Industry News: Contracts (July 2007)
Astrium-Thales Alenia Space Capture Satellite Contract
Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. (YahSat) selected a consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space to build a communications satellite to serve the Middle East and surrounding regions, YahSat announced.
YahSat is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mubadala Development Co., the strategic investment and development vehicle of Abu Dhabi’s government.
The satellite will provide government and commercial communication services such as broadcasting, Internet trunking, corporate data networks and backhauling to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.
The contract, which will be finalized “as soon as possible,” is expected to be valued at $1.4 billion.
General Dynamics Awarded Satellite Terminal Contract
General Dynamics SatCom Technologies has been awarded a $30.5 million follow-on order for satellite communications terminals for the U.S. Marine Corps Support Wide Area Network program, the company announced.
Ordered by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Lifecycle Management Command, the deal is the first of four options on an indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract that could be valued at up to $160 million if all options are exercised.
The terminals provide warfighters with beyond-line-of-sight communications for a broad spectrum of information services including video, multimedia, data and imagery.
MacDonald Dettwiler To Supply Imagery Ground Station
MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to supply an unnamed customer with a satellite imagery ground station for a planned high-resolution imagery satellite, the company announced. MacDonald Dettwiler will provide the customer with an advanced system capable of programming, receiving and processing imagery from the satellite. The system will be operational in 2008.
Multimax Joins Lockheed Martin Military Communications Support Contract
Multimax Inc. has been named to a Lockheed Martin team providing communications infrastructure, including satellite services at 13 military bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, and six other nations, Multimax announced.
Lockheed Martin Global Services is providing the services to U.S. Central Command under the Communications Technical Support Services contract valued at $73 million.
Multimax will provide operations and maintenance support for local area networks, commercial satellite communications, technical control facility and other services.
Orbcomm Signs Deal With Wireless Carrier
Orbcomm signed a deal with an unidentified American wireless carrier to begin offering terrestrial wireless services to complement its satellite-based wireless services, Orbcomm announced.
Orbcomm will resell its partner’s wireless airtime services, allowing Orbcomm to offer blended airtime plans offering cellular and satellite data plans at rates it markets itself.
Dual mode devices will allow users to access both networks, with devices available from several vendors including Stellar Satellite Communications and MobiApps.
SAT Corp. To Supply System To Advantech For Saudi Aramco Network
SAT Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Integral Systems Inc., delivered its MonicsNet Satellite Carrier Monitoring system to Advantech Satellite Networks Inc. for use in the Saudi Aramco Satellite Communications Network, Integral announced.
MonicsNet automatically monitors Saudi Aramco’s carriers using digital signal processing technology, including algorithms designed to detect, characterize and display interfering signals, even if buried under the primary carrier.
Sirius Chooses Thomson Encoders For Video Services
Grass Valley will supply its Argos MPEG-4 AVC mobile TV encoders from Thomson for use in Sirius Satellite Radio’s TV offering, Thomson announced. The encoder is designed to handle very low bit rates while enabling flexible frame rate encoding.
The value of the contract was not released.
Tandberg Gets Digiturk Deal
Tandberg Televison will provide a next-generation digital video system to Turkish direct-to-home operator, Digiturk, Tandberg announced.
The new system will help Digiturk, which has about 1.1 million subscribers, deliver services such as high-definition TV and video on demand.
Financial details of the agreement were not released.
TCS Receives WWSS Order
TeleCommunication Systems Inc. (TCS) has received a contract to provide satellite hardware to the Program Management Defense Communications and Army Transmission System team under the World Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS) program, the company announced.
The Army team provides management of communications transmission systems projects and other special programs around the globe that provide the bandwidth required for the Global Information Grid.
The $2.3 million contract is the fifth TCS has received under the WWSS program.
ViaSat Expands Agreement with WildBlue
ViaSat Inc. received a contract to supply 500,000 Ka-band satellite terminals for WildBlue Communications. Combined with units already delivered, ViaSat will have supplied more than 750,000 terminals to WildBlue once shipments are completed.
Between potential expansion of WildBlue’s service and provisions for network infrastructure upgrades and software support services, the overall value of ViaSat’s services may exceed $200 million throughout the next three to five years.
WildBlue, AT&T Extend Broadband Operating Agreement
WildBlue Communications Inc. and AT&T have expanded their AT&T Yahoo! Broadband via Satellite (Provided by WildBlue) program throughout a 22-state wireline footprint, WildBlue announced.
WildBlue provides high-speed Internet via satellite, and the service expansion increases availability to areas not addressed in AT&T’s May 2006 launch to residential customers in the company’s previous 13-state service territory.