Satellite fleet operator SES World Skies of Princeton, N.J., announced it will merge two government services divisions to form the new U.S. Government Solutions division that will focus more on bandwidth sales than end-to-end network solutions, the company said April 13.
SES World Skies, a division of Luxembourg-based SES, was formed last year by the merger of SES Americom of Princeton and Netherlands-based New Skies Satellites, which SES bought in 2005. The firms’ government services divisions had been kept separate up to now because they had different business models, with SES Americom selling directly to the government and SES New Skies selling only through U.S. partners.
Tip Osterthaler, who led Americom Government Services, has been appointed chief executive for SES World Skies U.S. Government Solutions.
The U.S. government is revamping the way it contracts for commercial satellite communications services. The new program, called the Future Comsatcom Services Acquisition, starting next year will allow the government more flexibility in how it contracts for everything from pure commercial bandwidth to managed network services.
Reflecting the coming changes in the government’s acquisition model, SES World Skies U.S. Government Solutions has decided to move away from network integration activities and toward bandwidth-only sales to the government, Osterthaler said.
