HTS beams deliver throughput significantly greater than traditional satellites, amplifying the complexity and incremental costs of all the constituent network elements. This includes the need for more teleports and more uplinks – which carry with them higher associated costs, as well as a far larger terrestrial backbone. With this agreement in place, AST can now deliver comprehensive HTS network services without having to put significant ground infrastructure in place to support the complex requirements created by multi-spot-beam satellites.
"Partnering with strategic organizations that maintain strong customer relationships in various niche market segments provides an exciting opportunity for growth in serving new customer sets," said Ian Dawkins, CEO at ITC Global. "By taking on the capital expense requirements associated with HTS networks, we remove a critical barrier to entry for our reseller partners."
"We are pleased to add Panasonic to our growing VSAT portfolio," said Stuart Castell, Director of AST. "This addition will enable us to provide our customers with global Ku and C-band coverage plus access to the largest coverage of Ku high throughput services available today. Our partnership with Panasonic puts us at the forefront of maritime VSAT connectivity, enabling us to offer our innovative and industry-leading applications globally."
The Panasonic network covers 100 percent of all major oil and gas hotspots worldwide, 99.6 percent of aero traffic routes, and greater than 98 percent of global maritime routes. Panasonic's network offers globe-wrapping capacity, growing to 250+ transponder equivalents (TPE) in 2017, which equates to roughly 25 satellites. As the world's largest buyer of commercial space segment, Panasonic is revolutionizing today's VSAT market with game-changing pricing and service delivery.