The Intersystem Coordination Agreement aimed to coordinate Eutelsat’s and SES’s respective operations at several orbital positions, including the 28.2 degrees East and 28.5 degrees East orbital slots. 

“The purpose of the Intersystem Coordination Agreement was notably to allow for clear broadcasting skies over Europe in the best interests of tens of millions of satellite homes,” Eutelsat said in a statement. “Our position is that the agreement between SES and Media Broadcast, signed seven years ago, and only disclosed by SES in its release of 1 October 2012, violates the terms agreed in the 1999 Intersystem Coordination Agreement, specifically SES’s commitment to respect Eutelsat’s operations at 28.5 degrees East.”

In response, SES rejected the claims Eutelsat made in its filing, stating that that it had been granted rights to use German Ku-band orbital frequencies at 28.5 degrees East effective Oct. 4, 2013 as part of a 2005 agreement with German media service provider Media Broadcast, who was issued a license for these frequencies issued by German regulator Bundesnetzagentur.

SES will launch and operate the Astra 2E and Astra 2G to replace its existing fleet at 28.2 degrees East and to provide new capacity along with the Astra 2F satellite already in orbit. The new satellites will use the additional frequency spectrum for DTH satellite television services in the United Kingdom and Ireland and for other services inside and outside of Europe starting in October.

 “[Eutelsat’s] agreement was made on the basis of German filings that have priority under the rules of the ITU and will give SES the right to use, on its fleet, 500 MHz of bandwidth at this orbital position adjacent to SES’s 28.2 degrees East in the frequency bands between 11.45 and 11.70 GHz and 12.50 and 12.75 GHz in downlink and 14.00-14.50 GHz in uplink,” SES said in their own statement.

Separately, Eutelsat announced that its Eutelsat 70B satellite arrived at Sea Launch’s Home Port facility in California, where it will prepare for a Dec. 3 launch.

Satellite manufacturer Astrium built Eutelsat 70B based on its E3000 platform to optimize resources from the 70.5 degrees East orbital slot. The satellite was designed with 48 Ku-band transponders that will be located on a single platform for data and government services, broadband access, GSM backhauling and professional video exchanges.