The Company

Our legal and commercial name is Intelsat S.A. The Company was organized as a public limited liability company ( Société Anonyme ) under the laws of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg on July 8, 2011. Our principal executive office is located at 4, rue Albert Borschette, L-1246, Luxembourg, telephone number +352 27 84 1600.

Our History

Intelsat, Ltd. was the successor entity to the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (the “IGO”), and a Bermuda company. The IGO was a public intergovernmental organization created on an interim basis by its initial member states in 1964 and formally established in February 1973 upon entry into force of an intergovernmental agreement. The member states that were party to the treaty governing the IGO designated certain entities to market and use the IGO’s communications system within their territories and to hold investment share in the IGO.

The Privatization

In November 2000, the IGO’s Assembly of Parties unanimously approved our management’s specific plan for our privatization and set the date of privatization for July 18, 2001. On July 18, 2001, substantially all of the assets and liabilities of the IGO were transferred to us.

The IGO, referred to post-privatization as the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (“ITSO”), was established and was to exist as an intergovernmental organization for a period of at least 12 years after July 18, 2001, and then could be terminated by a decision of a governing body of ITSO called the Assembly of Parties. The Assembly of Parties voted in 2012 to continue ITSO until at least 2021. Pursuant to a Public Services Agreement among ITSO and Intelsat, Ltd. and certain of our subsidiaries, we have an obligation to provide our services in a manner consistent with the core principles of global coverage and connectivity, lifeline connectivity and non-discriminatory access, and ITSO monitors our implementation of this obligation.

The 2005 Acquisition Transactions

On January 28, 2005, Intelsat, Ltd. was acquired by Intelsat Holdings, Ltd. (“Intelsat Holdings”) for total cash consideration of approximately $3.2 billion, with pre-acquisition debt of approximately $1.9 billion remaining outstanding. Intelsat Holdings was initially formed as a Bermuda company.

The PanAmSat Acquisition Transactions

In August 2005, Intelsat (Bermuda), Ltd. (“Intelsat Bermuda”), our indirect wholly-owned subsidiary now known as Intelsat (Luxembourg) S.A., PanAmSat and Proton Acquisition Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intelsat Bermuda, signed a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which on July 3, 2006, Intelsat Bermuda acquired all of the outstanding equity interests in PanAmSat for $25.00 per common share in cash, or approximately $3.2 billion in the aggregate (plus approximately $0.00927 per share as the pro rata share of undeclared regular quarterly dividends).

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The Sponsors Acquisition Transactions

On February 4, 2008, Serafina Acquisition Limited completed its acquisition of 100% of the equity ownership of Intelsat Holdings for total cash consideration of approximately $5.0 billion, pursuant to a share purchase agreement among Serafina Acquisition Limited, Intelsat Holdings, certain shareholders of Intelsat Holdings and Serafina Holdings Limited (“Serafina Holdings”) (the “Sponsors Acquisition Transactions”). Serafina Holdings is an entity formed by funds controlled by BC Partners Holdings Limited (the “BCEC Funds”) and certain other investors. Subsequent to the execution of the share purchase agreement, two investment funds controlled by Silver Lake Partners, L.P. (“Silver Lake Partners”) and other equity investors joined the BCEC Funds as the equity sponsors of Serafina Holdings. We refer to the BCEC Funds, the Silver Lake Partners funds and the other equity sponsors collectively as the Sponsors. As a result of completion of the Sponsors Acquisition Transactions and related financing transactions, we and our subsidiaries assumed aggregate net incremental debt of approximately $3.7 billion.

The Luxembourg Migration

On December 15, 2009, Intelsat, Ltd. and certain of its parent holding companies and subsidiaries migrated their jurisdiction of organization from Bermuda to Luxembourg (the “Migration”). As a result of the Migration, our headquarters are located in Luxembourg. Each company that migrated has continued its corporate and legal personality in Luxembourg. Subsequent to the Migration, Intelsat Global, Ltd. became known as Intelsat Global S.A., Intelsat Global Subsidiary, Ltd. became known as Intelsat Global Subsidiary S.A., Intelsat Holdings, Ltd. became known as Intelsat Holdings S.A., Intelsat, Ltd. became known as Intelsat S.A., Intelsat (Bermuda), Ltd. became known as Intelsat (Luxembourg) S.A. and Intelsat Jackson Holdings, Ltd. became known as Intelsat Jackson Holdings S.A.

