Intelsat and Japanese mobile phone services provider SoftBank Mobile said they have successfully completed tests of a 3G service in rural Kenya using capacity aboard the Intelsat 10 satellite and a teleport in Fuchsstadt, Germany.
In an Aug. 29 press release, Luxembourg- and Washington-based Intelsat said its satellite fleet and IntelsatOne terrestrial network were key to providing a very small aperture terminal-based 3G solution in rural Kenya, a region underserved by traditional telephone infrastructure.
“We are confident that technology advancements, such as this and our Intelsat EpicNG platform, will allow mobile operators to provide reliable, ubiquitous support to their most remote users, and provide a robust broadband infrastructure as networks upgrade from 2G to 3G, and eventually to 4G via satellite,” Steve Good, Intelsat vice president of network services product management, said in a prepared statement.
Intelsat and SoftBank Mobile have an existing arrangement under which the Intelsat 8 satellite and IntelsatOne network are being used to provide cellular backhaul services to SoftBank Mobile customers in the southern Islands of Japan.