Eclipse Interferes With Satellite Restoration

SKY Network Television Limited
Media Release: 6:00am, 31 March 2006
SOLAR ECLIPSE INTERFERES WITH SATELLITE RESTORATION

The solar eclipse that occurred around midnight last night has interfered with and set back the restoration of SKY’s digital satellite service.

The eclipse blocked sunlight to the solar cells on the satellite requiring the cells to be recharged again after the eclipse and before the process of realigning the signal with earth could continue.

The satellite signal was lost after a routine positioning procedure to the satellite by Optus. SKY and Optus immediately put into operation their signal recovery plans. SKY Television’s CEO, John Fellet said “Our priority has been to get the service up and running. SKY and Optus staff have worked through the night to re-power the satellite and restore a signal to SKY. It’s a delicate process and it’s still continuing.” SKY apologises for loss of SKY satellite services resulting from an outage on the Optus B1 Satellite that provides SKY’s signal.

Mr Fellet said that he did not expect customers to pay for a service they didn’t receive and SKY will remedy this with a credit to customer accounts.

Updates will be posted on www.skytv.co.nz or www.skybusiness.co.nz

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