Telesat of Canada has won a significant order from Panasonic Avionics. The order covers “almost all” of Telesat’s satellite bandwidth on its Telstar-12 Vantage spacecraft.

The bandwidth will be used by Panasonic to deliver in-flight entertainment to aircraft passengers over Europe, the Middle East and Mediterranean regions.

Telstar-12 was launched towards the end of last year and became operational in December.  Panasonic will use the satellite’s High Throughput capacity.

“Telesat is highly respected for their ability to design innovative satellites,” said David Bruner, VP/Global Communications Services at Panasonic Avionics, said: “Their cooperation in adjusting the position of the HTS spot beams on Telstar 12 Vantage to meet Panasonic’s requirements was outstanding. This further optimises the service for Panasonic and gives us an edge in winning mobile broadband business in the air and at sea. Panasonic now has Ku-band capacity on four Telesat satellites and, with this latest contract for nearly all the HTS Ku-band covering the Mediterranean, Europe and Middle East on Telstar 12 Vantage, we are well positioned to expand in maritime and energy markets across Europe. Panasonic values our close ties to the Telesat team and we are truly excited to be making use of Telstar 12 Vantage – the first satellite with significant HTS Ku-band over the Mediterranean and North Sea.”

Panasonic has similar IFE contracts in place with SES as well as Eutelsat.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. ESA introduces Fair Return structure
2. New EU space boss explains strategy
3. Eutelsat suffers from negative bank report
4. MultiChoice, eMedia make peace
5. Eutelsat criticised over “Kremlin links”
6. Rivada Space “still working” with Terran Orbital
7. D2D: Power levels concerns
8. Terran Orbital hit with Class Action
9. Thales Alenia planning to stay solo

Categories: Blogs, DTH/Satellite, Inside Satellite