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GE Americom Announces Plans for GE-4 to Expand North and South American Capacity
Home for Cable2 Neighborhood
PRINCETON, NJ, - April 28, 1999
GE American Communications, Inc. (GE Americom), a GE Capital company, announced today that the GE-4 satellite (scheduled to be launched and operational by year-end 1999) will replace Spacenet 4 at 101° W.L. GE-4 is expected to meet the satellite delivery needs of cable and broadcast television programmers and customers with VSAT, business television and broadband data distribution requirements.
Cable programmers and other C-band and Ku-band customers, including those migrating from Spacenet 4, will be able to take advantage of GE-4's higher power and expanded capacity. GE-4 will feature twenty-four 36 MHz C-band transponders with 20 watts of power providing fifty state, Canadian, Mexican and Caribbean coverage. The satellite will also carry twenty-four 36 MHz Ku-band transponders with 110 watts of power providing fifty-state, Canadian, Mexican, Caribbean and Central American coverage. Each Ku-band transponder is also individually switchable between North and South America.
GE-4, along with GE-1 at 103°W.L., is the designated home for GE Americom's Cable2 Neighborhood that currently reaches over 41 million household cable subscribers. Cable2 is America's fifth largest and fastest growing neighborhood both in subscribers and networks coming aboard. Cable2's success can be attributed to the array of networks that call Cable2 home and an ambitious antenna program designed to reach up to 90% of America's household cable subscribers.
"GE-4 is expected to play an important role within GE Americom's rapidly growing satellite fleet providing welcomed capacity, flexibility and choice to the industries we serve in the entire Americas region." says Andreas Georghiou, Senior Vice President, Global Satellite Services for GE Americom. "Once launched and operational, GE-4 will provide a highly reliable state-of-the-art home for our rapidly growing base of domestic and international customers seeking cable, broadcast television and broadband data distribution."
With over twenty years' experience, GE American Communications, Inc. is recognized as a pioneer and a leading provider of global satellite communications solutions. These solutions primarily provide the distribution of broadcast and cable television programming and digital/Broadband Data Services over satellite. GE Americom currently operates twelve satellites providing satellite-based solutions to North America. In Europe, GE-1E provides high-powered Ku-band service for European and Middle Eastern television markets. With the launch of GE-4 and as an owner of Argentine satellite operator NahuelSAt, GE Americom is committed to the delivery of satellite-based communications services throughout South and Latin America. And with the launch of its first Asian satellite, GE-1A, GE Americom's satellite interests will reach more than 90% of the world's population. Some of GE Americom's key international customers include Viacom, Time Warner/Turner Broadcasting, Discovery, NBC, NHK, Disney, Deutsche Welle and Merlin.
GE Capital, with assets of over US$300 billion, is a global, diversified financial services company with 28 specialized businesses. A wholly-owned subsidiary of General Electric Company, GE Capital based in Stamford, CT. provides equipment management, mid-market and specialized financing, specialty insurance and a variety of consumer services, such as car leasing, home mortgages and credit cards, to businesses and individuals around the world. GE is a diversified manufacturing, technology and services company with operations worldwide.
Contact: Monica Morgan
609-987-4143
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