The Intelsat Board, meeting this week, responded to pending U.S. legislation by taking steps to convene an emergency meeting of the 143 Intelsat member nations, and the convening of an arbitration tribunal, for the purpose of examining the legislation and determining whether such legislation violates U.S. obligations vis-a-vis the Intelsat Agreements.
If a violation is found to exist, and if no action is taken by the U.S. Government to remedy the violation, the United States may face expulsion from Intelsat. Furthermore, the Board instructed Intelsat Management to step up research of alternative jurisdictions outside of the United States for the privatized company.
Intelsat Director General and CEO, Conny Kullman, who was directed by the Board to inform all of Intelsat’s member governments of U.S. legislative developments, commented, “The pending legislation works completely against the privatization of Intelsat. The U.S. Administration — the State and Commerce Departments — as well as the Federal Communications Commission — have expressed strong reservations about the Bill. We hope these concerns, which Intelsat shares, can be resolved so that the privatized Intelsat will, indeed, be a U.S. company.”
In order to help ensure privatized Intelsat’s commercial success, the Board bought an additional NI-Alpha spacecraft from Matra Marconi Space. The original contract awarded to Matra Marconi Space in January, contained an option for the purchase of a second spacecraft. This spacecraft, NI-Alpha-2, will be assigned to the 359 degrees East location serving the Americas, Europe, and Africa, and brings Intelsat’s total spacecraft on order to nine.
The Board also made further progress towards Intelsat’s impending privatization. It progressed key issues on distribution, capacity reservation policy, and guaranteed connectivity.
