13 March 2006
PanAmSat has made an equity investment and intends to grow its relationship with Mexicos Pegaso Banda Bancha, a Grupo PEGASO company. Launched in February 2005, Pegaso Banda Ancha provides direct and flexible Internet connectivity to both corporate–including Internet Service Providers (ISP)–and residential markets throughout Mexico. Making the announcement in Mexico City, PanAmSat CEO Joe Wright said, We are always exploring innovative ways to bring badly-needed connectivity to Mexico. This relationship with Pegaso Banda Ancha is the result of our nearly six-year-old joint venture with Grupo PEGASO and enables us to play a significant role in the broadband revolution going across the region. Hosted on PanAmSats PAS-1R satellite, Pegaso Banda Ancha offers residential customers and corporations high-speed Internet access and IP interconnectivity via satellite at a price that is directly competitive with similar terrestrial offerings.
Prior to PanAmSats equity investment in Pegaso Banda Ancha, we already enjoyed an excellent business relationship with the Company, utilizing PanAmSats PAS-1R as the means to provide Pegaso Band Anchas services in Mexico, said Javier Braun Burillo, CEO, Pegaso Banda Ancha. Were delighted to expand our relationship with PanAmSat through this investment in our company and in our future.
Grupo PEGASO and PanAmSat aligned in 2000 to form PanAmSat de México, Mexicos first service provider authorized to use non-Mexican satellites, which provides video, data and Internet services as well as broadband capacity to customers throughout Mexico. Through the expansion of the joint venture, PanAmSat also has had an instrumental role in Mexicos Enciclomedia program, a government-sponsored Internet connectivity service for elementary schools. This service will deliver Internet connectivity to over 13, 000 elementary schools in the country. PanAmSat was also the first FSS operator to supply space segment to the e-Mexico program, which brings Internet connectivity to 3200 locations within 2445 municipalities across Mexico. Through the e-Mexico service, citizens across the country can access Internet-based government, education, business and healthcare applications.
Added Wright, Mexico and the Latin American market are areas with which our company has a very long and rich history. Customers such as Televisa, TV Azteca, Caminos y Puentes Federales de Ingresos (CAPUFE) the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT), Telecomunicaciones de México, Comsat and Multivisión have utilized PanAmSats fleet for television program delivery as well as VSAT data services in Mexico and throughout the world for many years. We hope that through our investment in Pegaso Banda Ancha that Mexico and the entire region will begin to enjoy even more advanced communications services.
PanAmSat’s PAS-1R Atlantic Ocean Region spacecraft is a Boeing 702, one of the world’s largest, most powerful commercial geostationary satellites. With 72 transponders, it offers an expanded and enhanced reach throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. The Atlanta teleport is PanAmSats primary satellite transmissions gateway to Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America. It provides crucial turnaround services between the Atlantic Ocean Region and the U.S.
13 March 2006
Two Turkmenistan-based correspondents working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Turkmen Service were arrested on March 7, according to information confirmed by RFE/RL. In recent days, RFE/RL also has lost the ability to communicate with its entire network of correspondents inside Turkmenistan.
Distraught relatives told RFE/RL that Yumadurdy Ovezov and Meret Khommadov, both from the Mary region in southeastern Turkmenistan, were separately taken away by police. Their whereabouts remain unknown. Turkmen authorities refused to speak to the families of the two men or give a reason for the action.
Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson said the arrests are another example of the courage shown every day by journalists around the world to work with U.S. international broadcasting services to get the truth out. “Governments may think they can prevent their own people from getting the news by targeting a few journalists, but it will never stop us from carrying out our mission,” Tomlinson said. RFE/RL Acting President Jeff Trimble also deplored the arrests: “This persecution, without even a pretext of legality, is a blatant violation of media freedom and the human rights of these brave journalists. We at RFE/RL are gravely concerned about the fate of Mr. Ovezov and Mr. Khommadov.”
The Turkmen Service has been unable to contact its correspondents, who file on an irregular basis from inside the closed country, for 10 days. According to Trimble, “We are making a public appeal on behalf of our correspondents in Turkmenistan, who are guilty of nothing more than trying to do their jobs as journalists and report the news.”
