Intelsat is providing a full duplex Ku-band OC-3 (155 Mbit/s) link to China over its 174 degrees East satellite slot, in order to restore service to millions of Internet users on the mainland following the failure of a major cable between Shanghai and the west coast of the US.

The satellite link is operating between the Verestar Satellite Network Access Point in Washington and China Telecom’s Beijing earth station.

Jean-Robert Barallon, Intelsat senior director of sales, said the new link shows his company’s commitment to the Asia Pacific region, where he said it provides Internet via satellite to an equivalent of 400 million web pages or two billion e-mail messages a day.