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Washington, D.C., 8 September 2000 – INTELSAT announced today that GlobeCast, France Telecom’s broadcast services division, and the Office des Postes et Telecommunications of French Polynesia (OPT) are using the INTELSAT 701 satellite at 180°E to operate the first multimedia – video and Internet – satellite DTH service for French Polynesia. One 72 MHz transponder, using the Ku-band Spot 3 beam of the INTELSAT 701, is being used to cover all the islands that constitute French Polynesia. This is the first digital DTH service dedicated to French language programming in this area of the world that mixes video and Internet services.

Geffry Salmon, the OPT’s Managing Director, stated, ‘We are pleased with the support, powerful beam coverage and excellent service quality that INTELSAT has been able to provide the OPT for this service. INTELSAT was able to reposition a spot beam over French Polynesia and, through our successful collaboration, we were able to customize the bouquet to meet our specific requirements.’ Alain Baget, CEO of GlobeCast Paris, added, ‘The simultaneous transmission of video and IP represents a significant market opportunity for GlobeCast, and INTELSAT plays a key role in enabling the global infrastructure required for this service.’

GlobeCast is broadcasting this digital bouquet from Paris. Programs are multiplexed in the MPEG-2/DVB format and transmitted via a digital link to Los Angeles. There the signal is uplinked from GlobeCast North America’s Sylmar earth station to the INTELSAT 701 satellite. The service bouquet contains 12 video channels and 3 audio channels as part of the Tahiti Nui Satellite digital package to French Polynesia.

Tahiti Nui TV, a new French Polynesian local channel, is part of the service bouquet. This contribution signal is uplinked by France Cable et Radio, an affiliate of France Telecom, back to Los Angeles via the INTELSAT 701. From there it goes to Paris over cable, where it is multiplexed into the overall digital bouquet for turnaround back to the Polynesian audience.

Programming on Tahiti Nui Satellite includes the following video channels: TELETOON, Infosport, Odyssée, LCI, M6Music, M6, CINESTAR 1, CineFAZ, SERIECLUB, CINETOILE, Matavision and Tahiti NUI TV, as well as the following radio channels: Radio Nostalgie, Rire et Chansons, Europe 2.

GlobeCast also implemented three different Internet applications through this bouquet: the first one, MCast Direct, for high speed (100 to 400 kbps) Internet access; the second, MCast Thematic, to push Internet content; and the third, MCast Mail which alerts subscribers of new e-mail messages, even when off-line. These services are designed to improve response time and avoid congestion on the Internet for end-users.

Tom Eaton, INTELSAT’s Senior Director of Sales, stated, ‘We are pleased that we have the coverage, capacity and power on our 701 satellite to provide our customers with the services they need to meet this new market in French Polynesia. This integrated, multimedia service exemplifies INTELSAT’s flexibility and our commitment to serving the needs of our partners and customers throughout the world.’INTELSAT owns and operates a global communications satellite system providing capacity for voice, video, corporate/private networks and Internet in more than 200 countries and territories.

For more information, visit the INTELSAT web site at www.intelsat.int.

Contact:
Susan Gordon
susan.gordon@intelsat.int
Stephanie Lorenzo
stephanie.lorenzo@intelsat.int
+1 202 944 7500