In recent years, the satellite communications industry has experienced an escalation of signal interference, adversely impacting broadcast and telecommunication services. The Initiative has launched a multiple front campaign to combat this trend. The first aspect is a carrier ID working forum to pursue industry implementation of carrier ID: a means to identify interfering signals. The second aspect is the formation of the Space Data Association- an organization that will facilitate collecting and sharing interference event data amongst its satellite operator members. The third aspect is VSAT installer training.Installation by inadequately trained technicians is one of the main causes of interference identified by the Initiative. GVF has responded by enhancing the established VSAT Installer Training program to focus even more strongly on the skills necessary to avoid accidental generation of adjacent-satellite, cross-pol, and re-radiation interference.

As part of the Initiative, Intelsat has announcedtheir intent to train 400 installers per year through GVF for the next three years. SES has also formally adopted the GVF program, saying the training would help in its efforts to refocus the industry’s approach to managing and preventing interference. They have been joined by other satellite operators such as Eutelsat, Inmarsat, Telesat, Asiasat and others in endorsing the GVF’s new Basic Certification level and the associated online training course, GVF510, specifically targeted at delivering the core skills needed by field technicians to avoid creating VSAT-generated interference.

Whether it is mitigating uplink interference via the Basic Certification, providing solid knowledge and skills in VSAT installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting via the Advanced Certification, or gaining skills for installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of specific equipment types via Specialist Certifications, the GVF Certification Program provides training for the knowledge and skills you need to be successful in the VSAT industry.

The new satellites, to be designated ASTRA 2E, ASTRA 2F, ASTRA 2G and ASTRA 5B, will allow the release of the existing satellites at two orbital positions (28.2 and 31.5 degrees East) and add new capacity as well as fleet deployment flexibility for the SES group over the coming years. The satellites are scheduled for launch in several steps between 2012 and 2014. The design life of each satellite is 15 years.

?This important investment in new satellite capacity will enhance the prominence of SES ASTRA?s 28.2 degrees East position, mainly for the UK and Irish markets, and improve coverage of Eastern Europe from 31.5 degrees East,? said Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES. ?It will also allow SES WORLD SKIES to extend its offer to the African and Middle Eastern markets. By adding significant flexibility and improved functionality, these new satellites will allow SES to further drive its DTH, DTT, enterprise and broadband businesses while consolidating space assets and strengthening the international reach of the group. Also, we are pleased to be working again with Astrium. SES has appreciated the quality of their products and their customer dedication in recent and ongoing contracts, and this is exactly what we are looking for in this multi-satellite contract.?

The four new satellites will be built on a Eurostar E3000 platform, the latest version of Astrium?s Eurostar series which has proven to be highly reliable in commercial service. A total of 60 Eurostar satellites have been ordered to date. SES has already ordered three Eurostar E3000s: ASTRA 1M, which entered into service one year ago; ASTRA 3B, ready for launch early next year; and ASTRA 1N, which was ordered last year and is currently under construction.

“Astrium is extremely proud to have been selected by the world’s premier satellite operator, and I would like to profoundly thank SES for their confidence. Following a rigorous selection process among the world’s leading satellite manufacturers, Astrium demonstrated that it offered the best solutions for SES. The decision to order four satellites in a single contract increases Astrium?s long-term standing as a market leader in satellite production. I would also like to express my gratitude to the teams on both sides of the table for their outstanding professionalism, which ultimately made it possible to sign one of the biggest contracts for telecommunications satellites in the world,” said Astrium CEO François Auque.

Three of the new spacecraft, ASTRA 2E, ASTRA 2F and ASTRA 2G, will serve to deliver next generation broadcast, VSAT and broadband services in Europe and Africa, and will carry Ku-and Ka-band payloads at 28.2 degrees East.

The Ku-band capacity will allow SES ASTRA to enhance and secure its existing offering to major Direct-to-Home (DTH) markets in the UK and Ireland. With a Ku-band payload specifically designed to meet the requirements of some of Europe?s largest DTH broadcasters, the satellites will have spot beam and pan-European beam switching capabilities to accommodate both pay-TV and free-to-air broadcasters, and to provide these customers with increased functionality. SES ASTRA customers in this region include BSkyB, BBC, ITV, Freesat, Channel Four, UK TV, Virgin Media, Five, MTV and Discovery. The Ka-band payload will allow SES ASTRA to develop next generation broadband services in Europe, including its growing ASTRA2Connect product.

