the eastern hemisphere oceans earlier this year.

Intelsat chief executive Stephen Spengler said Intelsat 32e is a strong addition to its global network. He commented: “It increases our capabilities to support the growth of our maritime customers in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, such as the exclusive use of our services for broadband to most of the world’s largest cruise ships sailing the Caribbean right now.”

Intelsat’s next planned launch is Intelsat 35e, scheduled aboard a SpaceX Falcon rocket in the second quarter of 2017.

IMAGE: Ariane 5 rocket launched Intelsat’s latest EpicNG rocket from French Guiana (credit: Arianespace)

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