Satnews Daily
November 16th, 2018

Telespazio's Fucino Space Center Receives Full Tier 4 WTA Certification


The World Teleport Association (WTA) has announced that Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), has achieved Tier 4 full certification of the Fucino Space Centre under WTA’s Teleport Certification Program.

Since the program's introduction at IBC 2015, Certifications have quickly grown in popularity. Starting with one certified facility in 2015, the program has certified more than 40 facilities over three years and currently has ten teleports engaged in the quality evaluation process.

Certifications have been issued to teleports operated by Eutelsat, du, COMSAT, 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.


Aerial photo of Telespazio's Fucino Space Center.

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 3 years.

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. Click here for a list of certified teleports.

Executive Comments

Marco Brancati, the CTO of Telespazio, said the company is very proud for obtaining the Tier 4 full certification, granted by the WTA, for the Fucino Space Center. Telespazio continues to be a best in class service provider and this certification is the result of the continuous work carried out by the company's team to provide an excellent service. This allows Telespazio to be a clear differentiator which gives greater confidence to customers. The firm's Space Center 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.”

The WTA's Executive Director, Robert Bell, added that Telespazio’s Fucino Space Centre has become the first teleport in Italy 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.