SES Relocates satellite to meet growing CUSTOMER demand

[Scott Greczkowski]

SES RELOCATES SATELLITE TO MEET GROWING CUSTOMER DEMAND

Luxembourg – (January 31st, 2012) – SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) today announced that the SES-3 satellite is being relocated from its former location over North America to Asia, an area experiencing great demand for state-of-the-art, reliable satellite capacity.

The SES-3 satellite is being relocated to 108.2° East to provide coverage of the Middle East and South Asia regions, where SES experiences growing customer demand. The drift began in mid-December 2011 and the satellite is expected to arrive at its new orbital location on February 6, 2012.

SES-3 is a young satellite as it was just launched in July of 2011. Once reaching 108.2° East, the planned coverage is capable of supporting such applications as video, voice, data, and end-to-end communications networks. With MAC-1 compliance and encrypted tracking, telemetry and control, the satellite is also well positioned to meet the secure communications needs of government customers.

Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES, stated: “With a fleet of 49 spacecraft in orbit around the globe, SES has the operational flexibility to swiftly respond to shifting customer demand by re-deploying in-orbit capacity without affecting existing services.”

Tip Osterthaler, President and CEO of SES Government Solutions added, ““The relocation of the SES-3 satellite is a result of continued engagement and dialogue with our customers and in response to the growing demand for bandwidth to support critical communications capabilities. This move is a confirmation of our commitment to provide affordable and vital capability for our government customers.”

For further information please contact:
Yves Feltes
Media Relations
Tel. +352 710 725 311
Yves.Feltes@ses.com

 

[Mr Tony]

well I guess there is still some life in AMC1
(since SES3 was to replace AMC1)

 

[brentb636]

It would be nicer if some birds were "relocated" over North America because of "customer demand" ... That's what I'd like to see.

 

[oceansatellite]

God forbid we get some new channels

 

[Mr Tony]

If the current fleet right now can't even be filled up why put a new satellite over an area like that when it can go and actually serve more people at a different spot?

Why do you think AMC2 at 79W moved over to an Eastern location?
Why do you think H2 at 74W moved over to an Eastern location?

because satellites arent cheap to build and maintain. And in the 2 cases I gave above the satellites were barely used.
Plus as a blind scanner it makes it easier to find stuff....less sats to scan

 

[Mr Tony]

God forbid we get some new channels

there is plenty of room right now on the current fleet for more channels

 

[Diamond Jim]

I have been confused since this SES stuff started. Tell me if I have this right, SES2 is at 87W in place of AMC3, SES1 is at 101W in place of AMC4 and SES3 was to replace AMC1 at 103W. I just changed the names in the AZ Box, what a pin that was. Man, I need a scorecard .

 

[Pixl]

Why do you think AMC2 at 79W moved over to an Eastern location?
Why do you think H2 at 74W moved over to an Eastern location?
And in the 2 cases I gave above the satellites were barely used.
Plus as a blind scanner it makes it easier to find stuff....less sats to scan

So with 74 and 79 gone, what sats do you blind scan when you want to "see what's going on"

 

[Mr Tony]

I have been confused since this SES stuff started. Tell me if I have this right, SES2 is at 87W in place of AMC3, SES1 is at 101W in place of AMC4 and SES3 was to replace AMC1 at 103W. I just changed the names in the AZ Box, what a pin that was. Man, I need a scorecard .

yep

 

[Mr Tony]

So with 74 and 79 gone, what sats do you blind scan when you want to "see what's going on"

93 & 95 took over alot of the sports feeds that 74 & 79 had. Otherwise its just on a different satellite

 

[eurosport]

It would be nicer if some birds were "relocated" over North America because of "customer demand" ... That's what I'd like to see.

Mainstream "customer demand" in this country, sadly, involves "DBS" when it comes to satellite TV. These satellites aren't up there for the TV watching masses anymore....other than us FTA'ers of course!

 

[Jim S.]

If I was a customer of SES, I would wonder about why a company couldn't figure out where the satellite was needed before they announced where it was going the first time. Also about why they continued to maintain that it was going to the original location after it was already moving.

 

[SatelliteAV]

If I was a customer of SES, I would wonder about why a company couldn't figure out where the satellite was needed before they announced where it was going the first time. Also about why they continued to maintain that it was going to the original location after it was already moving.

Could it be that it was easier to stay with the original licensing and launch agreements then to reassign and experience a potential launch delay?

 

[yankee495]

Sounds good to me Brian, we'll go with that...

Yeah, bestbuy closing US stores and opening new ones in China too!

Soon we'll all have to immigrate to China to keep up our standard of living.

 

[skysurfer]

Could it be that it was easier to stay with the original licensing and launch agreements then to reassign and experience a potential launch delay?

Considering that I seem to recall SES is headquartered in the same country as the country of license for SES-3, regulation stuff is probably a breeze. I tend to think SES decided to redeploy the sat on the fly, considering it was tested and drifted into a storage orbit before the redeployment. I wonder if all these moves to the Russian/Asian region will bite SES and Intelsat in the rear end come the Nov 2012 presidential elections when digital newsgathering space will be at a premium.

 

[photoman76]

well I guess there is still some life in AMC1
(since SES3 was to replace AMC1)

AMC 1 was launched on September 8, 1996. So it's over 15 years old.
The FCC approved the extension of it's license until October 15, 2016.
SES claims that it has enough stationkeeping fuel to operate until then.
However, they expect inclined orbit operation sometime during that period.
http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=921167

 

[joshrr]

Inclined orbit? What does that mean for us? Tnx

 

[FaT Air]

It will drift out of the "box", North - South, and back in a ~24 hour period. Inclined orbit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[photoman76]

I don't think an inclined orbit would be acceptable to the current customers on AMC 1. SES would have to replace AMC 1 before they placed it in an inclined orbit.

 

[Jim S.]

The guy from SES that posts on the fridge says that it's only going over there til they can get another satellite launched, then it's coming back over here for this summer as originally announced. He says that the extension of AMC 1's license to 2016 was only a formality because it ran out last year.

I wonder what the need for it in the east is that's so urgent that they can't just wait a few months...