Philip Father, CEO, ProtoStar - Page 2 of 3

VIA SATELLITE: What is the significance of your deal with Intersputnik about the use of the 98.5 degrees orbital position?

FATHER: We simply switched administrations given where we were with our slot filing extensions and that we had a delayed launch with Ariane. We have continued to undertake the coordination process that we started with Singapore. We are very happy with our partnership with Intersputnik and are working through them on coordination. We hope to get through that process in a very effective way and we have a good partner with which to work.

VIA SATELLITE: Have you been surprised that this has become such a big media story?

FATHER: I am not surprised, but I am disappointed. I don’t think drama benefits in the end the industry or the customer. If you look at the way we have worked with our customers to tailor beneficial solutions such as footprints, power levels, time schedules, etc., you can appreciate the power of cooperation. That’s why we have been able to attract good customer partners in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and other parts of Asia. That is why we will be three satellites strong in a very short period of time, where as others have been stagnant during this time. It is about cooperation, not competition.

VIA SATELLITE: Territories such as India and Indonesia will have multiple DTH platforms. Is there room for multiple operators in some market, or will we see a shakeout of operators?

FATHER: I think it is logical that markets follow one another. If you look at the United States, PrimeStar was acquired by DirecTV. There was also a similar shakeout in Europe. From a market perspective, several of these markets can support multiple DTH operators. If you take a look at the cost of content, assume reasonable transponder lease rates — which is what we are trying to bring to the market — and see increasingly inexpensive consumer equipment, the DTH operator can hit break-even in three to five years of operation. That is a much more rationale time frame for break-even than I think North America and Europe saw. They were at the early front-end of developing these operations, so I do think you will see multiple operators, because the thresholds to profitability are lower across the board. It will come down to the old adage of who has the best consumer offering and how well the respective companies are managed. Therefore, I think it will stay competitive for quite some time.

VIA SATELLITE: Apart from DTH, are there are any other growth areas such as mobile TV for broadband which you will look to target?

FATHER: You mentioned some good applications there, but I think this is really dependent on the price of consumer equipment and then the [average revenue per user] that one can generate on a monthly basis. Several of those applications have been successful, or are close to being successful in North America and/or Europe. You have different price points and metrics for Asia. As always in this business, it depends on the quality of content, but there is promise there.

However, our focus has been on what we know best and that is point-to-multipoint broadcasting. As I mentioned earlier, the prices of consumer set-top box equipment have come down drastically from the early DirecTV days and people always want to be entertained, especially in these difficult times. We are comfortable that if the price points are right, there is potential for newly delivered satellite applications that fit the customer demand profile.