Satcom Global Enhances AuraNow VSAT Coverage

16th March 2022

Satcom Global has announced significant enhancements to the Ku-band network behind its groundbreaking AuraNow flexible VSAT solution. The addition of new satellites and spot beams, including many HTS assets, gives additional capacity and multiple look angles in busy shipping lanes, enhancing the customer experience.

Following the launch of AuraNow in 2021, the unique maritime VSAT solution offering bandwidth on demand, fleet and vessel managers can now upgrade, downgrade and suspend their bandwidth at any time. Satcom Global continues to secure new satellites and HTS beams as part of its ongoing commitment to an industry-leading level of service quality, with enhancements to the Aura network ensuring vessels always have option to dramatically scale up capacity no matter where they are in the world.

Adding new satellite beams to the Aura network is part of Satcom Global’s approach to deliver the most extensive geographic coverage, as well as the highest quality connectivity to customers, with overlapping beams that provide both redundancy and abundant capacity, futureproofing their emerging requirements.

In December 2021, Satcom Global introduced new satellites Astra 3B, serving the Middle East and Gulf region, as well as Telstar 12V in the South Atlantic, expanding coverage further south between the coasts of Uruguay and Brazil, and across to the horn of Africa. Furthermore, maritime customers will enjoy enhanced coverage in the Atlantic, off the coast off West Africa encompassing Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, thanks to the addition of SES-14 AF01 and SES-14 AF02.

The start of 2022 saw the addition of SES-4 NA to the network, offering a large additional layer of satellite coverage for many commercial shipping vessels travelling the coastline from North to Central America. In addition, the many yachts, leisure and fishing vessels using AuraNow will now benefit from additional satellite look angles when operating around Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean, as well as the Gulf of Mexico.

A number of new HTS spot beams have also been introduced in Southeast Asia overlapping existing Aura network beams. The strengthening of coverage ensures guaranteed service performance in popular shipping lanes such as the Malacca Straits, waters around Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the Gulf of Thailand, Myanmar, and the busy shipping route around India to SE Asia. 

Finally, the latest addition to the network is satellite A2G Africa23, strengthening Ku-band satellite coverage off West Africa, from the coast of Mauritania as far as Namibia with coverage extending into the South Atlantic Ocean.

The Satcom Global Aura network, launched in 2016, was built to be organically growing, ensuring it developed and strengthened to meet the evolving demands of the global maritime market. The new coverage further bolsters and extends the Aura network across four continents, supporting the evolving connectivity demands of a diverse range of maritime sectors including commercial shipping, commercial fishing, workboat, offshore supply and leisure.