The highest quality level in the World Teleport Association (WTA) has been achieved by COMSAT at two of its locations.

The World Teleport Association (WTA) today announced that COMSAT has achieved Tier 4 full certification of its Santa Paula (California) and Southbury (Connecticut) teleports under WTA’s Teleport Certification Program. Tier 4 is the highest quality level in the WTA standard.

Full Certification under the WTA program is the result of a comprehensive data-collection and inspection process. A teleport operator completes a +170-item questionnaire and submits it to WTA. The Association analyzes the data based on standards established by its Certification Committee and issues the Provisional Certification based on the self-reported information. The teleport then has six months to achieve Full Certification. To achieve Full Certification under WTA’s program, an auditor is dispatched to visit the teleport, provide independent validation of the data submitted in the questionnaire, and identify additional factors that may positively or negatively affect the score. Full Certification is issued at a Tier number from 1 through 4, of which 4 represents the highest degree of excellence, and remains in effect for three years.

Since its introduction at IBC 2015, the Certification program has quickly grown in popularity. Starting with one certified facility in 2015, the program has added 40 in three years, and currently has 12 teleports engaged in the quality evaluation process. Certifications have been issued to teleports operated by Eutelsat, du, Signalhorn, Optus, Globecomm, Horizon, Media Broadcast, Elara Comunicaciones, GlobalSat, Talia, Telenor, Vivacom, Cyta, Batelco, SingTel, CETel, Etisalat, Hawaii Pacific Teleport, Intelsat, Speedcast, Telstra and Arqiva.

The industry has quickly adopted the transparent, independently verified standards as a means for teleports to differentiate themselves and for customers to choose the price-performance level suitable for their applications.

President of COMSAT David Greenhill said that WTA Tier 4 Teleport Certification has been COMSAT’s goal since the beginning of the Teleport Certification Program and they are proud to be the first two in North America. COMSAT continues to be a best-in-class service provider with a focus on premium customer service and operational flexibility. Our teleport staff has the technical capability to support a wide variety of network services as well as the personal skills to work with customers to meet a specific need.

Executive director Robert Bell said that Santa Paula and Southbury have become the 19th and 20th teleports to be fully certified by WTA and the first teleports in North America to gain full certification. Satellite operators and end-customers are now including certification as a question in their RFPs, which increases the value of the program to teleport operators.

WTA’s Teleport Certification Program serves both teleport operators and their customers by creating an objective, transparent, and internationally accepted method for teleport operators to document the quality of their operations for customers and strategic partners. It also provides a means for customers to select teleport vendors delivering the price-performance level that is appropriate for their applications. 

For more information about the Teleport Certification Program, visit  or email WTA Membership Director Randall Barney