ASTRA 2E, ASTRA 2F and ASTRA 2G will also include replacement and new capacity for the SES WORLD SKIES division, serving the African and the Middle Eastern markets with Ku-and Ka-band capacity. The new capacity will provide continuity of service and expansion opportunities for customers that are today already using the ASTRA 2B steerable beam over West Africa, as well as for new customers

ASTRA 5B will be deployed at the orbital position 31.5 degrees East, extending SES ASTRA’s transponder capacity and geographical reach over Eastern European and neighboring markets for DTH, Direct-to-Cable (DTC) and contribution feeds to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) networks.

SES? orbital position 28.2 degrees East is currently served by the ASTRA 2A, 2B and 2D spacecraft. The 31.5 degrees East position is currently served by ASTRA 2C.

Many requests come from governmental organizations or from banks and large companies that wish to provide telecommunication links from headquarters in a city to multiple offices within a country or outside it. This type of connectivity is possible using Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) equipment, even if your requirement is to link up to several locations.

atrexx can provide the perfect solution to these connectivity requirements. We will firstly evaluate your needs fully in order to propose an end-to-end solution using state-of-the-art equipment enabling a shared outbound carrier. We will calculate your link budget, procure the required space segment, program the modems (including routing for your network), and help you to line-up to the satellite with our teleport partners. Thereafter, atrexx will pass over full control of the network to you.

The solution has several primary advantages: There is low latency as remote sites communicate with headquarters in a single hop. It is cost-effective, as only half the bandwidth compared to a hub solution is needed, and the investment is comparable to a classical VSAT. It allows the customer to have overall control of the network yet with the assurance of strong service partner support, should it be required.

It has recently come to the attention of atrexx that some customers of satellite operators are dissatisfied with the fact that they are tied into long-term capacity leases, and there is no flexibility offered to them in terms of opting out of their contract or exchanging their bandwidth.

Markus Schäfer, Managing Director, Marketing and Sales at atrexx explained: “Reasons for customers’ dissatisfaction with their long term leases could be the economic situation taking its toll, or new capacity being introduced to the market that offers better coverage and higher power. Unfortunately, satellite operators will generally not bend on the terms of the contract leaving the customer with capacity that they cannot use. Other customers want to upgrade existing leases to respond to increased demand, and they cannot do so as all capacity has been sold.”

atrexx provides a valuable solution to these problems - the atrexx Trading Platform: Established in 2002, the Platform is a satellite marketplace, designed to bring buyers and sellers of satellite related resources and services together. The Platform offers free registration to both parties. Once registered, they are able to post their request or their available services onto the platform. All postings are publicly - yet anonymously - accessible worldwide, to everyone with access to the Internet. Updates are available by e-mail as well as through Twitter tweets and RSS feeds.

The Platform offers many advantages for both the buyer and the seller. The seller benefits by making a sale on capacity that would otherwise have not been used. From the buyer’s point of view, the atrexx Platform provides them with a great choice of suppliers and therefore enables them to find the best deal possible and to realize considerable savings. When satellite capacity is scarce, as is currently the case for Africa and the Middle East, the resale market is often the only source to satisfy specific requests, as satellite operators are often sold out.

Once the registrant has identified a post that attracts them, atrexx takes over. atrexx opens the bidding process with the supplier on the buyer’s behalf, pre-negotiating the contract terms and acting within a well-defined framework. All parties know exactly where they stand. atrexx has already helped many who have found that they no longer wish to hold on to their capacity.

Edwin Cras, Managing Director of Castor Broadcasting B.V., a leading provider of voice, video, data and multimedia solutions, based in the Netherlands, voiced his satisfaction: “Finding the right satellite capacity at the right price used to involve a lot of phone calls to hopefully the right people. Selling is even tougher; often you were looking for the needle in the haystack. With the atrexx Trading Platform finding capacity is much easier!” Mr. Cras continued: “Selling is even better; everybody looking for capacity can now find a seller with great ease. This helps to avoid empty capacity sitting on your books eating your profits away. We at Castor for sure have benefitted from the atrexx Trading Platform.”

The atrexx Trading Platform offers its users a simple and stress-free way of obtaining or dispensing with capacity. In an age where bandwidth is a precious commodity, atrexx is able to maximize usage of any capacity left idle and often to provide the resources that are urgently needed.

SES Global

SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES unveiled SES WORLD SKIES as the name for its newly integrated operation

SES WORLD SKIES has an expanding fleet of 25 satellites within the 40-satellite global SES fleet, six additional spacecraft slated for launch over the next two years, 350 employees and more than 550 full-time customers worldwide. SES WORLD SKIES combines the strong reputation for excellence and North American presence of SES AMERICOM with the agility and global reach of SES NEW SKIES in a single, unified organization.

