Latin America. Eutelsat Communications' 117 West B satellite has entered commercial operation and is now ready to support the company's customers throughout Latin America.
Eutelsat 117 West B is the second all-electric satellite in Eutelsat's fleet and is marketed by its subsidiary Eutelsat Americas. It has 48 equivalent transponders (36 MHz) connected to four beams that offer first class coverage of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, the Andean region and the Southern Cone.
With this new satellite, Eutelsat will complement the Eutelsat 117 West A satellite, launched in 2013, creating a multi-satellite neighborhood at 117° West, which is already used by Tigo Star of Millicom, Stargroup and Televisa. It will also offer key services to telecom operators and government service providers in Latin America.
Eutelsat 117 West B features a WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) payload operated by Raytheon for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which will come into operation in 2018. Developed for civil aeronautics, the WAAS payload is designed to receive signals from earth stations that verify signal accuracy and relay information to GPS users, including airline cabins, the most demanding of civilian GPS applications. It will increase the accuracy of GPS signals from 10 meters to 1-2 meters, strengthening aviation security for users in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the continental United States.
The WAAS payload is the first to be included in an all-electric satellite as well as the third payload carried by a Eutelsat satellite, following the European Space Agency's EDRS-A data relay node and Airbus Defence and Space on Eutelsat 9B and Echostar's S-band payload on Eutelsat 10A.
