SES WORLD SKIES… Morphing Into SES-7

SES WORLD SKIES, a division of SES S.A. (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG), announced that, following receipt of the required regulatory approval, SES has closed its acquisition of the ProtoStar II satellite and is now preparing to integrate it into its global fleet. SES was the successful bidder for ProtoStar II during a public auction held on December 16th, 2009. The spacecraft, launched in May 2009, has been renamed SES-7, and will be re-deployed to the orbital position of 108.2 degrees East to provide incremental capacity in South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. At 108.2 degrees East, SES-7 will be co-positioned with NSS-11, which is already home to a thriving neighborhood. With two satellites at this same location, SES WORLD SKIES can offer in-orbit redundancy to customers whose networks require additional resilience. With its high-power Ku-band payload and switchable beams, SES-7 offers expansion capacity for a range of DTH and enterprise services across the Asia-Pacific region.

SES-7, built by Boeing, carries 22 physical Ku-band transponders as well as 10 S-band transponders. The S-band payload will be fully used by MCI Indovision, the market-leading DTH platform operator in Indonesia, which has an option to fully acquire the payload for the 15 year expected life of the satellite. SES WORLD SKIES is working with MCI on the transition of SES-7 from its current orbital location to 108.2 degrees East. Following the successful launch of the SES-1 satellite on April 24th, 2010, SES-7 will be the 43rd satellite in the global SES fleet.