Comsat Corp and the US government are proposing to restructure the Washington-based Intelsat consortium, which owns and operates the world’s most extensive global communication satellite system, by spinning off a new publicly traded, for profit affiliate from the consortium: Intelsat is backed by 136 governments and under the plan, its asset – 20 satellites worth around $3,000m would be split roughly down the middle between the new affiliate and the consortium; the affiliate would be able to pursue new markets, such as satellite news gathering and private networking for voice and data, free of government restrictions; other proposals are likely at a meeting in the summer; Intelsat lost a satellite last week when a Chinese rocket crashed and burned soon after take-off in Sichuan province.
