COMSAT
Encyclopedia
The Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) is a global telecommunication
s company, based in the USA, and with branches in Brazil
, Argentina
, Colombia
, Mexico
, Peru
, Venezuela
and several other countries in the Americas
. It is present also in Turkey
. Although it operates many kinds of data communication modalities, it is best known for its satellite
communication services.
and incorporated as a publicly traded company in 1963. The primary goal of COMSAT was to serve as a public, federally funded corporation intended to develop a commercial and international satellite communication system press. Although the corporation was government regulated, it was equally owned by some major communications corporations and independent investors. COMSAT began operations with its headquarters in Washington, DC, in 1962, with a six-person founding board of directors appointed by President John F. Kennedy
, including: Leo D. Welch, Joseph V. Charyk
, David M. Kennedy
, George Killion, Leonard H. Marks, and Bruce Sundlun
.
In August 1964 COMSAT helped create and was majority owner in the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT
), an international satellite organization with the goal of global satellite coverage that today has 143 member countries and signatories. COMSAT was responsible for the launching of the Early Bird
communications satellite
, on April 6, 1965, and has been instrumental in the expansion of communications throughout the world through its various international subsidiaries.
To further satellite technology, in September 1969 COMSAT opened COMSAT Laboratories, a research and development arm, in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Following many open inquiries into ongoing disagreements with major broadcasting companies and COMSAT, the FCC created the Open Skies Policy in 1970. This policy authorized the use of satellites for domestic broadcast use and encouraged competition between different systems. In 1976 COMSAT deployed Marisat
, three geosynchronous satellite systems providing mobile services to the United States Navy and other maritime customers, and Comstar, a domestic system. To separate these activities from its Intelsat
business as required by the Federal Communications Commission, a subsidiary company named Comsat General was formed. In 1982, the Marisat
satellites, along with three Marisat
earth stations
(two in the US -- Southbury, Connecticut, and Santa Paula, California -- and one in Japan) formed the initial operating system for the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT
).
In 1982, COMSAT threatened legal action against the usage of its company name in the name of the British post-punk
group Comsat Angels
. Because of this, the Comsat Angels had to be billed as the C.S. Angels in the United States.
On 20 September 1998 Lockheed Martin Corp. and COMSAT Corp jointly announced a two-phase merger agreement valued at approximately $2.7 billion, congingent upon certain FCC rulings and Congressional legislative accommodations. Upon completion of the transaction, COMSAT will become an integral element of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, a recently formed wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp. Phase 1 of the transaction was completed via a $49.50 per share purchase of approximately 49% of COMSAT common stock in September 1999, and phase 2 via a one-for-one tax-free exchange of Lockheed Martin common stock for the remaining 51% of COMSAT common stock (approximately 27.5 million shares) in August 2000, at which time the Lockheed Martin stock (NYSE: LMT) was trading at approximately $28.50 per share.
On 02 August 2000 the COMSAT ticker symbol CQ was removed from the New York Stock Exchange.
During the two year approval process, Comsat shareholders lost about US$300 million in purchase value because of a drop in Lockheed Martin stock as the two companies struggled through complex congressional and regulatory hurdles.
With the integration of COMSAT, Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications (LMGT) became the U.S. owner, and the largest shareholder, in both the INTELSAT and Inmarsat systems. Inmarsat was fully privatized on April 15, 1999. Comsat serves as the U.S. Signatory to INTELSAT, and will continue in that role until INTELSAT's expected privatization in 2001 at which point it will become a shareholder.
On 27 March 2001 LGMT announced the sale of the COMSAT mobile communications
unit, which had been aligned with the Satellite Services business, to Telenor
of Norway
for $116.5 million. This sale was completed on 11 January 2002, and included COMSAT mobile's two earth station facilities, one in Southbury, Connecticut, and one in Santa Paula, California.
