Apax Partners

The desire to communicate while on the move or at play has increased our reliance on mobile communication devices.  Satellites play an important role in the technological developments that allow that freedom because they can reach places traditional communications services can’t and, in the case of satellite TV, better reach multiple users. They are more reliable than terrestrial communications and can provide services cost-effectively to urban or rural locations anywhere in the world.

While the commercial satellite industry is now based on the need for people to communicate with each other, it is a long way from its beginnings. In 1957, when the first satellite was launched, satellite technology and ownership was restricted to governments that, during the Cold War, raced to be the first to travel to the cosmos in a display of strength.

It may be common now to see cities and suburbs sprinkled with dishes that receive television shows or approve credit card transactions at gas stations carried by satellites.  Additionally, satellites are the reason why people sitting in their living rooms can watch live broadcasts from war-torn countries or the Olympic Games in real time. But in the early days, satellites occupied the realm of science fiction and spy novels.

The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1.  Sputnik was the size of a basketball, weighed 183 pounds and took 98 minutes to orbit the earth.  Soon after came Sputnik 2, which carried a dog called Laika.  In early 1958 the US sent Explorer 1 into orbit.

Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon were broadcast by Intelsat’s Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite. Intelsat is now owned by investors including funds advised by Apax Partners.  Intelsat also provided the "Hot Line" between Washington and the Kremlin during the Cold War.  The hot line, set up a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis, transmitted written text.

Satellite technology has moved on since then.  Today, there are about 3,000 satellites in use.  One of the newest, the Inmarsat-4 (I-4), was launched from Cape Canaveral by a rocket in March 2005.  The I-4 is the size of a London double-decker bus and weighs 6 tons. 

It is 60-times more powerful and has 20-times more capacity than its predecessors, the Inmarsat-3 satellites. The I-4’s orbit will be 36,000 km over the Indian Ocean and will bring third-generation broadband data services to cell phone users in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, most of Asia Pacific, the Indian subcontinent and Western Australia.

Satellites and satellite operators are increasingly privately owned, having been sold off by governments and the formerly government-owned telecommunications companies.  In the last few years a number of satellite companies have been acquired by private equity firms. Satellites now help make our lives easier, more enjoyable and can help in times of distress.

Télécom Sans Frontières, an aid agency sponsored by Inmarsat, a satellite company owned by investors including funds advised by Apax Partners, provided emergency satellite communication on Nias, an Indonesian island in the Indian Ocean that was badly hit by an earthquake in December 2004.  Two French surfers who were missing and feared dead spoke to their families on an Inmarsat terminal after being rescued. 

To help communicate during the clean-up of tsunami-hit areas, Intelsat donated free satellite capacity to aid agencies including the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and the Red Cross.

Satellites also enable us to study the stars, forecast the weather, help lost drivers find their way, broadcast television shows, transmit telephone calls to people in ships or in deserts and bring internet and service to remote corners of the globe.