The Initial Public Offering

On April 23, 2013, we completed our initial public offering, in which we issued 22,222,222 common shares, and a concurrent public offering, in which we issued 3,450,000 5.75% Series A mandatory convertible junior non-voting preferred shares (the “Series A Preferred Shares”), at public offering prices of $18.00 and $50.00 per share, respectively (the initial public offering together with the concurrent public offering, the “IPO”) for total proceeds of $572.5 million (or approximately $550 million after underwriting discounts and commissions). In connection with the IPO, on April 16, 2013, the name of the Company was changed from Intelsat Global Holdings S.A. to Intelsat S.A.

Overview

We operate the world’s largest satellite services business, providing a critical layer in the global communications infrastructure.

We provide diversified communications services to the world’s leading media companies, fixed and wireless telecommunications operators, data networking service providers for enterprise and mobile applications in the air and on the seas, multinational corporations, and ISPs. We are also the leading provider of commercial satellite communication services to the U.S. government and other select military organizations and their contractors.

Our customers use our global network for a broad range of applications, from global distribution of content for media companies to providing the transmission layer for commercial aeronautical consumer broadband connectivity, to enabling rural access solutions for wireless telecommunications providers in high-growth emerging regions.

Our network solutions are a critical component of our customers’ infrastructures and business models. Generally, our customers need the specialized connectivity that satellites provide so long as they are in business or pursuing their mission. For instance, our satellite neighborhoods provide our media customers with efficient and reliable broadcast distribution that maximizes audience reach, a benefit that is difficult for terrestrial services to match. In addition, our satellite solutions provide higher reliability than is available from local terrestrial telecommunications services in many regions and allow our customers to reach geographies that they would otherwise be unable to serve.

We hold the largest collection of rights to well-placed orbital slots in the most valuable C- and Ku-band spectrums. From these locations, our satellites are able to offer services in the established regions historically using the most satellite capacity, as well as the higher growth emerging regions, where approximately 53% of our capacity is currently focused.

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We believe our leadership position, valuable customer relationships and global network enable us to benefit from growing demand for reliable bandwidth, resulting from trends such as:

We believe that we have the largest, most reliable and most technologically advanced commercial communications network in the world. Our global communications system features a fleet of approximately 50 geosynchronous satellites that covers more than 99% of the world’s populated regions. Our satellites primarily provide services in the C- and Ku-band frequencies, which form the largest part of the FSS sector. Our satellite capacity is complemented by our suite of IntelsatOne ^® managed services, including our terrestrial network comprised of leased fiber optic cable, access to Internet points of presence (“PoPs”), multiplexed video and data platforms and owned and operated teleports. Our satellite-based network solutions offer distinct technical and economic benefits to our target customers and provide a number of advantages over terrestrial communications systems, including the following:

We believe that our hybrid satellite-terrestrial network, combined with the world’s largest collection of FSS spectrum rights, is a unique and valuable asset.

Our network architecture is flexible and, coupled with our global scale, provides strong capital and operating efficiency. We are able to re-deploy capacity, moving satellites or repositioning beams to capture demand. In 2016, we have begun launching satellites of our next-generation fleet design, branded as Intelsat Epic ^NG , a high throughput platform that will further increase our flexibility while decreasing our cost of transmission. The first of these satellites is expected to enter service in the second quarter of 2016. Our technology has utility across a number of applications, with minimal customization to address diverse applications. We operate our global network from a fully-integrated, centralized satellite operations facility, with regional sales and marketing offices located close to our customers. The operational flexibility of our network is an important element of our differentiation and our ability to grow.

We have a reputation for operational and engineering excellence, built on our experience of 50 years in the communications sector. Our network delivered 99.998% network availability on station-kept satellites to our customers in 2015.

