Intelsat 15 Launch Successful. Offers Fresh Capacity Serving Russia and the CIS

Moscow, 30 November 2009 – Intelsat, Ltd., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, announced today that a Zenit-3SLB vehicle successfully launched the Intelsat 15 satellite (IS-15) from the Land Launch facilities at the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. Liftoff occurred at 4:00 p.m. ET, followed by signal acquisition and spacecraft separation about six and a half hours later at 10:28 p.m. ET. The satellite, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will provide video and data services through its high power Ku-band payload. Once IS-15 is operational, it will replace Intelsat’s 709 satellite at 85° E, and is expected to have a useful life of at least 17 years.

Customers will use IS-15’s capacity to distribute in-demand services that include cellular backhaul, for wireless communications to remote locations; broadband networks for enterprise applications; IP trunking, for robust Internet connectivity; and video services, for DTH programming.

Of the IS-15's 22 Ku-band transponders, two are leased by Romantis GmbH. Through this capacity Romantis expects to set up a universal satellite multimedia platform that will support a variety of applications, including DTH broadcasting, IPTV service platforms, SD and HD distribution networks, as well as broadband services.

Romantis Multimedia Platform will be based on bandwidth-friendly DVB-S2 standard with centralized Uplink station. DVB-S2 package may deliver TV programs in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standard, radio channels and broadband IP. The customers in a wide territory of Eurasia may access the Romantis Platform with a different type of remote terminals with an antenna of just 90 cm. It could be simple one-way receiver for TV/Radio reception or/and unidirectional Internet, as well as interactive bidirectional terminals for interactive TV and Internet access.