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Another news article, this one from the Washington Post:

Internet Users Left Stranded After Intelsat Satellite Fails

By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 30, 2004; Page E01

Commercial satellite operator Intelsat Ltd. lost use of one of its
satellites Sunday -- a mishap that left some Internet customers
stranded and could jeopardize a proposed $5 billion deal to sell the
company to a group of four venture capital firms.

Dianne VanBeber, vice president of investor relations at Intelsat,
said yesterday that it was not clear what had happened to the Intelsat
Americas-7 satellite, but that it had suffered a "sudden and
unexpected power loss" early Sunday morning.

Intelsat was able to switch many of its customers, such as the Playboy
Channel and the Nebraska lottery system, to some of the other 27
satellites in its fleet within hours of the loss. But other Intelsat
customers, such as StarBand Communications Inc., a satellite Internet
service provider, are still experiencing outages.
VanBeber declined to estimate what the loss of the uninsured satellite
would cost the company, other than to say it would not be material to
the firm's financial results. However, the loss could affect plans to
sell the company.

A consortium of private investment groups formed under the name Zeus
Holdings Ltd. had arranged to buy Intelsat this year for $3 billion
plus the assumption of nearly $2 billion in existing debt. The loss of
the satellite gives Zeus Holdings the right, under the terms of the
contract, to walk away from the deal, Intelsat said.

At least one of the groups in the venture said it has not made a
decision about what to do.

"We're evaluating the impact of the loss," said Clare Sillars, a
spokeswoman for Apax Partners Inc., one of the investment firms in the
consortium.

Plans to send another satellite aloft in December should absorb some
of the impact from the loss, Intelsat said. The company bought the
Americas-7 satellite from Loral Space & Communications Ltd. this year
as part of a $900 million deal for five satellites. The Americas-7 was
launched in 1999.

A spokeswoman for Loral, Jeanette Clonan, said that the company would
be working with Intelsat to figure out what went wrong with the
satellite, but that it would probably be days before Intelsat and
Loral engineers figure out the problem.

Intelsat is incorporated in Bermuda but most of its workforce, or
about 850 employees, is based in Washington. Intelsat has not lost a
satellite since 1972.

Though Intelsat was able to switch many customers to other satellites
after the Americas-7 satellite lost contact Sunday morning, not every
customer can easily be moved. StarBand Communications, a McLean
company that provides wireless high-speed Internet access to
residential customers, may be mired in troubles for weeks or months.

StarBand had about 20,000 customers who relied on the satellite for
their Internet access, all of whom are now without access. Those
customers, many in rural areas, will have to readjust their satellite
dishes to point to another satellite -- once StarBand and Intelsat
figure out which satellite to use.

"We've had better ways to start the week," said Howard Lossing, vice
president of marketing at StarBand, who found out about the problem
when he learned his service at home was down Sunday morning.

Joel Loucka, a StarBand customer in Beach Bluff, Tenn., has already
ordered a second phone line because he needs to be online and on the
phone simultaneously to run his Web-hosting company, based out of his
home in the woods.

Loucka is reluctant to go to another wireless Internet company because
he has already shelled out $600 for equipment to get online through
StarBand (his subscription costs an additional $60 per month).

"I'm going to wait this out and see how it plays," he said, adding, "I
don't think this is going to clean up any time soon."

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