The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last Friday authorized New Skies Satellites N.V. (New Skies) to provide fixed satellite services to, from and within the United States from its global fleet of satellites. The term of the authorization is for three years, although New Skies will be permitted to extend the authorization to ten years upon demonstrating to the FCC that it has achieved independence from INTELSAT and its Signatories. Until now, New Skies has been serving the U.S. market under a temporary authorization.

Bob Ross, Chief Executive Officer of New Skies, said that “We are delighted that the FCC recognized that New Skies’ participation in the U.S. market would promote competition and give satellite users new service options. Although we strongly disagree that our current ownership structure poses any threat to competition, the three year authorization we received today, subject to overall market conditions, should provide us with sufficient time to follow through on our planned initial public offering. In any event, a successful IPO will address the concerns the FCC has with our present shareholder mix. Three years is also adequate time to terminate the handful of transitional services that INTELSAT is providing us in our start-up period, as well as to work with our customers to novate those agreements that New Skies inherited from INTELSAT. Needless to say, the United States is a critical market for New Skies and we are pleased that we can now serve this market on a long-term basis.”

New Skies is a commercial satellite communications services provider that currently operates five geosynchronous orbit communications satellites providing global space segment capacity for video distribution, voice, data and Internet connectivity services.

New Skies is headquartered in the Hague, the Netherlands, and has regional sales and marketing offices in Washington, D.C., Singapore, Sao Paulo and London. New Skies maintains a web site at http://www.newskiessat.com

-ENDS-


Contacts
Daniel Goldberg

+31 70 306 4100
dgoldberg@newskiessat.com

Elizabeth Hess
+44 207 389 8135
+31 70 306 4133
ehess@newskiessat.com