On the occasion of the contract signings on June 18, Dean Olmstead, President and CEO of SES Americom, said: "We are demonstrating great confidence in our business potential by planning to launch four best-in-class spacecraft into strategic orbital positions giving us the capacity to offer our customers superior service throughout the Americas and beyond."

He continued, "When combined with our existing fleet and the other satellites we will launch during this same time period (AMC-9, a hybrid C- and Ku-band satellite, is expected to be operational over North America in early 2003, and AMC-12, a C-band satellite providing transatlantic and regional services planned for service 1st Half 2003), the Americom fleet will have unparalleled diversity, redundancy and reach throughout the Americas, across the oceans and into Europe, Asia and Africa."

Darlene Freeman, Vice President, SES GLOBAL Sourcing, added: "The execution of these contracts clearly demonstrates the synergies we expected through the combination of ASTRA and Americom as well as the advantage of a centralized GLOBAL Sourcing process.

By integrating elements of existing ASTRA commitments into this set of contracts, we have maximized the benefit to SES GLOBAL through a harmonized combination of contracts with two exceptional vendors, ILS and Arianespace. Based on past performance, we have deep and abiding confidence in the launch vehicles, teams and services of both providers."

The AMC-10 and AMC-11 Will Serve Cable The two all C-band spacecraft are designed for the delivery of cable programming from their orbital positions of 135 degrees and 131 degrees West respectively. Based on the A2100 platform and being built by Lockheed Martin, both "next generation" satellites will be launched from ILS' Cape Canaveral Station in Florida on Atlas IIAS launch vehicles.

Planned for operation in 2004, AMC-10 and AMC-11 will replace Satcom C3 and C4. Major cable programmers have signed contracts to use these cable neighborhood partners to reach over 80 million U.S. homes. Already committed to AMC-10 and AMC-11 are Viacom, C-SPAN, CourtTV, Hallmark/Crown Media, iN DEMAND, Lifetime Entertainment, Scripps and The Weather Channel.

AMC-13 - Crossing the Pacific Being built by Alcatel on their Spacebus 4000 platform, the all C-band satellite will offer regional and transoceanic services and will be launched from the Kourou Spaceport in the 2nd Half 2003 on the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. The satellite will deliver superior transPacific services from its 172 degree East orbital position as well as connections into the Americas, Australia and Asia Pacific networks.

AMC-15 - North America's First Ku-Ka Hybrid Based on the A2100 model and being built by Lockheed Martin, AMC-15 will feature America's first operating Ka-band payload along with 24 transponders of Ku-band capacity operating from 105 degrees West. To be launched aboard an Ariane 5 vehicle from Kourou in the 2nd Half 2004, the spacecraft has been designated to complement the DBS spacecraft proposed by SES Americom to be located at 105.5 degrees and provide Americom2HomeSM service.

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