“With the integration of SES AMERICOM-NEW SKIES nearly complete, SES WORLD SKIES more precisely describes the reach of our evolving fleet, the depth of our expertise, and our rock solid customer commitment around the globe,? said Rob Bednarek, President and CEO of SES WORLD SKIES. “SES WORLD SKIES is a world-class, global satellite operator serving six continents, and traversing three oceans with innovative and robust solutions as diverse as our customer base.?

Bednarek also noted that by leveraging SES? financial strength, SES WORLD SKIES has initiated one of the industry?s most aggressive launch schedule and capacity expansion plans to meet the growing demand of markets everywhere. Included in these plans is the future launch of its NSS-12 satellite, which will deliver a mix of DTH, VSAT and telecom applications with coverage over Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

SES WORLD SKIES’ satellites and the people and technologies behind them are enabling a world of possibilities, innovations and business platforms around the world - from the delivery of advanced HD and DTH across The Americas, Asia, Africa and other regions to the global connectivity that is the lifeline for businesses offering enterprise, government, mobile and maritime communications services to millions of people in virtually every corner of the globe.

QuetzSat-1, built by Space Systems/Loral on the flight-proven SS/L 1300 platform, is a high power Ku-band satellite that will be located at the orbital position of 77 degrees West. QuetzSat-1 will provide coverage over Mexico, North America and Central America. The satellite is fully contracted to a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) and will be used in part by Dish Mexico, an EchoStar joint venture, for DTH services in Mexico. It is further expected that EchoStar and its Satellite Services division will provide capacity on QuetzSat-1 to a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) for use in connection with its U.S. DTH business.

Frank McKenna, President of ILS said, “ILS is dedicated to the success of SES and its customer, EchoStar, with the selection of ILS Proton to launch QuetzSat-1. This is the fourth SES satellite entrusted to ILS this year, and we look forward to providing outstanding quality, service and schedule assurance to support the continued growth of the SES satellite fleet.”

“We are pleased that ILS is partnering with SES, Space Systems/Loral and EchoStar in the Quetzsat-1 mission and look forward to a flawless, on-time and on-spec launch for QuetzSat-1 with ILS Proton,” said Martin Halliwell, President of SES ENGINEERING, the procurement and operations division of SES.

SES-Americom

Largest U.S. station group employs additional SES capacity to launch and grow HD. Celebrating the 60th HD channel to join its HDPRIME delivery platform, SES AMERICOM announced ION Media Networks has signed a multiyear distribution agreement to launch its full suite of television networks in HD.

ION Television HD debuts this week over HD-PRIME satellite AMC-1, with ION’s qubo, a multilingual kid’s network, and ION Life, a digital network devoted to active lifestyles, set to follow later this year. ION Television HD viewers can enjoy a mix of compelling television series, theatrical and made-for-television movies and specials.

“ION has tapped expanded distribution capacity aboard HD-PRIME to offer our programming in a crisp high-definition picture quality to viewers in more than 94 million homes across the country” said Mark Greenlee, Senior Vice President of network operations at ION Media Networks, noting ION Television HD will carry both native and up-converted HD programming on all 60 network stations in the U.S. “SES AMERICOM provides the reach and reliability ION Media Networks counts on day in and day out to serve both our cable and broadcast audiences nationwide.”

“ION Media Networks is well positioned with HD-PRIME to meet the needs of its discerning affiliates and HD audiences today and as the innovative network expands its HD offerings in the future,” said Bryan McGuirk, Senior Vice President of global media services at SES AMERICOM. “ION Television’s HD premiere comes at an exciting time, just ahead of the digital transition and as HD truly hits its stride aboard the HD distribution leader - HD-PRIME.”

For more than 13 years, ION Media Networks has leveraged the expanding reach and expertise of SES AMERICOM to grow its penetration levels across cable, broadcast and DTH markets. “ION Media Networks is making the move to HD with absolute confidence in our distribution platform and partner,” said David Goosey, Senior System Engineer at ION Media Networks. “HD-PRIME offers the advanced technology, the know-how, and the top-of-the-arc orbital slot we need to serve our affiliates and audiences from Honolulu to Boston.”

The HD distribution agreement between ION Media Networks and SES AMERICOM runs through the life of the AMC-1 satellite, which was launched in 1996. The hybrid C- and Ku-band spacecraft is located at 103 degrees west, where it is home to national television networks broadcasting to thousands of cable headends that reach tens of millions of homes across the country.