Following the malfunctioning of its IS-802 satellite last Friday morning (South African time), satellite giant Intelsat says it has transferred all customers using the service to alternative satellites.
"The indications this weekend are that all customers have been transferred onto other birds (satellites)," confirms Intelsat`s local public relations representative Brian Gibson.
Though time differences prevented ITWeb from finding out the satellite`s latest status this morning, an Intelsat statement describes the problem as a "sudden and unexpected anomaly". It occurred at 8:27pm US Eastern Time, on Thursday.
The company adds that, together with the satellite`s manufacturer Lockheed Martin, it is working to identify the cause of the problem.
"Intelsat currently does not know if there is a connection between this event and the Intelsat 804 satellite failure which occurred in January 2005 and was also manufactured by Lockheed Martin," reads the statement.
CEO of Intelsat Dave McGlade says to the company`s advantage is that it has a number of satellites serving the African continent. "Within hours of the event, we were issuing replacement capacity within the Intelsat system," he adds.
The company also points out that, in accordance with Intelsat`s practice of self-insuring satellites past their initial year of operations, the IS-802 is not insured. It generates annual revenue of just under $30 million.
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