As of December 31, 2015, our contracted backlog, which is our expected future revenue under existing customer contracts, was approximately $9.4 billion, roughly four times our 2015 annual revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2015, we generated revenue of $2.35 billion and net loss attributable to Intelsat S.A. of $3.9 billion. Our Adjusted EBITDA, which consists of EBITDA as adjusted to exclude or include certain unusual items, certain other operating expense items and certain other adjustments, was $1.85 billion, or 79% of revenue, for the year ended December 31, 2015.

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In 2015, our business encountered a number of challenges that are reflected in our operating results, and we believe these trends are likely to continue for some time:

We believe we benefit from a number of characteristics that allow us to effectively manage our business despite these competitive and geo-economic pressures:

We believe that our leadership position in our attractive sector, global scale, efficient operating and financial profile, diversified customer sets and sizeable contracted backlog, together with the growing worldwide demand for reliable bandwidth, provide us with a platform for long-term success.

Our Sector

Satellite services are an integral and growing part of the global communications infrastructure. Through unique capabilities, such as the ability to effectively blanket service regions, to offer point-to-multipoint distribution and to provide a flexible architecture, satellite services complement, and for certain applications are preferable to, terrestrial telecommunications services, including fiber and wireless technologies. The sector is expected to generate revenues of approximately $13.0 billion in 2015, and transponder service revenue is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of 3.1% from 2015 to 2020 according to a study issued in 2015 by NSR, a leading international market research and consulting firm specializing in satellite and wireless technology and applications.

In recent years, the addressable market for FSS has expanded to include mobile applications because of satellite’s ability to provide the broadband access required by high bandwidth mobile platforms, such as for commercial ships and aircraft, as well as military mobility applications, including unmanned aerial vehicles. Satellite services provide secure bandwidth capacity ideal for global in-theater communications since military operations are often in locations without reliable communications infrastructure. According to a study by NSR, global revenue from FSS services used for government and military applications is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.5% from 2015 to 2020.

Our sector is noted for having favorable operating characteristics, including long-term contracts, high renewal rates and strong cash flows. The fundamentals of the sector are attractive, given the global need for connectivity everywhere and explosion of global content. The continuing growth in demand in our sector, combined with the high operating margins which are characteristic of the sector, provides a resilient business model.

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There is a finite number of geostationary orbital slots in which FSS satellites can be located, and many orbital locations already hold operating satellites pursuant to complex regulatory processes involving many international and national governmental bodies. These satellites typically are operated under coordination agreements designed to avoid interference with other operators’ satellites. See—Regulation below for a more detailed discussion of regulatory processes relating to the operation of satellites.

Our sector has consolidated over the course of the last decade, as the combination of large capital commitments, operational infrastructure requirements and access to spectrum has created challenges for smaller operators. Today, there are only four FSS operators, including us, providing global services, which is important as multinationals and governments seek a one-stop solution for obtaining global connectivity. In addition, there are a number of operators with fewer satellites that provide regional and/or national services. We currently hold the largest number of rights to orbital slots in the most valuable C- and Ku-band spectrums.

We believe a number of fundamental trends in our sector are creating increasing demand for satellite services:

In total, transponder service revenue (excluding consumer broadband) is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.5% from 2015 to 2020, according to NSR.

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Our Customer Sets and Growing Applications

We focus on business-to-business services, indirectly enabling enterprise, government and consumer applications through our customers. Our customer contracts offer four different service types: transponder services, managed services, channel services and mobile satellite services and other. See Item 5—Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Revenue for further discussion of our service types. Characteristics of our customer sets are summarized below:

We provide satellite capacity and related communications services for the transmission of video, data and voice signals. Our customer contracts cover on- and off-network capacity with four different service types:

On-Network:

Off-Network:

We also perform satellite-related consulting services and technical services for various third parties, such as operating satellites for other satellite owners.

