People

BOEING: Makes Executive Changes

Phil Condit resigned as chairman and CEO of Boeing. The board named Lewis Platt as non-executive chairman and Harry Stonecipher as president and CEO.

Platt has been a member of Boeing’s board of directors for four years and he is a retired chairman of the board, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co.

Stonecipher retired from Boeing in 2002 after holding several roles, including vice chairman, president and chief operating officer. Stonecipher also served as a Boeing director for six years.

VIASAT: Appoints President

Viasat Inc. promoted Richard Baldridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer, to president and chief operating officer.

Baldridge joined Viasat in April 1999 as vice president and chief financial officer and added the positions of executive vice president and chief operating officer in July 2000. Prior to joining the company, he served in senior roles within Raytheon Corp., Hughes Electronics Corp. and General Dynamics Corp.

WILDBLUE: Strengthens Management Team

Wildblue Communications Inc. appointed Ken Carroll to the position of president and chief operating officer. He is responsible for establishing the company’s operational and sales structures in preparation for Wildblue’s service launch.

Carroll joins Wildblue from his position as president and chief financial officer at Liberty Satellite and Technology Inc.

Jim Elliot also joins Wildblue as vice president of Infrastructure and is responsible for the company’s import/export compliance. He comes to Wildblue from Ball Aerospace’s Commercial Space Operations business unit.

Thad Mazurczyk joins as vice president of engineering, responsible for all engineering functions at Wildblue. Mazurczyk was senior vice president of technology for High Speed Access Corp.

Wildblue also hired Randy Thompson as vice president of space systems, responsible for Wildblue’s satellites, satellite launch services and satellite management systems. He comes to Wildblue from Liberty Satellite, where he was vice president of advanced technology.

Also joining the company are Patrick Bailey as director of information technology, Joe Ducey as gateway director and Lisa Gillenwaters as director of operations analysis.

Services

COMMUNICATIONS CENTER: Releases Satellite Usage Report

The Communications Center released its quarterly report on transponder usage of the more than 50 communications satellites serving North America.

The report describes significant events in the quarter that ended on September 30. It also outlines "gainers and losers" and several "developments to watch" for satellite communications service providers, satellite manufacturers, launch service providers, cable TV and direct-to-home satellite operators, video programmers, government agencies, and related companies and organizations.

ROADPOST: Offers New Thuraya Service

Roadpost Inc. launched with Thuraya, a dual-mode mobile telephone service designed to deliver combined satellite/GSM capabilities in one package. With coverage to more than 120 countries in the Middle East, Europe, North and Central Africa, and Central and South Asia, Thuraya provides mobile users communications access to nearly one-third of the globe.

Through this partnership, Roadpost subscribers can access Thuraya’s mobile satellite system through their existing SIM cards. This allows current customers to stay connected to the global cellular mobile network, while gaining access to satellite whenever the cellular network is out of reach.

TELENOR: Launches Direct Dialing

Telenor Satellite Services introduced Satellite Direct Plus, its newest innovation in fixed-to-mobile calling via satellite.

The service determines call type and automatically routes it to a telephone, fax or personal computer and places the call regardless of satellite terminal location.

Contracts

AMERICOM GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Awarded FBI Satcom Network

Americom Government Services Inc. (AGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of SES Americom, won a contract with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through AGS’ federal GSA schedule. AGS’ solution for the FBI will include leased satellite capacity for a data communications network, which connects the agency’s sites across all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

The GSA schedule allows federal agencies to purchase satellite capacity on select spacecraft and up/downlink services.

ASIASAT: Settles Frequency Coordination Agreement With Shin Satellite

Shin Satellite Co. Ltd. and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. reported that the administrations of China and Thailand concluded a frequency coordination agreement between both countries. The agreement settled all concerned ITU filings of both sides at 120 degreesE and 122 degreesE for Thailand and China, respectively.

BECHTEL: Signs Subcontract With Intelsat

Intelsat Government Solutions Corp. won a subcontract to provide a turnkey satellite communications system to support Bechtel National Inc.’s (Bechtel’s) involvement with the Iraq Infrastructure Reconstruction Program.

The operational network utilizes an Intelsat satellite and its newly operational mountainside teleport to interconnect Bechtel’s Iraqi reconstruction office in Baghdad with its termination point in the United States. Intelsat Government Solutions worked with its subcontractor Datapath Inc. to implement the turnkey system.

BT BROADCAST SERVICES: Delivers ABS-CBN Globally

BT Broadcast Services (BTBS) is providing complete transmission services to ABS-CBN, a leading broadcaster in the Philippines, enabling the signal to reach across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and negating the need for ABS-CBN to open up facilities in each area.

The programming will be delivered to viewers via the DTH digital platforms, which include four pay-TV channels and two radio stations.

FIBERSAT: Launches New Channel

Fibersat Global Services established a full- time satellite uplink on the Satmex 5 satellite. Almavision Hispanic Network Inc. is using this new uplink service to distribute its programming throughout Latin and North America.

The turnkey satellite services are being provided through facilities located within the Fibersat Global Services Los Angeles International Mediacenter.

GLOBECAST: Adds New Channels To Platform

Globecast signed new contracts with Verve TV and Xtreme Shopping Network (XSN) for distribution to cable headends in North America.

Globecast is managing an end-to-end signal delivery of Verve TV and XSN including multiplexing, encryption and transmission from its digital broadcast center in Miami to Globecast’s C-band cable distribution platform on AMC 1.