To protect its journalists in repressive countries such as Turkmenistan, RFE/RL does not reveal precise data about their identities. Cell phones are the primary means of communication with them, but no calls have been getting through. RFE/RL has verified that telephone lines in Turkmenistan seem to be in good working order.
RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service is the only alternative Turkmen-language voice heard in the country, where all media are controlled by the state. RFE/RL broadcasts in Turkmen, currently at six hours a day on shortwave and medium-wave frequencies, have continued without interruption since 1953. All programming is produced in Prague.
13 March 2006
SES ASTRA, an SES GLOBAL company, has signed a second capacity agreement with GlobeCast, an international content management and delivery enterprise. The new transmission capacity subcontracted by SES ASTRA at the orbital position 28.2°/ 28.5° East will be used by GlobeCast to serve the UK and will support the development of new services such as high-definition TV. The first contract with GlobeCast on subcontracted capacity was signed last year.
GlobeCast, a France Telecom subsidiary, operates on five continents and uses a worldwide satellite and fibre network to manage and transport 10 million hours of video and multimedia content each year for its broadcast, corporate, government and retail clients.
Serving the dynamic and rapidly expanding UK market is of highest importance for us, said Alexander Oudendijk, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of SES ASTRA. “When one of the worlds leading satellite services providers decides to expand its business relationship with us, there can be no greater recommendation for the quality and strength of our service.
The UK is one of the most important satellite television markets in the world and thanks to our customers continued growth in this sector we have had to secure additional capacity, said Juliet Bayliss, GlobeCast UKs Director for Broadcast Services. After the success of our first transponder deal with SES ASTRA, the company was the natural choice when we needed to increase our transmission capacity.
13 March 2006
SES ASTRA, a SES GLOBAL company, enhances its digital services and offers an infrastructure for Free-TV, Pay-TV and additional interactive services. The new offer will be open to all broadcasters and ease the development of digital services on an open technological basis. The offer will consist of playout services, encryption of programme signals, smart card distribution for access and customer relations management. With this offer, TV households will be able to use a future-proof solution for digital TV. For playout and technical services, SES ASTRA will rely on its existing subsidiary ASTRA Platform Services (APS) in Unterföhring near Munich whilst logistics, distribution of smart cards and customer services will be handled by a new SES ASTRA affiliate.
By building up a new service package, we consistently follow our strategy to improve our portfolio as a technical service provider for TV channels and focus their activities on digitization, said Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA. The infrastructure that we offer is completely open for everybody, neutral and non-discriminatory. What we are doing will help all interested Free- and Pay-TV channels to enter the digital age, enabling the distribution of new programmes and programme packages and therefore fostering competition. This is how we will provide an important stimulus for the development of digital TV in Germany and further evidence of the role of the satellite as a technical pioneer.
TV-households will be able to take advantage of the digital offer if they have a satellite dish, a satellite receiver together with an appropriate smart card and if they undertake a simple one-time registration. A receiver is suitable if it either already handles a suitable smart card or can be upgraded to handle such a smart card through an open interface (Common Interface). In order to use the service, users will be charged a low monthly digital flat rate to cover the technical cost of operating the digital infrastructure.
13 March 2006
ASTRA Platform Services (APS), an SES ASTRA company, announced today that it will invite manufacturers of satellite TV receivers to participate in its project to further develop the digital broadcasting infrastructure in Germany. In order to allow manufacturers to decide whether they wish to develop suitable Set-Top-Boxes, APS will disclose and hand out information on basic technical specifications to all interested manufacturers in the course of March and inform manufacturers in a specially dedicated workshop later.
The specifications have been developed by APS in consultation with various Set-Top-Box manufacturers. They lay down basic requirements that are designed to ensure the security, stability and interoperability of the new receiver population and the possibility for broadcasters to offer attractive new services via the infrastructure. They do not restrict further individual technical developments and the inclusion of additional features by each manufacturer.
SES ASTRA had announced last week that it will enhance its digital services and offer a new infrastructure for Free-TV, Pay-TV and additional interactive services. The offer will consist of services like encryption of programme signals, smart card distribution and registration for access. It complements SES ASTRAs existing service offering that includes the grant of access to the Premiere satellite decoder population.
The new infrastructure will be open to all interested manufacturers and broadcasters including German Pay-TV channel Premiere.
