(27 January 2007 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Measat Satellite Systems has announced that Measat-3 has successfully completed in orbit testing and had entered commercial service.

At a ceremony held Thursday at the Measat Teleport and Broadcast Centre, located just outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the satellite was officially handed over by Boeing Satellite Systems International Inc and the first customer, Radio Television Malaysia One (RTM-1), up-linked onto the satellite.

"Thanks to the hard efforts of the Boeing and Measat teams, the deployment and extensive in orbit testing of the Measat-3 satellite has been completed ahead of schedule with the satellite now ready for commercial use” said Paul Brown-Kenyon, Chief Operating Officer, Measat. “We are focused on managing the migration of our lead DTH, Broadcasting and Telecom customers onto the new platform as they expand their services”.

Designed to work co-located with Measat-1, the deployment of Measat-3 at the 91.5°E orbital location will boosts Measat satellite capacity at its key orbital location by some 300 per cent. The satellite will also extend the network reach to over 100 countries across Asia, Australia, The Middle East, Eastern Africa and Eastern Europe representing 70 per cent of the world’s population.