Intelsat’s Alliance with BT Expands Reach of its IntelsatONE Terrestrial Network
14 March 2011
Intelsat S.A., has formed an alliance with BT that expands the reach of its IntelsatONE terrestrial network to new locations in Europe, Africa and Asia.
The Intelsat and BT media fiber alliance interconnects Intelsat's MPLS-based IntelsatONE fiber network, which consists of fiber and points of presence (PoPs) located in major cities and teleports with BT’s MPLS-based Global Media Network (GMN). The two networks will initially interconnect in New York and London.
The alliance will develop and market seamless, next-generation managed media solutions with global terrestrial and satellite reach that operate across two complementary media networks.
BT’s GMN has PoPs and gateways in more than 20 international cities worldwide. Having access to those strategic locations enables Intelsat to extend the reach of IntelsatONE to media customers operating in new locations in Europe, Africa and Asia. Additional PoPs include Rome, Paris, Lagos, Johannesburg, Sydney, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai.
Conversely, the alliance enables BT to take advantage of IntelsatONE gateways in North America and add Intelsat teleport and satellite offerings to its GMN solutions.
The combined offering provides a seamless end-to-end global media programming delivery solution for major broadcasters, rights owners and media distributors.
Occasional Use (OU) and special events customers will enjoy access to the BT Tower video switch. There are future plans to backhaul feeds from BT's GMN fiber nodes. This can be combined with access to dedicated OU capacity on Intelsat's global satellite fleet for both SD and HD applications.
Full-time customers will be able to develop their own point-to-point and point-to-multipoint private network solutions between nodes on the BT and Intelsat fiber networks for contribution applications. They will also have access to Intelsat's portfolio of teleport hosting and MCPC solutions from BT's global GMN fiber locations.
“This strategic alliance with Intelsat allows our mutual customers to enjoy services across both the IntelsatONE and BT GMN networks as if they were provided by a single service provider,” said Mick Hammond, BT’s Director of Fixed Network Operators & Media Services. “BT’s existing customers will be able to gain improved accessibility to our network from North America. They also will benefit from Intelsat’s teleports in the United States and Germany, and its global satellite fleet.”
“This agreement is another strategic development designed to enhance our global delivery infrastructure offered by IntelsatONE,” said Tim Jackson, Intelsat’s VP of Media Product Management. “We pick up the content where it makes the most sense for the customer, and deliver it where it needs to be delivered, via the right combination of satellite and terrestrial links. The alliance expands our ability to deliver a wider range of services from more PoPs, offering optimal flexibility, reliability and cost efficiency.”
