Rio de Janeiro, 15 October, 2015:– UAE-based satellite operator, Yahsat announced today the awards of a gateway contract for two 13m antennae to General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies (GD SATCOM) and teleport hosting services contracts to British Telecom, with implementation at the two teleports sites to begin in Q1 2016.

The gateways will be based around the Sao Paulo area and will support high quality satellite services exclusively to Brazil. Commenting on this, Yahsat’s Chief Technology Officer, Marcus Vilaça said: “Brazil is an extremely important market for us. We will provide unrivalled reach to our Brazil-based customers, reaching over 95 per cent of the population across more than 5,000 municipalities. The service will enable provision of affordable broadband internet for the first time ever in many regions across the country.”

Vilaça added: “Increased connectivity and data security for Brazil remain key strategic priorities for Yahsat, and the signed contracts underpin our commitment to provide cost-effective high speed connectivity to customers country-wide.”

The expansion is enabled by the service launch of Yahsat’s new Ka-band satellite, Al Yah 3, in 2017, which will be supported by on-ground infrastructure and services. Marcio Tiago, Yahsat’s Brazil Country Director said, “Yahsat’s gateway operations, at BT’s teleports, will be a critical component of the Brazilian operations ecosystem, encompassing technical and operational support and customer care.”

The design of the gateway infrastructure ensures high availability and resilience through automatic “hot swapping” in the event of a weather or technical outage, as well as planned or unplanned maintenance at the primary site. Furthermore, the location at British Telecom’s top-tier teleports ensures reliable interconnection to the IP cloud for Internet users and provides secure connectivity to the private networks of corporations. The solution provides an ideal platform for operators to use the service for backhaul purposes.

Finally, the gateways, being in-country, address the increasingly important topic of data traffic being kept within Brazil’s borders, while reducing latency for IP communications between end users on the Al Yah 3 network and other users within Brazil.

Yahsat will be participating in the upcoming Latin America Satellite Congress in Rio de Janeiro, on 15th and 16th October, 2015. Marcio Tiago, Yahsat’s Brazil Country Director, will be participating in the “Progress Report on Regional Satellite Programs” panel discussion on 15th October, at 4 p.m. The discussion will focus on development of Latin American satellite programs.