Network Services

We are the world’s largest provider of satellite capacity for network services, according to Euroconsult, with a 29% global share. Our satellite capacity, paired with our terrestrial network comprised of leased fiber, teleports and data networking platforms, enables the transmission of video, data and voice to and from virtually any point on the surface of the earth. There is an increasing need for basic and high-speed connectivity in developed and emerging regions around the world. We provide an essential element of the infrastructure supporting the rapid expansion of wireless services in many emerging regions. Furthermore, as mobile communications becomes essential to global networking and Internet use, we are increasingly providing capacity, such as that provided by the Intelsat Epic ^NG platform, to be used for mobility applications such as maritime enterprise and maritime and aeronautical broadband services for passenger access services.

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Network services is our largest customer set and accounted for 45% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2015 and $2.5 billion of our contracted backlog as of December 31, 2015. Our business generated from the network services sector is generally characterized by non-cancellable, one to five year contracts with many of the world’s leading communications providers, including fixed and wireless telecommunications companies, such as global carriers and regional and national providers in emerging regions, corporate network service providers, such as VSAT services providers to vertical markets including banks, value-added services providers, such as those serving the aeronautical and maritime industries, and multinational corporations and other organizations operating globally.

Our network services offerings are an essential component of our customers’ services, providing backbone infrastructure, expanded service areas and connectivity where reliability or geography is a challenge. We believe that we are a preferred provider because of our global service capability and our expertise in delivering services with operator-grade network availability and efficient network control.

Our IntelsatOne network includes regional shared data networking platforms at our teleports that are connected to approximately 40 of our satellites. As a result, our customers can quickly establish highly reliable services across multiple regions, yet operate them on a centralized basis. Our satellite-based solutions allow customers to rapidly expand their service territories, increase the access speed and capabilities for their existing networks and efficiently address new customer and end-user requirements.

Highlights of our network services business include the following:

Our leading position in this part of our business has been under pressure as new capacity from satellite operators and improved access to fiber links has changed the competitive environment in certain regions. The increase in satellite supply has resulted in significant declines in pricing, particularly in our Africa region. The increase in the availability of fiber has resulted in the accelerated retirement of our channel business, which had reached end of lifecycle at 2015 year end, and our trunking businesses, which will be a continuing headwind for the next several years. As a result, we believe that the level of business activity in this sector in the near to mid-term will remain lower than that of past years. Our next generation Intelsat Epic ^NG satellites will provide inventory to offset these recent trends, providing bandwidth for wireless infrastructure, mobility and enterprise applications. The first of these satellites, IS-29e, is expected to enter service in the second quarter of 2016.

Media

We are the world’s second largest provider of satellite capacity for media services, according to Euroconsult, with a 20% global share. We have delivered television programming to the world since the launch of our first satellite, Early Bird, in 1965. We provide satellite capacity for the transmission of entertainment, news, sports and educational programming for approximately 400 broadcasters, content providers and DTH platform operators worldwide. We have well-established relationships with our media customers, and in some cases have distributed their content on our satellites for over 25 years.

Media customers are our second largest customer set and accounted for 38% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2015 and $6.2 billion of our contracted backlog as of December 31, 2015. Our business generated from the media sector is generally characterized by non-cancellable, long-term contracts with terms of up to 15 years with premier customers, including national broadcasters, content providers and distributors, television programmers and DTH platform operators.

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Broadcasters, content providers and television programmers seek efficient distribution of their content to make it easily obtainable by affiliates, cable operators and DTH platforms; satellites’ point-to-multipoint capability is difficult to replicate via terrestrial alternatives. Our strong cable distribution neighborhoods offer media customers high penetration of regional and national audiences.

Broadcasters, content providers and television programmers also select us because our global capabilities enable the distribution or retrieval of content to or from virtually any point on earth. For instance, we regularly provide fully integrated global distribution networks for content providers that need to distribute their products across multiple continents. DTH platform operators use our services because of our attractive orbital locations and because the scale and flexibility of our fleet can provide speed to market and lowers their operating risk, as we have multiple satellites serving every region.

We believe that we enjoy a strong reputation for delivering the high network reliability required to serve the demanding media sector.

