Intelsat and Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, the manufacturer of the IS-4, are working together to identify the cause of the anomaly. Launched in 1995, the Boeing 601 satellite was expected to reach its end-of-service life later in 2010. Intelsat previously disclosed that the IS-4 had experienced the failure of its satellite control processor (SCP) and was operating on its backup SCP.

Intelsat’s global fleet, the largest of any satellite operator, includes a number of other satellites which serve the regions formerly served by IS-4, providing a source of potential capacity for the restoration of affected customers. The failure of the satellite is not expected to impact significantly the company’s financial position or its planned capital expenditures.

As a result of the discontinuation, homes and business have found themselves without precious communication links. This could lead to potential loss of revenue and obvious frustration at the interruption of service.

The end-users have been offered services on the Telstar-11N satellite. However, services from this spacecraft are either not available in the affected African countries or will not work without further investment in hardware, which would prove costly. In addition, the implementation of new antenna equipment and its alignment are complex and can often only be carried out by a qualified installer who would have to travel through the desert to reach the customer.

atrexx is offering its support to those affected by the recent discontinuation of the service without any investment in hardware or requirement for dish re-alignment. Switchover to the atrexx iDirect iNFINITI service can be carried out within just 24 hours, enabling a speedy return to service. In addition, the professionals at atrexx are always at hand to offer help and support should it be required at any time.

Markus Schafer, Managing Director of Marketing and Sales for atrexx commented: “We are very happy to be in a position to offer this service to customers affected by this service shutdown on Intelsat 14, the former PAS1R. We realise the importance of communications and the implications that can arise when they are unavailable. atrexx can offer a very convenient, yet cost-effective solution to the problems that users in these West African regions face, and we look forward to assisting them.”

SES ASTRA announced that it has been awarded a second contract by the European Commission (EC) to provide hosted payload services for EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. The contract was awarded following a tender by the European Commission. EGNOS is Europe’s first contribution to satellite navigation and a precursor of Galileo, the global satellite navigation system that the European Union (EU) is developing. The programme is managed by the EC on behalf of the European Union.
The new payload will operate in L-band and be located onboard SES ASTRA’s new ASTRA 5B satellite that was recently ordered from EADS ASTRIUM. The satellite is scheduled for launch in the second quarter of 2013 and will be positioned at SES ASTRA’s 31.5 degrees East orbital position. In addition to the payload, SES ASTRA will also provide the related ground infrastructure needed to operate the awarded payload.

EGNOS is a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) that is intended to supplement the GPS, GLONASS and Galileo systems by reporting on the reliability and accuracy of satellite navigation signals over Europe. The entire system consists of a network of ground stations and control centres that will relay EGNOS information to users via geostationary transponders. While EGNOS covers the European states area, the hosting satellite has the built-in capability to extend coverage to other regions, including Africa and neighbouring countries of the EU.

The award to provide hosted payload services onboard ASTRA 5B follows a first agreement with the European Commission for EGNOS hosted payload services onboard SES ASTRA’s SIRIUS 5 satellite. The contract for hosted payload services onboard SIRIUS 5 was awarded to SES ASTRA following a tender that took place in 2008. SIRIUS 5, currently under construction by Space Systems/Loral and scheduled for launch in the second half of 2011, will be positioned at the 5 degrees East orbital position. In addition to EGNOS, SES ASTRA is already providing infrastructure services to Galileo.

Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA, said: “We are very pleased that the European Commission has again chosen us to provide services for the EGNOS system. The fact that SES ASTRA is now providing two hosted payloads for EGNOS is a great endorsement of our excellence and expertise in the field of satellite programmes and related operations. It proves that our strategy to diversify our business and to provide global telecommunications services for governments and supra-national institutions, as well as multinational organisations, is bearing fruit. We are convinced that our skills and expertise as well as our fleet assets greatly benefit our institutional and governmental customers, and make us an ideal partner to provide additional hosted payloads and full satellite programmes in the future.”

SES ASTRA announced that it has been awarded a second contract by the European Commission (EC) to provide hosted payload services for EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. The contract was awarded following a tender by the European Commission. EGNOS is Europe’s first contribution to satellite navigation and a precursor of Galileo, the global satellite navigation system that the European Union (EU) is developing. The programme is managed by the EC on behalf of the European Union.

The new payload will operate in L-band and be located onboard SES ASTRA’s new ASTRA 5B satellite that was recently ordered from EADS ASTRIUM. The satellite is scheduled for launch in the second quarter of 2013 and will be positioned at SES ASTRA’s 31.5 degrees East orbital position. In addition to the payload, SES ASTRA will also provide the related ground infrastructure needed to operate the awarded payload.

EGNOS is a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) that is intended to supplement the GPS, GLONASS and Galileo systems by reporting on the reliability and accuracy of satellite navigation signals over Europe. The entire system consists of a network of ground stations and control centres that will relay EGNOS information to users via geostationary transponders. While EGNOS covers the European states area, the hosting satellite has the built-in capability to extend coverage to other regions, including Africa and neighbouring countries of the EU.

