SES AMERICOM has announced that the AMERICOM-18 (AMC-18) satellite that was launched on December 8, 2006, has successfully completed a full battery of in-orbit-tests and is now operational from its assigned orbital location of 105 degrees West. The C-band satellite is the first in that frequency at 105 degrees to be operated by SES AMERICOM. Given the demand from the media community for more high definition as well as standard definition distribution bandwidth, AMERICOM has been seeding the cable head-end market with triple-feed antennas.
Once the triple-feed equipment is installed, the cable provider can receive and redistribute programming from three spacecraft in that neighborhood, AMC-1 at 103 degrees, AMC-4 at 101 degrees, and now AMC-18 at 105 degrees. As a result of the cable community's warm response to that program, programmers that use any one of the three satellites can potentially deliver channels into more than half of U.S. cable households by the end of the second quarter. By year-end, the penetration is expected to grow to 80%.
Bryan McGuirk, SES AMERICOM's President of Media Services, said, "I thank AMERICOM's space systems' team for delivering a terrific spacecraft that will serve the media market for more than 15 years." He continued, "The timing of the operational readiness of AMC-18 and the expansion of the HD-PRIME™ neighborhood is perfectly synchronized with the growing demand for more bandwidth to distribute new high def channels."
AMC-18
Launched by Arianespace from their Kourou Spaceport, and built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, AMC-18 is the thirteenth A2100 spacecraft in the AMERICOM fleet. Built as a clone of the successful AMC-10 and AMC-11 satellites that were launched in 2004, the all-C-band AMC-18 spacecraft can deliver and receive signals from 50 states, the Caribbean and Mexico and has been designated as the third HD-PRIME™ satellite. AMC-18 was procured by SES Global Satellite Leasing; the spacecraft will be operated and marketed by SES AMERICOM.