On 7 December 2001 Lockheed Martin announced plans to exit its Global Telecommunications services business, disbanding the wholly owned LGMT subsidiary and immediately implementing actions to reassign certain of LGMT's businesses and investments to other operating segments of Lockheed Martin, sell the remaining operations, position investments for monetization, and eliminate the LMGT administrative structure. The COMSAT General telecommunications unit was realigned with the Space Systems business area.
COMSAT International Holdings (CIH), formerly known as World Data Consortium, acquired an 81% of COMSAT International (formerly Enterprise Solutions-International, a provider of network services to the South American corporate market) from Lockheed Martin Corporation in the 2nd quarter of 2002.
On 11 May 2004 Lockheed Martin announced that Intelsat, Ltd. would acquire Lockheed Martin's COMSAT General business for $90 million. At that time COMSAT General provided satellite-centric telecommunications services and equipment, concentrating on international fixed and mobile satellite systems.
In the 2nd quarter of 2007 BT Group
of the UK
announced the acquisition of COMSAT International from CIH, and Lockheed Martin announced the sale of its remaining 20% interest in COMSAT International.
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s company, based in the USA, and with branches in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and several other countries in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. It is present also in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Although it operates many kinds of data communication modalities, it is best known for its satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
communication services.
History
The COMSAT Corporation was created by the Communications Satellite Act of 1962Communications Satellite Act of 1962
The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 was put into effect in order to deal with the issue of commercialization of space communications. This act was very controversial, and was left very open-ended. The act was signed August 31, 1962 by President John F...
and incorporated as a publicly traded company in 1963. The primary goal of COMSAT was to serve as a public, federally funded corporation intended to develop a commercial and international satellite communication system press. Although the corporation was government regulated, it was equally owned by some major communications corporations and independent investors. COMSAT began operations with its headquarters in Washington, DC, in 1962, with a six-person founding board of directors appointed by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, including: Leo D. Welch, Joseph V. Charyk
Joseph V. Charyk
Joseph Vincent Charyk was the first Director of the National Reconnaissance Office.Charyk consolidated the CIA, Air force, and Navy space programs into the NRO. He brought the first United States imagery satellite, CORONA, into operation and demonstrated signals intelligence technology from space...
, David M. Kennedy
David M. Kennedy
David Matthew Kennedy was an American businessman, economist and Cabinet secretary.Born in Randolph, Utah, he attended public school and graduated from Weber College, then a Mormon college, in 1928. He served a two-year mission, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to England...
, George Killion, Leonard H. Marks, and Bruce Sundlun
Bruce Sundlun
Bruce Sundlun was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as 71st Governor of Rhode Island from 1991 to 1995. He was Rhode Island's second Jewish governor, and the only Jewish governor in the United States during his two terms...
.
In August 1964 COMSAT helped create and was majority owner in the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
), an international satellite organization with the goal of global satellite coverage that today has 143 member countries and signatories. COMSAT was responsible for the launching of the Early Bird
Intelsat I
Intelsat I was the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965...
communications satellite
Communications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
, on April 6, 1965, and has been instrumental in the expansion of communications throughout the world through its various international subsidiaries.
To further satellite technology, in September 1969 COMSAT opened COMSAT Laboratories, a research and development arm, in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Following many open inquiries into ongoing disagreements with major broadcasting companies and COMSAT, the FCC created the Open Skies Policy in 1970. This policy authorized the use of satellites for domestic broadcast use and encouraged competition between different systems. In 1976 COMSAT deployed Marisat
Marisat
Marisat satellites were the first maritime telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean regions. The three Marisat satellites, F1, F2, and F3,...
, three geosynchronous satellite systems providing mobile services to the United States Navy and other maritime customers, and Comstar, a domestic system. To separate these activities from its Intelsat
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
business as required by the Federal Communications Commission, a subsidiary company named Comsat General was formed. In 1982, the Marisat
Marisat
Marisat satellites were the first maritime telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean regions. The three Marisat satellites, F1, F2, and F3,...
satellites, along with three Marisat
Marisat
Marisat satellites were the first maritime telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean regions. The three Marisat satellites, F1, F2, and F3,...
earth stations
Earth station
A ground station, earth station, or earth terminal is a terrestrial terminal station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft, and/or reception of radio waves from an astronomical radio source. Ground stations are located either on the surface of the Earth, or within Earth's...
