View source for Intelsat

=== Commercialization ===
By the 1990s, building and launching satellites was no longer exclusively a government domain and as country-specific telecommunications systems were privatized, several private satellite operators arose to meet the growing demand. In the U.S., satellite operators such as [[PanAmSat]], Orion Communications, Columbia Communications, [[Iridium Satellite LLC|Iridium]], [[Globalstar]], [[TRW Inc.|TRW]] and others formed under the umbrella of the '''Alliance for Competitive International Satellite Services'''<!-- bolded per [[MOS:BOLD]] as a redirect target --> (ACISS) to press for an end to the exclusively-intergovernmental organizations operating communication satellites and the monopoly position of [[COMSAT]] the U.S. signatory to Intelsat and [[Inmarsat]]. In March 2001, the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] passed the [[List of acts of the 106th United States Congress|Open-market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications]] (ORBIT) Act<ref>{{cite web|url=http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2001_register&docid=01-8065-filed|title=ORBIT Act}}</ref> to privatize COMSAT. In April 1998, to address [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] concerns about market power, Intelsat's senior management spun off five of its older satellites to a private Dutch entity, [[SES World Skies|New Skies Satellites]], which became a direct competitor to Intelsat.{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}}