The award to provide hosted payload services onboard ASTRA 5B follows a first agreement with the European Commission for EGNOS hosted payload services onboard SES ASTRA’s SIRIUS 5 satellite. The contract for hosted payload services onboard SIRIUS 5 was awarded to SES ASTRA following a tender that took place in 2008. SIRIUS 5, currently under construction by Space Systems/Loral and scheduled for launch in the second half of 2011, will be positioned at the 5 degrees East orbital position. In addition to EGNOS, SES ASTRA is already providing infrastructure services to Galileo.

Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA, said: “We are very pleased that the European Commission has again chosen us to provide services for the EGNOS system. The fact that SES ASTRA is now providing two hosted payloads for EGNOS is a great endorsement of our excellence and expertise in the field of satellite programmes and related operations. It proves that our strategy to diversify our business and to provide global telecommunications services for governments and supra-national institutions, as well as multinational organisations, is bearing fruit. We are convinced that our skills and expertise as well as our fleet assets greatly benefit our institutional and governmental customers, and make us an ideal partner to provide additional hosted payloads and full satellite programmes in the future.”

The company is responding to the upcoming situation in Middle East. atrexx’ 2way2sat services will be delivered via different satellite position. A wide beam coverage is guranteed from Europe covering full country of Yemen.The key to the 2way2sat services is the new iDirect Evolution platform. It includes the next generation X3 satellite routers, equipped with DVB-S2 standard. The Evolution X3 technology delivers up to 30% improved bandwidth efficiency compared to the DVB-S system. The additional use of Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) provides a gain of bandwidth efficiency of up to 50%. Both features allow for a range of IP applications, including Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony and videoconferencing. Applications such as corporate networks, point-of-sale, SCADA, telemetry and multimedia streaming are also supported with ease.The new VSAT technology is cost effective and provides optimized applications, even under difficult weather conditions at the uplink station in Europe.

BBC Persian is also expected to be available on Nilesat soon.They will serve Farsi-speaking audiences across the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Since Friday 12 June the BBC Persian service, other BBC services, and the services of other broadcasters on Hotbird 6 have been subject to deliberate interference.BBC Arabic television and various language services have also been experiencing transmission problems including being off the air at various points. The satellite operator has traced the interference and has confirmed it is coming from within Iran. This interference is contrary to all international agreements for satellite usage to which Iran is a signatory.

BBC Persian television has extended its broadcast hours. There are an extra five hours of programming at Iranian breakfast and lunchtime, in addition to its usual evening broadcasts.Radio broadcasts have also been extended.BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks said: “This is an important time for Iran and many Iranians are turning to the BBC for impartial and independent news and information during this crisis. “We hope that by adding more ways to access BBC Persian television, Farsi-speaking audiences can get the high-quality news, analysis and debate they clearly desire.

“We also hope this will lessen the impact on other broadcasters who have been affected by the interference.”Despite the interference, bbcpersian.com has experienced a huge growth in usage since the current protests began.Compared to traffic in May, the number of daily page impressions increased seven-fold to more than 3.6 million page impressions earlier this week. The number of visitors to the website has seen a four-fold increase.

Online users streaming BBC Persian television through bbcpersian.com have also increased. On Monday 15 June alone the stream was accessed nearly half a million times online - this is more video requests than the whole of last May.The BBC Persian YouTube channel showed an increase in usage until the Iranian authorities blocked the site to those within Iran last weekend.The huge growth in Iran’s usage of the BBC’s online services means Iran is now second only to the USA as the country which streams the most BBC World Service TV and radio services.BBC Persian has also been receiving user-generated content, such as videos and eye-witness accounts via email and phone, at a rate of up to eight per minute.

“We can provide the perfect solution to these requirements” said Jean-Claude Bisenius, Managing Director of atrexx. “We firstly evaluate the needs of the customer in order to propose an end-to-end solution using state-of-the-art SCPC equipment. We then calculate the link budget, procure the space segment required, program the modem, and help the customer to line-up the satellite with our teleport partners. When we are satisfied that everything is working to the end-user’s requirements, we pass over full control of the network to the customer. However, atrexx is always there to provide support and monitoring whenever it is needed.”

The complete, structured solution has several key advantages for the customer. It is scalable with small bandwidth increments, flexible and will grow as a business does. It also allows the customer to have overall control of the network without the involvement of any telecommunications or teleport provider - yet with the assurance of strong service partner support, should it be required. There is low latency, as all communications from headquarters to remote sites is via single hop. This is a strong benefit when compared to a traditional solution involving a hub station in Europe, resulting in double hop communication and thus double latency. The single hop solution proposed by atrexx only needs half the satellite bandwidth of a hub based alternative and thus is very cost-effective.

The service is made possible due to the use of new, high power satellites that lower customer’s investment. An antenna of typically 1.8 m in Ku-Band and 2.4m in C-Band is required at each side of the link. The hubless solution is thus as affordable to implement as a traditional VSAT network.

“Working across vast continents such as Africa, where conventional travel can sometimes be challenging, means large organizations need to maximize on the potential of communications technology,” said atrexx’ customer Olanrewaju Ore from KKON Technologies in Nigeria which have set up and provide support to a large bank network”. The bank needs to equal the efficiency across the world and atrexx has come up with a superb solution that allows us to achieve all this, and also to do it very cost effectively. The great support from atrexx has helped to have the complete satellite based corporate network up and running within days”, Mr. Ore continued.

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.