The World Teleport Association (WTA) has renewed the Tier 4 certification of COMSAT’s Santa Paula (California) and Southbury (Connecticut) teleports under WTA’s Teleport Certification Programfollowing an audit of the facility by the association. Tier 4 is the highest quality level in the WTA standard.
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 3 years, and currently has 12 teleports engaged in the quality evaluation process. Certifications have been issued to teleports operated by Azercosmos, A1 Telekom Austria, Servicio Satelital, USEI, AXESS Networks, STN, Eutelsat, du, COMSAT, Optus, SMS Teleport, Talia, Telenor, Telespazio, Vivacom, Cyta, Singtel, Etisalat, Hawaii Pacific Teleport, Intelsat, IABG Teleport, Orange, Telstra, Primacom, Santander Teleport, Hellas Sat 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.
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.
“Keeping our teleports WTA Tier 4 Teleport Certified continues to be COMSAT’s goal since the beginning of the Teleport Certification Program. We were extremely proud to be the first two in North America and even prouder to keep that level of certification,” said Sr. Director of COMSAT Infrastructure Services, Chris Faletra. “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.”
“COMSAT is a great example of a teleport operator that has committed to the technology, facilities and operations needed to deliver high quality of service,” said executive director Robert Bell. “It differentiates the company from competitors in North America and around the world. COMSAT was the first operator to fully certify all of their facilities and their renewal is a vote of confidence in the value of the program.”
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.
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