Our fully integrated satellite, fiber and teleport facilities provide enhanced quality control for programmers. In addition to basic satellite services, we offer bundled, value-added services under our IntelsatOne brand that include managed fiber services, digital encoding of video channels and up-linking and down-linking services to and from our satellites and teleport facilities. Our IntelsatOne bundled services address programmers’ interests in delivering content to multiple distribution channels, such as television and Internet, and their needs for launching programs to new regions in a cost-efficient manner.

Highlights of our media business include the following:

We expect continued growth in this part of our business in 2016, supported by the expected launch of two satellites, IS-31 and IS-36. This will be offset somewhat by acceleration of compression technologies, which reduce bandwidth requirements in our North American business. In time, we expect new demand for capacity to support the new 4K format, also known as Ultra HD, which could compensate for reductions in demand related to compression.

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Government

We are the leading provider of commercial satellite services to the government sector, according to NSR, with a 33% share of the U.S. military and government use of commercial satellite capacity worldwide. With 50 years of experience serving this customer set, we have built a reputation as a trusted partner for the provision of highly customized, secure satellite-based solutions. The government sector accounted for 16% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2015 and $531 million of our contracted backlog as of December 31, 2015.

Our satellite communication services business generated from the government sector is generally characterized by single year contracts that are cancellable by the customer upon payment of termination for convenience charges and include annual options to renew for periods of up to four additional years. In the first half of 2015, our results reflected the annualization of prior year declines, due to a reduced level of activity in our government business, although the business was stable in the second half of 2015.

In addition to communication services, our business generated from hosted payloads is generally characterized by contracts with service periods extending up to the 15 year life of the satellite, cancellable upon payment of termination penalties defined by the respective contracts.

Our customer base includes many of the leading government communications providers, including U.S. military and allied partners, civilian agencies and commercial customers serving the defense sector. We consider each party within the Department of Defense and other U.S. governmental agencies that has the ability to initiate a purchase requisition and select a contractor to provide services to be a separate customer, although such party may not be the party that awards us the contract for the services.

We attribute our strength in serving military and government users to our global infrastructure of satellites and our IntelsatOne network of teleports and fiber that complement the government’s own networks and satellites. Our fleet is flexible and provides global network capacity, resilience and critical surge capabilities. In some instances, we provide our government customers managed, end-to-end secured networks, combining our resources in space and on the ground, for fixed and mobile applications.

In responding to certain unique customer requirements, we also procure and integrate satellite services provided by other satellite operators, either to supplement our capacity or to obtain capacity in frequencies not available on our fleet, such as L-band, X-band and other spectrums not available on our network. These off-network services are primarily low risk in nature, typically with the terms and conditions of the third party capacity and services we procure matched to contractual commitments from our customer. We are an attractive supplier to the government sector because of our ability to leverage not only our assets but also other space-based solutions, providing a single contracting source for multiple, integrated technologies.

Highlights of our government business include the following:

Over the course of 2015, our government business grew more stable as compared to the prior two years, which were impacted more significantly by U.S. budget sequestration and troop withdrawals from the Middle East. We believe our reputation as a provider of secure solutions, our global fleet, our customer relationships, our ability to provide turn-key services and our demonstrated willingness to reposition or procure capacity to support specific requirements position us to successfully compete for commercial satellite solutions for bandwidth intensive military and civilian applications. We also note progress in U.S. government procurement practices, with some specific instances of contracting for services for periods in excess of the more typical 1 year term, and interest in exploring creative contracting constructs such as hosted payloads and outsourcing of certain space-based functions.

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Our Diverse Business

Our revenue and backlog diversity spans customer sets and applications, as discussed above, as well as geographic regions and satellites. We believe our diversity allows us to recognize trends to capture new growth opportunities, and gain experience that can be transferred to customers in different regions. For further details regarding geographic distribution of our revenue, see Note 17 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report.

We believe we are the sector leader by transponder share in all but two of the geographic regions covered by our network, and our leading positions align to the regions identified by industry analysts as those that either purchase the most satellite capacity or are emerging regions that have the highest growth prospects, such as Africa and Latin America.

