2000 and Beyond
The future is now
1 January 2000
Intelsat carries a record volume of programming - more than 30 channels representing more than 1,650 hours - for the millennium transition, with cascading delivery of the first television images of the year 2000 to millions of viewers across every time zone.
13 September - 21 October 2000
Intelsat makes Olympic Games in Sydney available to a record four billion people worldwide, as broadcasters use more than 40,000 hours of capacity provided by 10 INTELSAT satellites.
18 July 2001
Intelsat becomes a private company - Intelsat, Ltd. - after 37 years as an intergovernmental organization. Becoming a private company has enabled us to focus on maximizing value to our customers and shareholders.
May 2002
Intelsat begins providing end-to-end solutions through our newly established network of teleports, leased fiber and points of presence (PoPs) around the globe. The strength and speed of this network allow our customers to send and receive content from anywhere to anywhere in the world with the ease of one-stop-shopping.
15 February 2003
The Intelsat 907 satellite is launched aboard an Ariane 44L vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana. The 907 was the seventh consecutive successful launch by Intelsat over an 18-month period and the final IX series spacecraft. The spacecraft was carried to space on the final launch of the Ariane 4 rocket.
19 February 2003
Intelsat and Television Broadcast Limited (TVB) provide a new, satellite-based, pay-television service for Hong Kong using Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Limited (Galaxy).
17 March 2004
Intelsat acquires four operational satellites and related customer contracts from Loral, giving immediate entry into the strategic North American video and corporate data markets.
15 June 2004
Intelsat's IS-10-02 satellite is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard an ILS Proton rocket. The IS-10-02 is the most powerful spacecraft in Intelsat's fleet and will deliver high-power coverage of Europe, Africa, South America and the Middle East.
28 January 2005
Intelsat announces the successful closing of the acquisition of Intelsat by Intelsat Holdings, Ltd., an entity formed at the direction of funds advised by or associated with Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, Apax Partners, Inc., Apollo Management V, L.P., MDP Global Investors Limited and Permira Advisors, LLC.
23 June 2005
Intelsat's IA-8 satellite is successfully launched aboard Sea Launch's Zenit-3SL rocket. The satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, operates from 89°W longitude and offers prime, powerful landmass coverage connecting customers across the Americas, the Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii.
3 July 2006
Intelsat announces the completion of its merger with PanAmSat Holding Corporation. With the addition of PanAmSat's video market expertise, advanced satellite fleet and blue-chip media customer base to Intelsat's portfolio, Intelsat is now the largest provider of fixed satellite services (FSS) worldwide to each of the media, network services/telecom and government customer sectors.
7 July 2007
Intelsat enables the world's largest high-definition music event in history, Live Earth, to take place. Unprecedented in geographic scope and technological scale, Intelsat provided communications capacity using its industry-leading network of satellite and terrestrial facilities for the 24-hour, seven continent, 150 performer environmental awareness campaign to a viewing audience of more than two billion.
9 October 2007
Intelsat signed a contract with the National Hockey League (NHL) Network for distribution services of its new HD channel via Intelsat's Galaxy 15 satellite which resides within Intelsat's Galaxy neighborhood, and reaches thousands of cable headends. The NHL Network joined a list of anchor tenants, such as FOX, ESPN and HBO, who rely on Intelsat's Galaxy neighborhood for transmission of their HD programming.
16 November 2007
Intelsat leads industry to victory in the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC-07) decision to ensure a non-interruption, non-interference policy for the future use of C-band on a global basis.
12 June 2008
Intelsat, the only global satellite operator to provide coverage of every Olympic Games since 1968, announced that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) signed a multi-transponder deal for the video carriage of the 2008 Summer Games to Europe. Intelsat reached another milestone in an unsurpassed track record in successfully supporting live, global HD transmissions, by being on site in Beijing providing a wide variety of managed services to both the rights holding and non-rights holding broadcasters.
9 December 2008
Intelsat announced a joint venture with a South African investor group led by Convergence Partners to launch a new satellite into the 33º East orbital location, ideally positioned to serve the African continent. The satellite features a payload optimized to deliver wireless backhaul, broadband and television programming to the continent and is expected to enter service in early 2011. The manufacture and launch of the satellite is expected to be completed by 2010.
