- Spacenet
Spacenet, Inc., based in
McLean, Virginia , is a provider ofVSAT satellite-based data network services as well as hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks and network management services. The company was founded in 1981 as Southern Pacific Communications Corporation (SPCC), a sister company to Sprint, providing satellite links for voice connections. The company was acquired byGTE in 1983 and grew into a worldwide satellite operator and services provider (including launching the first North AmericanKu band satellite, Spacenet 1). It went through several acquisitions over the next 15 years, absorbing AT&T Tridom and Contel ASC. In 1994, the company was sold toGeneral Electric Capital Services.In 1998, GE sold Spacenet's North American operations to VSAT terminal manufacturer Gilat Satellite Networks, and spun the satellite assets off into GE Americom (which later became part of SES). In March 2005, Spacenet acquired its former sister company,
StarBand , the first two-way consumer satellite ISP in the United States.Spacenet's primary business is providing VSAT and hybrid/terrestrial data network services to government and enterprise customers under the Connexstar brand. Spacenet's enterprise/government VSAT services are used for a wide range of applications such as primary broadband or narrowband networks, disaster recovery/backup networks and multicast file delivery. Beginning in 2006, it partnered with
Cisco Systems as the service provider for the [http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6989/index.html Cisco IP VSAT Satellite Network WAN Module] in the United States. It holds around 25% market share in the enterprise VSAT marketplace, according to the "Comsys" 2005 industry study. As of 2007, Spacenet equipment and services were in use at about 100,000 enterprise, government, residential and small office sites.External links
- [http://www.spacenet.com/ Spacenet website]
- [http://www.spacenet.com/about/history/ Spacenet history]
- [http://space.skyrocket.de/index_frame.htm?http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/spacenet-1.htm Spacenet 1-3 satellites]
- [http://www.astronautix.com/project/gte.htm GTE Spacenet satellites]
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