The scale of our fleet can also reduce the financial impact of satellite failures and protect against service interruption. No single satellite generated more than 7% of our revenue and no single customer accounted for more than 7% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2015.

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The following chart shows the geographic diversity of our contracted backlog as of December 31, 2015 by region and service sector, based upon the billing address of the customer.

The majority of our on-network revenue aligns to emerging regions, based upon the position of our satellites and beams. The following chart shows the breakdown of our on-network revenue by the region in which the service is delivered as of December 31, 2015:

Our Strategy

We seek revenue growth by expanding our broadband infrastructure business in high growth regions and applications while maintaining our focus on operational discipline.

We believe that building infrastructure, introducing services and investing in related technology will allow us to address sectors that are much larger, and growing much faster, than the sectors we support today. This includes:

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Our strategy positions us for long-term growth, which over time should offset our short-term challenges, including headwinds from price competition and lower revenues from trunking and other of our point-to-point services. In 2016, we have begun to launch and place into service our Intelsat Epic ^NG satellite platform, which provides the performance, economics, and simple access that we believe are necessary to unlock the new and faster growing applications for our services.

Given our efficient operating structure, we believe our strategies will position us to continue to deliver high operating margins. As we place into service our next generation capacity starting in 2016, as described below, we will have increased opportunity to generate organic revenue growth. The key components of our business strategy include the following:

Focus our core business on attractive and growing broadband, mobility and media applications and innovative government solutions

We are a business-to-business provider of high performance, secure critical communications infrastructure. We intend to leverage our leading position, customer relationships, global network and regional strengths to capture new business opportunities as a result of the following:

Network Services:

Media:

Government:

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Optimize and leverage our space-based assets, including orbital locations and spacecraft

We intend to maximize the revenues and returns generated by our assets by managing capacity in a disciplined and efficient manner. Key elements of our strategy include:

Design and deploy our next generation satellite fleet, including Intelsat Epic ^NG , to capture growth from new applications and evolving customer requirements

Our fleet is large and diversified by coverage, manufacturer and age. As satellites reach the end of their service lives, we have an ongoing opportunity to refresh the technology we use to serve our customers, resulting in flexibility to address new opportunities as they are identified.

Our customers require increasing amounts of bandwidth, with more efficiency, in order to expand the types of applications they can support and expand their addressable markets. Our next generation network investment strategy seeks to deploy space and terrestrial network elements that will allow us to deliver more bandwidth while improving unit costs.

Our next generation satellite technology, Intelsat Epic ^NG , will be incorporated into our fleet as we complete the scheduled replacement of our IX-series satellites. The Intelsat Epic ^NG platform features high throughput spot beam technology, utilizing frequency reuse in order to significantly increase the amount of throughput on the satellites. The innovative design is in contrast to other high throughput platforms. Intelsat Epic ^NG ’s all-digital payload allows connectivities in any bandwidth increment from any beam to any beam. This attribute enables independent frequency selection of the uplink and downlink. Combined, these features provide unprecedented adaptability for a customer’s network configuration and topology, allowing customers to leverage installed hardware and to operate mixed spectrum networks. Further, Intelsat Epic ^NG emphasizes open architecture and backward compatibility, which provides our customer base with complete flexibility to leverage existing ground hardware capital investment, a significant element when analyzing total cost of ownership, and the ability to transition easily to the newer technology.

While these Intelsat Epic ^NG satellites are expected to cost more per satellite, our cost per bit delivered is expected to decrease significantly. Because Intelsat Epic ^NG satellites are significantly larger in terms of capacity and throughput than traditional satellites, we expect the number of station-kept satellites we maintain in our fleet to decline over the course of a 15 year cycle. This will enhance our capital expenditure efficiency over time. The Intelsat Epic ^NG platform introduced in 2012 was initially anchored by three customer contracts, representing nearly $500 million in backlog. As the satellite launch nears, renewals of existing customers at that orbital location will include the transition to the Intelsat Epic ^NG platform. Our newer assets are used to address current market requirements, allowing older assets to be redeployed to serve legacy customer applications still efficiently served by those assets.

