Intelsat’s new IS-40e satellite went live in June, providing 14 new spot beams of bandwidth to the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and all the way to Alaska, said Mike McNally, director of maritime products.

The company sells bandwidth on a wholesale basis to providers that then sell it to the cruise lines, he said.

“The new satellite is a major enhancement, it’s a lot of capacity coming online with high throughput spot beams,” McNally said.

“We are launching more satellites and it’s a never-ending thing. Cruise ships are full of people who have no concern about (getting more) capacity.”

Beams from Intelsat overlap, said McNally, meaning ships don’t miss out on coverage. Future satellite launches include products to better serve the North Atlantic and the Pacific, he said, including the West Coast of South America up to the Panama Canal.

“We typically sign customers to long-term contracts, and they buy on the basis of growth, going up monthly or quarterly,” McNally said.

He noted that Intelsat has established its reputation for delivering on what it sells, meaning the company’s committed information rate, which is a guaranteed amount of data.

“We often deliver on the maximum information rate,” he said.

The future growth is there, as the company’s long-term plan includes $2 billion in investment later this decade to increase capacity by six times, using four new software-defined satellites, the first of which launches in 2026.

“Those have smarter spot beams,” McNally explained. “In the future we will be able to direct capacity where it’s required in real time.”

Photo: IS-40e launch.