VSAT platform including hub and terminals will help strengthen Russian economy by providing affordable consumer broadband access and enterprise connectivity for remote underserved regions in Russia

SCHELKOVO, MOSCOW REGION, Russia, and SINT-NIKLAAS, Belgium, 24 January 2013 Satellite equipment specialist Newtec has been selected by Gazprom Space Systems (GSS), in a competitive tendering process, to provide the equipment for a new VSAT Platform to be run via the Yamal-402 satellite.

Contracts have been signed making Newtec the preferred partner of choice to provide the complete VSAT system including hub, modems and antennas for the project.

Russia is a large country and having Internet access in the remote areas at an affordable price is essential. Until this year only expensive professional VSAT installations in limited hot spots in the Moscow and Saint Petersburg regions were available. GSS plans to offer satellite broadband access services to local ISPs that will in turn supply services to consumers and enterprise customers within the Yamal-402 footprint, which covers the whole of Russian territory.

Dmitriy Sevastiyanov, Director General, Gazprom Space Systems said. “Together with our engineers we were looking for a strong partner who could offer low cost terminals, a fast network roll out and user-friendly network management system to name just a couple of criteria that were important to us. To put it simply, we intend to run the most advanced network currently available whilst also providing the means to run a successful business that can grow to tens of thousands of end users. During the tender process Newtec VSAT platform turned out to be the best choice for us.”

Dmitriy completed: “We are looking forward to bringing in a competitive, scalable service offering in 2013 for our ISP customers in Russia. Our main priority is to satisfy technological needs of Gazprom to whom we propose in particular professional applications like SCADA.”

In 2012 Newtec started shipping its new high-speed Ka Band VSAT broadband technology. This new technology has already been selected by several customers, including Europe’s most successful satellite broadband service. Whilst the GSS network will utilise Ku Band (via the Yamal-402), the terminals can be easily adapted to function with higher throughput Ka Band frequencies by a simple change of the interactive LNB and with no hardware adaptation to the modem and the antenna.

Serge Van Herck, CEO of Newtec, said: “We have shipped well over 100,000 terminals worldwide. We are pleased to be partnering with Gazprom Space Systems on this new exciting long-term project that will see choice and availability of broadband across Russia increase. We pride ourselves on being a reliable and independent technology partner specialising in our area of expertise – this approach is paying off with the quality, reliability and value of our product shining through.”

The Yamal-402 satellite, located at 55° east, was launched by GSS in December 2012 and is equipped with 46 Ku Band transponders with four fixed and one steerable beam.

For more information about the challenges solved by consumer and business VSAT solutions, visit http://newproducts.newtec.eu/new-products/application/consumer-and-business-vsat.