Program: Eutelsat
EUropean TELecommunication SATellite, also called ECS
(
European Communication Satellite)
In 1979 the European Space Agency decided to build five ECS satellites whose
management were given to the European organization
Eutelsat.
The Satellites were aimed to respond to the post and telecommunications needs
and to transmit EBU's TV channels. To avoid frequencies attribution problems in
C-band the satellites were designed to operate in Ku-band. The
OTS program
had provided test transmissions with small Earth stations using on board
powerful transponders.
Eutelsat
was officialy created in 1985. The initial mission was to complete the
telephone networks without acting contrary to
Intelsat
laws. In fact,
Eutelsat
mainly makes profit with TV channels (65% of its profits).
Eutelsat was privatized as a French company by 2 July 2001. A separate
intergovernmental organisation will continue to exist in order to monitor that
the new company respects the basic principles of pan-European coverage, non
discrimination, fair competition and universal service.
http://www.esoc.esa.de/external/mso/ecs.html