Eutelsat, the European satellite operator, announced that the W1 satellite, which was launched on September 6 by Ariane V132, has gone into full commercial service at 10 degrees East. Traffic was successfully transferred to the new satellite from Eutelsat II-F4 on the night of October 14-15 and Eutelsat II-F4 has now been moved away from 10 degrees East.

W1’s 28 Ku-band transponders provide coverage of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East via a fixed Widebeam, and coverage of southern Africa via a steerable spotbeam.

Representing the company’s third launch of 2000, W1 will boost capacity for broadband, TV and business networks. Eutelsat said, “The commercial interest in the new satellite fully matches market trends: Internet backbone connections, corporate networks including Intranets and Extranets, automatic file transfer, TV programme exchanges and TV distribution links.”

With its coverage of southern Africa, W1 is the third satellite to take Eutelsat into the southern hemisphere, which continues its strategy of growing internationally.

In addition to enabling interconnectivity between Europe and southern Africa, W1 can be used for communications within southern Africa.

With the launch and entry into service of W1, Eutelsat’s satellite resource presently consists of 18 Ku-band satellites. Positioned in the orbital arc from 12.5 degrees West to 48 degrees East the satellites provide reach of Europe, Africa, large parts of Asia and connectivity with the Americas. Five new satellites are in construction and due for launch by the first quarter 2002.