(two in the US -- Southbury, Connecticut, and Santa Paula, California -- and one in Japan) formed the initial operating system for the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT
Inmarsat
Inmarsat plc is a British satellite telecommunications company, offering global, mobile services. It provides telephony and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate to ground stations through eleven geostationary telecommunications satellites...
).
In 1982, COMSAT threatened legal action against the usage of its company name in the name of the British post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
group Comsat Angels
Comsat Angels
The Comsat Angels were a post-punk band from Sheffield and Doncaster, England, active from 1978 to 1995. Their music has been described as "abstract pop songs with spare instrumentation, many of which were bleak and filled with some form of heartache." They have been credited as being an influence...
. Because of this, the Comsat Angels had to be billed as the C.S. Angels in the United States.
On 20 September 1998 Lockheed Martin Corp. and COMSAT Corp jointly announced a two-phase merger agreement valued at approximately $2.7 billion, congingent upon certain FCC rulings and Congressional legislative accommodations. Upon completion of the transaction, COMSAT will become an integral element of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, a recently formed wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp. Phase 1 of the transaction was completed via a $49.50 per share purchase of approximately 49% of COMSAT common stock in September 1999, and phase 2 via a one-for-one tax-free exchange of Lockheed Martin common stock for the remaining 51% of COMSAT common stock (approximately 27.5 million shares) in August 2000, at which time the Lockheed Martin stock (NYSE: LMT) was trading at approximately $28.50 per share.
On 02 August 2000 the COMSAT ticker symbol CQ was removed from the New York Stock Exchange.
During the two year approval process, Comsat shareholders lost about US$300 million in purchase value because of a drop in Lockheed Martin stock as the two companies struggled through complex congressional and regulatory hurdles.
With the integration of COMSAT, Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications (LMGT) became the U.S. owner, and the largest shareholder, in both the INTELSAT and Inmarsat systems. Inmarsat was fully privatized on April 15, 1999. Comsat serves as the U.S. Signatory to INTELSAT, and will continue in that role until INTELSAT's expected privatization in 2001 at which point it will become a shareholder.
On 27 March 2001 LGMT announced the sale of the COMSAT mobile communications
COMSAT mobile communications
COMSAT Mobile Communications , a telecommunications company which provides global mobile communications solutions to the maritime, land mobile and aeronautical communities, and offers data, voice, fax, telex and video capabilities via the Inmarsat geosynchronous satellite constellation through two...
unit, which had been aligned with the Satellite Services business, to Telenor
Telenor
Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand...
of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
for $116.5 million. This sale was completed on 11 January 2002, and included COMSAT mobile's two earth station facilities, one in Southbury, Connecticut, and one in Santa Paula, California.
On 7 December 2001 Lockheed Martin announced plans to exit its Global Telecommunications services business, disbanding the wholly owned LGMT subsidiary and immediately implementing actions to reassign certain of LGMT's businesses and investments to other operating segments of Lockheed Martin, sell the remaining operations, position investments for monetization, and eliminate the LMGT administrative structure. The COMSAT General telecommunications unit was realigned with the Space Systems business area.
COMSAT International Holdings (CIH), formerly known as World Data Consortium, acquired an 81% of COMSAT International (formerly Enterprise Solutions-International, a provider of network services to the South American corporate market) from Lockheed Martin Corporation in the 2nd quarter of 2002.
On 11 May 2004 Lockheed Martin announced that Intelsat, Ltd. would acquire Lockheed Martin's COMSAT General business for $90 million. At that time COMSAT General provided satellite-centric telecommunications services and equipment, concentrating on international fixed and mobile satellite systems.
In the 2nd quarter of 2007 BT Group
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
of the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
announced the acquisition of COMSAT International from CIH, and Lockheed Martin announced the sale of its remaining 20% interest in COMSAT International.