Intelsat General Corp. and Paradigm Secure Communications have teamed to provide broadband satellite service to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, restoring communications capacity lost more than a year ago with the retirement of Intelsat's Marisat-F2 spacecraft.

Intelsat General will provide connectivity to the station using Paradigm's Skynet-4C satellite and Oakhanger ground station southwest of London in tandem with Intelsat's global IntelsatONE fiber network. The station will rely on the SKYNET link for transferring scientific climate data to colleagues at universities, phones calls home, video conferencing, software updates, and emergency telemedicine.

The research at the South Pole is very "data-intensive," with more than 100 gigabytes of astronomical, climate and other data being sent by satellite. 

Because of its location on the southern-most point of the Earth, satellite dishes at the Amundsen-Scott station are out of view of geo-stationary communications satellites orbiting the equator. However, the 20-year-old Skynet-4C satellite is in an inclined orbit and drifts slightly above and below the equatorial plane as it orbits the Earth. With its inclination now at 10.3 degrees, the satellite will be visible to the South Pole for five hours each day. As the satellite ages, the daily visibility will grow as the inclination increases.

SKYNET-4C will supplement the existing communications services provided to the South Pole station through GOES-3, a semi-retired weather satellite, and part time coverage by NASA's TDRSS fleet of spacecraft. These satellites are also in inclined orbit. Service will begin with a 2.4m X-band terminal at the pole operating a T1 circuit. The data rate may be increased in the future.