PAS-1 REPLACEMENT READY FOR ACTION

PanAmSat Corporation’s PAS-1R satellite – the replacement for the world’s first commercial international communications spacecraft PAS-1 – is now in place at its permanent orbital slot at 45 degrees West and ready to start operations by the end of this month.

PAS-1R will deliver advanced video and data broadcasting services to the Atlantic Ocean region of Europe, the Americas and Africa. It was launched in November 2000. It will also offer new C-band capacity for Europe and Africa.

The satellite is a Boeing 702 model with advanced communications payload consisting of 36 C-band and 36 Ku-band transponders, each supplying 36 MHz of bandwidth.

“There is capacity available on this satellite,” a PanAmSat spokesman told Interspace, adding, “For competitive reasons, we don’t reveal the exact number of transponders available on a satellite.” The PAS-1R spacecraft has the standard life span of 15 years.

Customer so far include: Impsat, Cisneros Television Group, CTC Mundo, Telefonica Data Colombia, Reuters, Zona Franca Montevideo, Suratel, Vitacom de Colombia and DirecTV Latin America.

“The spacecraft will also support PanAmSat’s current and future Internet initiatives in these regions [Europe, the Americas and Africa],” said the company.