Verizon Business deploys satellite network for U.S. Postal Service

Verizon Business will provide a new custom satellite network to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), allowing it to deliver voice and high-speed data to areas where wireline or wireless access is unavailable or too costly. The network, formally known as a VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite system, will provide point-to-point communications for about 5,000 Postal Service sites in the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico, and backup connectivity for a number of larger USPS sites. In addition, Verizon Business will provide more than twenty mobile satellite communications kits for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s incident response vehicles. Verizon Business is providing the service in conjunction with Spacenet, a satellite network services company.

Verizon Business is deploying the Postal Service’s satellite network under a new two-year contract valued at $25 million and known as ORB-IT (outerspace radio broadcast information technology). The contract also has an option for three two-year extensions.

Verizon Business and Spacenet will provide both full-time broadband satellite data services as well as on-demand connectivity for on-the-go communications. The network will provide converged communications capabilities including simultaneous support for voice, video, and broadband data. The network will support a wide range of customer applications including video relay service (VRS) for deaf and hard-of-hearing USPS employees, multicast file delivery, real-time video broadcasting, routine data transport, and voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) services. This new satellite network will provide primary connectivity for smaller, more rural USPS facilities that have a limited support staff. As the Postal Services rolls out new applications — and eventually point-of-sale (POS) terminals in areas where POS is not currently available — the new VSAT service can easily scale to meet the demands for more bandwidth.

There is a business continuity angle here as well: The VSAT service will support the Postal Service needs for continuity of operations by prepositioning emergency mobile VSAT kits intended for rapid deployment to USPS facilities should they lose terrestrial voice and data service because of natural or manmade disasters. Installation of the sites is under way, and all sites are expected to be operational by later this fall.

Spacenet President and Chief Operating Officer Glenn Katz said: “Spacenet is very pleased to be working with Verizon Business, complementing their core competencies with our VSAT expertise. The services we are providing are proof of the important role that VSAT can play in hybrid terrestrial-satellite communications networks and how these technologies can be brought together to deliver cost-effective and innovative solutions for primary and continuity of operations connectivity.”

Some of the elements of the new system came in handy during the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Verizon Business (as the former MCI) supported relief agencies and the general public, using satellite technology to connect to the company’s global network. The company provided emergency communications capability for portable trailers dispatched by the Postal Service to affected areas. The company also worked with the USPS to set up temporary facilities to support voice and data traffic that serviced customers in hurricane-impacted locations on the Gulf Coast.