SS/L Begins Construction of Loral Skynet’s Multi-Beam Telstar 11N Satellite

BEDMINSTER, N.J., Feb. 2, 2006/Satnews Daily/ — Loral Skynet, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications (NASDAQ:LORL), announced on Wednesday that construction of Telstar 11N, a powerful new multi-region Ku-band communications satellite, has begun at Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) in Palo Alto, Calif.

“With Telstar 11N, Loral Skynet is expanding its fleet to take advantage of opportunities in four key growth areas, in addition to providing connectivity to the North American FSS market,” said Patrick Brant, president of Loral Skynet. “Consistent with this growth strategy, Telstar 11N presents Skynet with a unique opportunity to capitalize on the needs of commercial and governmental customers to move video and data around the key American, European and African regions.”

When it enters service in the second quarter of 2008, Telstar 11N will provide service from 39 high-power Ku-band transponders spread across four different geographic beams in each of North and Central America, Europe, Africa and the maritime Atlantic Ocean Region, according to Skynet. At 37.5 degrees West longitude, Telstar 11N will complement the coverage of Skynet's Telstar 12 satellite at 15 degrees West longitude, which provides Ku-band trans-Atlantic coverage to an array of commercial and governmental users.

“In addition to adding service in North America, Telstar 11N is a key, strategic piece of Loral Skynet's FSS expansion plans in the high-growth data and IP service markets of Europe and Africa,” continued Brant. “The design and power of Telstar 11N will enable Skynet to provide service from the Americas to Europe, where it can inter-connect with our Asian satellites and offer customers around the world connectivity.”

Telstar 11N is based on SS/L's 1300 geostationary satellite platform. Currently, there are 52 SS/L 1300 satellites on orbit, performing a variety of critical communications functions for virtually every major satellite operator in the world.

Loral Skynet's satellite fleet currently includes Telstar 10 and Telstar 18 over Asia; the trans-Atlantic Telstar 12, which covers North and South America, Europe the Middle East and South Africa; and Telstar 14/Estrela do Sul, which covers North and South America and Brazil.

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