C-Band Alliance Appoints Peter Pitsch to Lead Advocacy and Government Affairs

Pitsch brings over 30 years of experience as a Capitol Hill and FCC advocate for 5G and other technology policies

C-Band Alliance and members Intelsat (NYSE: I), SES (Euronext Paris: SESG), Eutelsat (Euronext Paris: ETL) and Telesat welcome Pitsch to coalition

Washington, D.C. – 27 March, 2019 - The C-Band Alliance (CBA), announced today the appointment of Peter Pitsch as Head of Advocacy and Government Affairs. The CBA is the entity that proposes to implement a safe and efficient clearing and repurposing of mid-band ‘C-band’ downlink spectrum to accelerate the deployment of 5G services in the U.S.  The CBA was formed by Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat, the band’s incumbents and the leading continental U.S. satellite services operators.  

Mr. Pitsch previously served as Associate General Counsel for Intel Corporation, where he was responsible for global telecommunications policy, a position from which he retired in 2018.  Since October 2017, Mr. Pitsch advocated in support of the CBA’s market-based proposal on behalf of Intel.  Mr. Pitsch has over three decades of experience advocating for public policy issues in front of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) and U.S. Congress.  Positions of note prior to his career at Intel included serving as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the FCC during the Reagan Administration.

The CBA is advocating a breakthrough, market-based proposal to the FCC to allow satellite operators to clear frequencies to enable terrestrial mobile operators to access 200 MHz of C-band spectrum.  The CBA approach and detailed transition plan would accelerate the deployment of next generation 5G services in the U.S. while also protecting the wide array of established C-band satellite services and the U.S. consumers that rely on them, such as the U.S. television and radio broadcasters and programmers.
Bill Tolpegin, C-Band Alliance Chief Executive Officer said “The appointment of Peter Pitsch, who is already well-versed in this complex proceeding at the FCC, allows the CBA to further amplify its advocacy efforts at the FCC and on Capitol Hill as we explain how our proposal best balances the needs of C-band incumbents with the need for speed when it comes to supplying spectrum for 5G in the United States.  Given his long experience with telecom policy and intimate knowledge of our proposal and the FCC proceeding, we are confident Peter will be a valuable leader in our efforts to build consensus on our proposal.”

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For further information please contact:

Markus Payer
SES
Corporate Communications & PR
+1 609 987 4002 (o)
+352 621 186 847 (m)
[email protected]    

Dianne VanBeber
Intelsat
Vice President Investor Relations
+1 703 559 7406 (o)
+1 703 627 5100 (m)
[email protected]

Richard Whiteing
SES
Investor Relations
+352 710 725 261 (o)
+352 691 898 956 (m)
[email protected]