On March 19, 2009, the Russian State Radio Frequency Committee (SRFC) made a decision on allocating radio frequencies for the W1 European satellite that is planned to be located at the Russian 80 East orbital position.

The W1 satellite space segment is supposed to be available for Russian users in Summer 2009. The decision on operating the W1 satellite was made to satisfy growing demand for Ku-band space segment capacity due to the unstable operation of the Express-AM2 (80 East) satellite. Based on long-standing co-operation between RSCC and Eutelsat, the operators reached agreement about a temporary location of the W1 satellite at the Russian orbital position 80 East, where it will be operated together with the Express-MD1 small satellite that was successfully placed into orbit on February 11, 2009. The W1 satellite will be monitored and controlled by the RSCC’ specialists from the Dubna Satellite Communications Center. RSCC supposes to use the W1 satellite until 2011. At that time, Russia will orbit a GEO, their first Russian heavy telecommunications satellite, Express-AM4. This satellite has been in development since 2008 by Khrunichev Space Center and EADS Astrium. “The decision made by SRFC meets the interests of the Russian Federation and the requirements of domestic state and commercial users of space resource for broadcasting and communications channels establishment over the whole territory of Russia”, stressed Alexey Ostapchuk, RSCC’ Director General.