Paris – Eutelsat Communications and Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) announced the execution of a strategic agreement for commercial cooperation at the 75° East orbital location.

Within the framework of this agreement Eutelsat is colocating its EUROBIRD 4 satellite at 75° East with the ABS-1 and ABS-1A satellites operated by ABS. This redeployment will inject an additional eight Ku-band transponders to 75° East to address markets in the Middle East, central Asia and Russia. Renamed W75/ABS-1B, Eutelsat’s satellite will also provide possible redundancy to customers until the arrival of ABS-2, which is expected in 2012.

Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) is one of the fastest growing premium satellite operators in the world. Operating the ABS-1 and ABS-1A satellites at 75° East, it connects 4/5th of the world’s population covering all of Asia, the CIS region, the Middle East, most of Africa and Eastern Europe.

Eutelsat Communications is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A.. With capacity commercialised on 27 satellites that provide coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world’s three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues.

Source: Eutelsat – ABS