Intelsat/SES consortium ‘wins’ Inmarsat spat
January 5, 2016
By Chris Forrester
A satellite consortium comprising Intelsat, SES and Japan’s SkyPerfect JSat has gained support from the USA’s Government Accountability Office over a dispute with rivals Inmarsat.
The dispute concerns a US Defense Department contract that was awarded to Inmarsat and covers an all-embracing multi-year agreement to supply bandwidth to the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and reportedly worth up to some $450 million overall.
The contract had been held by the Intelsat-led consortium and was reportedly worth $40 million last year.
Trade mag Space News says that Inmarsat’s bid was more than $100 million below that of the Intelsat consortium.
For the time being the contract award has been paused.