SES secures Cook Islands contract
February 6, 2023
By Chris Forrester
SES-owned O3b’s mPOWER Networks has won an extended contract with Vodafone Cook Islands for 4G+ and high-performance broadband-by-satellite.
The service will serve Cook Islands including the outer islands in the region.
O3b mPOWER is SES’s second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system. Vodafone Cook Islands will leverage SES’s Mobile Backhaul mPOWER service to deliver increased access to online services in health, education and banking. This expanded partnership is also part of Vodafone’s plan to extend the same level of services to the outer islands, says the pair’s statement.
SES and Vodafone already have a long-standing relationship in the region. Vodafone Cook Islands was the first customer in the region to use SES’s current-generation O3b satellite system at MEO in 2014 to deliver 3G/4G services to the remote nation. With Mobile Backhaul on O3b mPOWER, Vodafone Cook Islands says it will be able to better support its customers with high-throughput, low-latency connectivity.
O3b mPOWER offers more than 100 times the throughput of GEO solutions, making it a solution capable of accelerating the transformation of the Cook Islands into a digitally empowered economy.
“The new agreement with Vodafone Cook Islands is our latest win in bridging the digital divide for remote communities across the world,” said John Turnbull, Fixed Data Director for Pacific, SES.
“We are glad to continue partnering with SES to bring the second-generation MEO satellite constellation O3b mPOWER to the Cook Islands,” said Phillip Henderson, CEO, Vodafone Cook Islands