27 Feb 04

The satellite phone operator, Intelsat has announced a five-year contract with Telespazio to provide satellite capacity for cellular telephone services that will make available to passengers traveling on Costa Crociere cruise ships in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Caribbean and South American regions.

Telespazio, the Finmeccanica company-leader in satellite services, is working with TIM to offer GSM cellular services, and chose Intelsat to provide the multi-regional, at-sea connectivity.

Through the satellite gateway at the Fucino Space Center in Italy, Telespazio routes the GSM traffic from the satellite maritime network to TIM's public GSM network, ensuring availability during oceanic navigation. The capacity for this solution will be provided over the Intelsat 907 satellite at the 332.5(degrees)E orbital location; This is Intelsat's most recently launched spacecraft and one of the most powerful in its global fleet.

Costa Crociere, the leading European cruise group and the market leader in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland and South America, operates 10 modern ships that accommodate approximately 16,000 guests.

"Intelsat's network reliability, excellent support and capability to ensure a large coverage area, including in the middle of the ocean, is a strong reason behind our long relationship with them," said Mr. Paolo Binelli, Head of Networks and Multimedia at Telespazio. "Intelsat's dependable solution allows Telespazio and TIM to offer thousands of cruise ship passengers instant, high-quality communications whenever and wherever they want to make contact with their families or friends."

John Stanton, President, Intelsat's Data, Carrier & Internet unit, stated, "Intelsat has long provided reliable ship-to-shore communications on which sailors, governments, cruise ship passengers and others depend for instant, high-quality communications.

Our global network provides seamless services to customers at sea, on land and almost anywhere else, and we are pleased to be working with Telespazio to provide this important new network."