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SES Global is a company that offers services such as satellite communications and broadcasting telecommunications. The company was founded in 1985, in Betzdorf, Grevenmacher, Luxembourg.
The company was founded as Europe's first private satellite operator, and was challenged by France over concerns of US cultural imperialism. The company's first control facility was located in Chateau de Betzdorf, as it was a former residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.Frank Esser serves as chairman and Steve Collar operates as CEO of SES.
SES operates over seventy GEO and MEO satellites, including European's Astra TV satellites, O3b data satellites and others, such as AMC, Ciel, NSS, Quetzsat, YahSat and SES. These satellites operate within the C-Band, Ka-Band and Ku-Bands, with a full network map available on the company's website.
Map of SES satellites
SES Global works with satellites as they provide communication over large networks that span beyond geographical limitations to cover large areas of land more efficiently that ground-based networks. They also provide direct-to-home cable and terrestrial services and bandwidths to deliver televised technologies. The company's satellite network allows for corporate networks to be established and to deliver the ability for governments and institutions to build broadband access to launch systems into orbit.
The first satellite that the company launched was named the ASTRA 1A, which was designed to provide a European footprint and reach millions of homes over multiple countries. The satellite was first launched in December of 1988 and began transmitting in February of 1989 to 100,000 households. In 1991, the company launched the ASTRA 1B. In 2019, they launched four O3b satellites to build their SES MEO constellation up to twenty satellites.
SES also provides hosted payload services, selling area on planned satellites to third-party companies and institutions. The provider currently carries the USAF's Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP), a passive infrared sensor that enables early missile launch detection, making the company the first commercial entity to host a US Air Force payload.
Multiple GPS and observation systems are carried and hosted by SES satellites, including the European Geostationary Navigation Service (EGNOS) on SES-5 and Astra 5B, the FAA Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) on SES-15 and NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) on the SES-14.
SES owns and operates O3b (other three billion) data satellite services, which offer computing, IoT, and transmission capabilities to clients, including O3b mPOWER and O3b MEO. The name refers to the "other three billion" people globally who, at the time the service was created, did not have stable internet access.
The O3b MEO constellation is designed to provide low-latency broadband connection to mobile network operators and internet service providers in remote areas, such as the skies, ocean or rural communities. O3b MEO service operations began in March 2014 and consists of twenty satellites.
The newer O3b mPOWER satellite constellation can deliver high-bandwidth connectivity between latitudes 50° N and 50° S (covering 96% of the global population) to mobile and/or remote terminals of 0.3 m to 5.5 m. The provider launched four O3b MEO satellites in Arianespace at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana, completing its first-generation, twenty-satellite constellation for network communication services.
SES announced a partnership with Kythera Space Solutions in September of 2019, to develop Adaptive Resource Control (ARC) software that allowed optimized throughput, beaming and frequency allocation for its O3b mPOWER service. O3b mPOWER provides flexible and scalable coverage that extends to new, bandwidth-intensive network services and applications. The system provides multi-gigabit links that deliver high-bandwidth services anywhere, so you can offer differentiated services at cloud scale.
SES contracted Boeing in August 2020 to build four additional mPOWER satellites with SpaceX contracted to provide launch for the satellites by 2024. The company also partnered with Microsoft in September 2020 to make SES the MEO connectivity partner for the Microsoft Azure Orbital ground station service. The service allows satellite operators to control networks from the Azure computing service and ensured both Microsoft and SES would contribute funding to Azure Orbital ground stations and utilize mPOWER satellites on Azure sites.
