Astrium and Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) have announced the signature of a five-year contract for 36MHz of capacity on the new W2A satellite — Astrium Services will provide coverage for their existing and future customers across Africa.

Eutelsat’s new W2A satellite entered commercial service in May 2009 to provide Ku-band capacity across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, and C-band capacity extending from South America across Africa and Europe as far as the Indian sub-continent. Astrium Services, through its Toulouse-based subsidiary London Satellite Exchange, plans to use its capacity to complement the commercial communication services it currently supplies to Africa. Use of the new capacity will be coordinated through Astrium Services’ teleport in Toulouse. The teleport, which was opened last year, provides customers with an additional means of satellite communication for telephony services, notably VPN (Virtual Private Network) secure networks.