SES ASTRA, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), has announced that the Lithuanian satellite service provider SatGate has resumed its transmissions from SES ASTRA’s orbital position at 31.5 degrees East.

SatGate uses four transponders to provide broadband and internet connectivity to Internet Service Providers (ISP), households, and end customers in Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, neighboring countries, and the Middle East. Part of the capacity will also be used to serve ISPs who do not have the necessary infrastructure themselves. SatGate was established in 2001 and has more than 50,000 active customers across different countries today. SatGate originally started its services from 31.5 degrees East in August last year on the ASTRA 5A satellite, which ended its mission in January 2009. In April, ASTRA 5A was replaced by ASTRA 2C. SES ASTRA offers 24 BSS transponders on that spacecraft and at that orbital position. With the new contract, SatGate uses five transponders on SES satellites: four on ASTRA 2C and one previously contracted on the Sirius 4 satellite.