HARMONIC: Selected By Sky Perfect

Sky Perfect Communications Inc., one of Japan’s digital multichannel satellite broadcasting companies, chose Harmonic Inc. to upgrade its video infrastructure. Harmonic’s Divicom MPEG-2 encoders and DiviTrackXE statistical multiplexers, which form the foundation of the new service, are expected to double the capacity of Sky Perfect’s existing satellites while improving picture quality, according to Harmonic.

INTELSAT: Signs Agreement With Belgacom

Intelsat signed a new multitransponder agreement with Belgacom, a leading Belgian telecom operator, to provide high-speed Internet access to ISPs in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Belgacom’s C- and Ku-band service, using six 72 MHz units of Intelsat capacity, is already operational and is designed to provide a way for ISPs operating in terrestrially underserved areas of these regions to access the Internet.

ORBITAL RECOVERY: Teams With Holland’s Dutch Space

Orbital Recovery Ltd. signed a teaming agreement with Dutch Space of Leiden, Holland, to develop a space tug for use in rescuing satellites stranded in orbit and extending the operational lifetimes of other telecommunications spacecraft.

Orbital Recovery Ltd. selected Dutch Space to develop and build the ConeXpress orbital recovery system vehicle, based on hardware already produced for the European Ariane 5 launcher.

ORBITAL SCIENCES: Awarded NOAA Contract

Orbital Sciences Corp. won a $2 million contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to conduct studies of potential space and ground system architectures for the next generation of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system known as GOES-R. The GOES-R system will use geostationary satellites, equipped with advanced remote sensing instruments to conduct environmental monitoring and weather forecasting activities for the U.S. government and scientific community.

Under the contract, Orbital will develop concepts that will allow NOAA to meet its future requirements for environmental sensing, data collection and data distribution.

PHILIPS: Partners With Sky Brasil

Royal Philips Electronics and Sky Brasil, one of Latin America’s providers of Direct-to-Home pay-TV satellite services, signed a new two-year agreement to continue their partnership for the supply and distribution of digital set-top boxes for Sky’s satellite pay-TV network.

Sky and Philips agreed to co-market the new product together with Sky’s interactive digital services, using Philips’ distribution network.

SES ASTRA: Inks Four New Contracts

SES Astra signed four new contracts for the provision of Astra one-way satellite broadband services at the orbital positions of 19.2 degreesE and 28.2 degreesE.

In Germany, SES Astra contracted BBV-Computer-Dienst, a specialized IT service provider focusing on rural areas and the agricultural sector who, in collaboration with the national Farmers’ Association, has launched Agrosat. This system offers three different high-speed Internet access packages to the members of the Farmers’ Association via its field offices.

Furthermore, "Internetagentur Schott," an Internet provider based in Germany, is now providing seven different satellite broadband services via the Astra network.

In Hungary, Etics introduced a new interactive television service for the Hungarian market.

Lastly, in the United Kingdom, SES Astra teamed up with AVC Europe to launch a nationwide consumer broadband Internet-via-satellite service on Astra, branded AVC Broadband.

SIRIUS: Forms Venture With CBC/Radio- Canada

Sirius and CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada’s national public broadcaster, will form a joint venture to bring satellite radio to Canada.

This new subscription-based national service will give Canadians access to a wide range of programming and Canadian content.

CBC/Radio-Canada was able to secure the distribution of two of its main channels, namely Radio One and La Premiere Chaine.

THALES: Chosen by Danish Broadcast Corp.

The Danish Broadcast Corp., a national public broadcaster in Denmark, selected Thales Broadcast and Multimedia to provide its end-to-end open interface interactive Television (iTV) service platform to broadcast interactive MHP, MediaHighway and OpenTV applications.

Thales’ end-to-end iTV platform will also allow Danish Broadcast Corp. to launch an information portal this year containing news, sports, general program information and broadcast information.

Technology

MENTAT: Releases New Hardware Model

Mentat released the SkyX Gateway XH155, the newest model of its satellite link acceleration system. The SkyX Gateway XH155 is a ready-to-install hardware solution for enhancing the transfer of data over satellite and other high delay or high error links of up to 155 Mbs.

The XH155 is equipped with 2 Gb Ethernet interfaces and is useful at the hub of large, high-speed satellite-based networks for business and consumer connectivity. It can also be used for high-speed point-to-point satellite and terrestrial links used for military applications and Internet backbone connectivity. (Mentat Inc., 1145 Gayley Ave., Suite 315, Los Angeles, CA 90024; Tel: 310/208-2650; Fax: 310/208-3724; Web: www.mentat.com)

TAMPA MICROWAVE: Introduces X-band LNB

Tampa Microwave Labs introduced the LNB-6300-50-112 low noise block down converter. This X-band LNB converts the X-band downlink frequencies of 7.25 to 7.75 to an output frequency of 950 to 1450 MHz. According to the company, this new product offers system operators and designers a cost-efficient solution with low noise characteristics and high- performance reliability. Key performance specifications include conversion gain of 50 dB, typical noise figure of 1.5 dB typical and flatness of +/- .5 dB over 40 MHz. (Tampa Microwave Labs, 299 W. Hillcrest Dr., Suite 206, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360; Tel: 805/497-6400; Fax: 805/497-8650; Web: www.tampamicrowave.com)