Paris – Following its successful launch on May 26, Eutelsat Communications announced on July 6 that the Eutelsat 3B satellite is now fully fired up and providing commercial services at 3° East.

Eutelsat’s newest satellite is designed to increase and diversify capacity and reach of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Brazil. The first commercial satellite to assemble Ku, C and Ka payloads in a single platform, it can operate up to 51 transponders through an innovative configuration that enables customers to select the frequency band most adapted to their applications and targeted service area.

Overnight transfer of customer traffic onto the new satellite from the two Eutelsat satellites already at 3° East (Eutelsat 3D and Eutelsat 3A) was completed in the evening of July 5. Having completed their missions at 3° East both satellites will now be redeployed. Eutelsat 3D is already on its way to 7° East where it will be co-positioned with Eutelsat 7A to increase capacity and in-orbit security for customers providing DTH, professional video, data and telecoms services in Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, Africa and Indian Ocean islands. It is scheduled to go into service at 7° East in mid-July at which point it will be renamed Eutelsat 7B. Eutelsat 3A, will be relocated to 8° West until it is de-orbited later in 2014.