The former PanAmSat Corporation founded in 1984 by Reynold (Rene) Anselmo

Rene Anselmo

Reynold Anselmo "Rene" was a Boston native and World War II Marine Corps veteran. Anselmo moved to Mexico after the war, but later returned to the United States to help run the Spanish language television network Televisa, and later to co-founded PanAmSat...

, was a satellite service provider headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...

. It operated a fleet of communications satellite

Communications satellite

A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...

s used by the entertainment industry, news agencies

News agency

A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...

, internet service provider

Internet service provider

An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...

s, government agencies, and telecommunication

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...

 companies. Anselmo got the idea for PanAmSat from Martine Rothblatt

Martine Rothblatt

Martine Aliana Rothblatt Ph.D, MBA, J.D. is an American lawyer, author, and entrepreneur. Rothblatt graduated from UCLA with a combined law and MBA degree in 1981, then began work in Washington, D.C., first in the field of communication satellite law, and eventually in life sciences projects like...

, an independent communications lawyer in Washington, D.C., to whom he had turned to for advice regarding difficulties he was encountering in getting reasonably priced satellite transmission of his UHF-TV based Spanish International Network (SIN), with studios on 42nd Street in New York City.