The final contract will be signed in Dehli on February 20th, in the presence of the President of France and the President of India.

W2M will operate typically 26 transponders in Ku-band and up to 32 depending on operational modes, for a designed operational lifetime of 15 years.

The new satellite is designed to provide additional security for customers and can be deployed at a number of orbital positions of the W satellite fleet, and in particular at the 10 degrees East position.

W2M, like all the other Eutelsat satellites in the W series, displays great flexibility to operate a wide range of services from television broadcasting to data networks and broadband.

In addition to a fixed beam coverage taking in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, it will also carry one steerable beam which can be re-oriented in orbit according to market requirements, and notably towards Africa and central Asia, consolidating Eutelsat's high levels of commercial flexibility.

According to the terms of the agreement, W2M will be delivered to Eutelsat in 26 months for launch, in the second quarter of 2008. This order is the first one resulting from the alliance of European EADS Astrium and Indian ANTRIX, the commercial arm of ISRO, the technical unit of which is the Indian Space Research Organisation.

EADS Astrium is prime contractor in charge of overall programme management and will design and build the communications payload. ANTRIX/ISRO will supply the satellite bus, based on the flight proven I3K model, and integrate and test the spacecraft.

The W2M spacecraft will have a launch mass of about 3 tons and payload power of about 4 kW. W2M is the 13th satellite commissioned by Eutelsat from EADS Astrium.

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