IPS, Inc. and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation Provide Satellite Broadband Service in the Philippines

The advantage of Challenergy’s wind turbine technology is its capability to generate stable power even  during strong winds and expected to be a reusable power solution that suits the Philippines where they often experience strong typhoons.

IPS, Inc.’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Koji Miyashita, and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation Representative Director, President & Chief Executive Officer, Eiichi Yonekura announced initiation of SKY Perfect JSAT’s satellite broadband service to InfiniVAN, Inc. consolidated subsidiary of IPS, in the Philippines.

The first user site is located in the Batan Island of Batanes in North Philippines. The satellite broadband service is used for remote monitoring of wind-power generation facility and will also be used to help resolve digital divide in the surrounding rural areas. With such combination of satellite communications and reusable energy and in efforts to address regional digital divide issues, SKY Perfect JSAT and IPS will contribute towards achievement of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

In the rural areas and islands of the Philippines, there are many areas where high-speed communications network such as fiber-optic internet is underdeveloped. With the spread of COVID-19 virus, online classes and remote work became the new norm and demands for quick-to-deploy satellite broadband service has increased. InfiniVAN have been expanding their main communications network for their high-speed internet service in the urban areas of Philippines, and now with the addition of SKY Perfect JSAT’s satellite broadband service to their line-up without significant investments in facility such as building mobile base stations, InfiniVAN will be able to meet the growing needs of high-speed internet over wider regions for both the urban and rural areas.

This satellite broadband service uses one of SKY Perfect JSAT’s newest satellites “JCSAT-1C” which commenced operation in 2020. JCSAT-1C is a high throughput satellite (“HTS”) which has significantly more capacity compared to those of a conventional communication satellite and enables the provision of high-quality satellite broadband service at lower cost. For the JCSAT-1C ground facility, SKY Perfect JSAT has implemented a network hub system and internet gateway at Yokohama Satellite Control Center in Japan. Together with this facility and the HTS capacity, SKY Perfect JSAT provides the Virtual Network Operator (“VNO”) service to InfiniVAN and supports its internet backbone, enabling InfiniVAN to add this satellite broadband service to their line-up with minimum CAPEX in equipment. In addition, SKY Perfect JSAT’s ground facility for this service is operated with 100% reusable energy.

This satellite broadband service was introduced to Challenergy Inc. (“Challenergy”), a Japanese wind-power start-up company, for its “Reusable Energy Project” ^*1 at the Batan Island of Batanes in North Philippines this March and is being used for their wind-turbine’s remote monitoring system. The advantage of Challenergy’s wind turbine technology is its capability to generate stable power even  during strong winds and expected to be a reusable power solution that suits the Philippines where they often experience strong typhoons.

SKY Perfect JSAT and IPS will collaborate further with Challenergy to consider solutions that combine clean power and satellite broadband service towards regions with poor access to electricity and communication infrastructure and strive to achieve the SDGs by contributing to improvement of basic infrastructures and disaster response capabilities, as well as enhancement of education and medical care with stable electricity supply and communications.

^*1 Collaboration project with the aim of commercializing a service that combines stable wind-power generation and satellite communications by connecting the SKY Perfect JSAT’s satellite service to the Magnus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (“Magus VAWTs”) developed by Challenergy. Magus VAWTs is capable of generating power under strong wind as fast as 40m/s and expected as suitable solution for reusable energy infrastructure in the Philippines where it is often hit by storms. The satellite broadband service is used to remotely monitor the wind turbines and also being considered for connectivity to schools and municipal facilities in the surrounding area. With such combination of Magus VAWTs strong against storms and satellite services robust to natural disasters, stable power supply and high-speed communication can be provided in short period of time.