Loral Skynet has announced that it has been selected to provide satellite communications services to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), through an agreement with Global Crossing, that will support the FCO's recovery efforts related to the tsunami disaster.
Loral Skynet is providing a 256 Kb VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite communications link and related support services to British Foreign Office employees on-site in Phuket, Thailand.
The system is being used to aid in the DNA analysis and identification efforts of British citizens in the region. Information is collected from widely dispersed locations across Thailand and sent from Phuket to specialists in the UK for analysis. The process is expected to last from three to six months.
"Loral Skynet is supporting employees of the FCO with state-of-the-art technology and experience to help Global Crossing and the Foreign Office on this important task," said Patrick Brant, president, Loral Skynet.
"Loral Skynet's ability to provide an instant infrastructure is providing the British Foreign Office with critical communications links during the arduous recovery work in Southeast Asia."
Global Crossing operates the FCO Telecommunications Network (FTN), a highly secure worldwide network extending to 220 sites in 140 countries. Last year, Global Crossing commissioned a satellite earth station in Canberra, Australia, to serve posts in the Pacific islands.
This global Internet Protocol-based private network is the largest outsourcing project ever awarded by the FCO, providing secure, high-speed voice, data and messaging services to more than 14,000 users in British embassies, consulates and high commissions worldwide.
In rolling out the FTN, Global Crossing maximized the unique reach of its global network, using satellite for local access in remote and under-developed regions of the world where local infrastructure is inadequate or unreliable.
The versatility of the FTN has greatly improved the FCO's ability to respond to crises and international operations.
Rapid-deployment satellite links were installed in the two major Iraqi cities of Basra and Baghdad at the time the Coalition Provisional Authority was set up, and VSAT links are used to connect Kabul in Afghanistan to the FTN.
Skynet's flexible and reliable multiplexed network provides secure, resilient, and cost-effective connectivity for both point-to-point and point- to-multipoint communications with no intervening terrestrial links.
Its high rate of availability ensures support for critical communications and its dedicated bandwidth can be increased without expensive and time-consuming equipment changes.
A pioneer in the satellite industry, Loral Skynet delivers the superior service quality and range of satellite solutions that have made it an industry leader for more than 40 years.
