“At Orange, we continue to believe that satellite is a future-oriented technology and that the many recent innovations in this industry will give it a growing place in the telco area, whether in Africa, in more developed areas such Europe or North America, or in specific industries such as maritime," said Jean-Luc Vuillemin, executive vice president of Orange International Networks Infrastructures and Services.
Under the term of the expanded agreement, Orange will integrate its global infrastructure with the global network coverage powered by SES Networks’ Skala Global Platform. Combined this will enable Orange maritime customers to cost-effectively scale up their bandwidth with seamless, ubiquitous and global services. This in turn will ensure that maritime customers can implement new technologies that leverage IoT and AI, as well as edge and cloud applications.
"This is why we are glad to reinforce our partnership with SES, as it will add a new component to our overall mission at Orange, that of building intelligent, open and innovative networks in order to support the digital transformation of our business customers and provide access to digital usage to the largest number of people,” added Vuillemin.
SES Networks’ Skala Global Platform is a next-gen technology platform which provides global coverage via multiple geostationary satellites and gateways interconnected by a global terrestrial network. This paired with Orange's network will deliver reliable, high-performance broadband services everywhere.
The news follows on from the agreement between the two formed in 2020 which saw Orange become one of the first telcos to adopt O3b mPOWER, SES Network’s next-gen medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite communications system. It is confirmed for commercial service availability in the second half of 2022.
“We have been working closely together with the Orange Group the last couple of years to provide high-performance connectivity services worldwide to their customers in many different industries," said John-Paul Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks.
"As our partner, they were the first major telco player to embrace our upcoming O3b mPOWER and now collaborating together on our Skala Global Platform, SES will deliver new levels of connectivity, creating seamless, reliable global coverage for those in the maritime industry."
