OPT French Polynesia Expands Relationship with Intelsat to Meet Growing Broadband Demands across Region

Luxembourg and Singapore, 07 June 2016 – Intelsat (NYSE:  I), operator of the world’s first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, announced today that Office des Postes et Telecommunications of French Polynesia (OPT) signed a new and expanded contract for Ku-band satellite solutions on Intelsat 18, located at 180° East.

In 2008, Intelsat designed a Ku-band beam on Intelsat 18 for OPT to provide coverage to all of French Polynesia, including the Cook Islands. The new multi-year agreement will enable OPT to further expand its  wireless infrastructure to meet the fast growing mobile broadband and Internet needs of businesses and communities in the more remote islands of the archipelagos located in the South Pacific.

“Intelsat’s satellite solutions have enabled OPT to scale our network as the demands for internet and mobile broadband connectivity continue to rise,” said Jean-François Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer, OPT. “The optimized performance of Intelsat 18 provides a complement to our terrestrial infrastructure which will enable OPT to further extend its network, increase its business and, more importantly, provide reliable internet connectivity to the citizens of French Polynesia, reducing the digital divide between Tahiti and the remote islands.”

“Access to fast, reliable internet connectivity is vital to driving economic growth and improving the quality of life for all communities,” said Terry Bleakley, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, Intelsat. “Given the terrain of French Polynesia, satellite is the only way to connect remote islands to the mainland, and help telecom providers scale their networks to meet growing business demands.  We look forward to working closely with OPT and its subsidiaries to expand their networks so that more people across French Polynesia can receive mobile and Internet connectivity although the islands are spread out in the Pacific Ocean.”

About Intelsat
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I) operates the world’s first Globalized Network, delivering high-quality, cost-effective video and broadband services anywhere in the world. Intelsat’s Globalized Network combines the world’s largest satellite backbone with terrestrial infrastructure, managed services and an open, interoperable architecture to enable customers to drive revenue and reach through a new generation of network services. Thousands of organizations serving billions of people worldwide rely on Intelsat to provide ubiquitous broadband connectivity, multi-format video broadcasting, secure satellite communications and seamless mobility services. The end result is an entirely new world, one that allows us to envision the impossible, connect without boundaries and transform the ways in which we live. For more information, visit www.intelsat.com.

About OPT
‘Office des postes et telecommunications’ (OPT), a French Polynesia Government owned corporation is the public operator and operator for telecoms infrastructure and International communications. OPT is solely owned 3 subsidiaries, Vini for mobile, Internet services, TV content and network solutions, ISS for software and electronics services and accessories and Tahiti Nui Telecoms for Datacenter, Cloud and host telecoms infrastructure. With more than 900 staff, OPT, under its public service obligations, is delivering fixed line and postal services to over 80 inhabited islands, on a 5 million km² surface territory as vast as Europe. As French Polynesia is facing geographic and economic challenges, as many other Pacific Islands, OPT’s role is to adapt its infrastructure to a fast changing environment, encourage its uses, develop and enhance content creation and service new applications.