We believe that new satellite technologies, including high throughput satellites such as our Intelsat Epic ^NG platform, should significantly improve the performance and efficiency of our network, improving our competitiveness with alternative solutions and increasing the value we can provide to customers. These improvements will also allow us to expand our addressable market into new fixed and mobile broadband applications. We are also investing in enhanced technology that is incorporated in our terrestrial network to deliver converging video and IP content, thus expanding the services we provide to the media and telecommunications industries. We intend to continue to implement compression technologies into our ground network to reduce the bandwidth necessary for network service applications, increasing our customers’ efficiency and expanding our market potential, particularly in emerging regions.

Finally, we intend to leverage our frequent satellite launches and collection of orbital rights to address opportunities to supply specialized capabilities for large media companies and government applications. This could include launching and operating satellites with specific regional footprints and capabilities, such as our agreement with DIRECTV Latin America to provide customized capacity for DTH services on two satellites, the first of which was placed into service in 2014. Another example is our agreement with MultiChoice Inc. for capacity for DTH services on a satellite scheduled to be launched in 2016, serving South Africa and the Indian Ocean Region. With respect to government applications, this could include advanced satellites and space-based services, as well as the ability to integrate hosted payloads with our spacecraft, providing fast and cost-effective capabilities in space. For instance, we integrated a specialized payload for the Australian Defence Force (“ADF”) into our IS-22 satellite, which we launched in 2012.

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Design and deploy global service offerings based upon our global footprint, leveraging the higher performance and better economics of our Intelsat Epic ^NG fleet,

Among the primary benefits of the Intelsat Epic ^NG fleet is its backwards compatibility with the existing global footprint of the Intelsat fleet, together with our ability to create virtual private networks within beams. With this environment, we can attach shared data networking platforms to our satellite infrastructure that can be operated as virtual private networks by our customers. This provides all of the benefits of global high throughput satellite networking, without each service provider investing in dedicated ground infrastructure. Because of our architecture, our service provider customers will be able to offer highly differentiated service offerings, using their own network operations standard and committed information rates.

We are implementing a global service strategy that will make it easier for our customers to incorporate high throughput technology into their respective networks. Our first Intelsat Epic ^NG -based service offering is branded as IntelsatOne Flex, and is targeted to the mobility sector. Our global footprint will allow our mobility service provider customers to expand into new service regions and also scale their network as business dictates, effectively allowing them to move connectivity commitments between regions, which is important due to seasonality considerations. We believe this operational flexibility and capital efficiency will allow our customers to expand into new regions and applications with lower business risk, creating value for their operations.

We plan to extend our service offering concepts into other vertical applications, including the wireless sector. We also expect to introduce new service platforms for our media customers, such as our 2015 introduction of a service called IntelsatOne Prism. This service uses enhanced technology that is incorporated within our terrestrial network to deliver converging video and IP content with a simple user interface that allows customers to schedule multiple format transmissions simultaneously, increasing their operational efficiency

Drive innovation through investments in ecosystem, creative business development and new business models

Complementing our innovation on our space-based assets, we are investing in a new generation of ground hardware that is expected to simplify access to satellite communications, potentially opening much larger and faster growing sectors than those traditionally served by our industry. In the first quarter of 2015, we announced the first of a series of investments in ground antennas that use metamaterials and other innovations to simplify deployment. For instance, we have entered into a development partnership with Kymeta Inc. which we expect to result in an affordable, flat antenna that could be installed in the automotive sector, enabling connected cars on a global basis.

Going forward, we will also consider select acquisitions of complementary businesses or technologies that enhance our product and geographic portfolio and can benefit from our scale, scope and status as a global leader. For instance, in 2015 we invested in a new low earth orbit project, OneWeb, that will complement our geostationary fleet by providing fully interoperable global capacity, including over the North and South Poles, which is desirable for serving mobility applications.

By establishing local offices closer to our customers and staffing those offices with experienced personnel, we believe that we are able to provide flexible and responsive service and technical support to our customers. Our sales and marketing organization reflects our corporate focus on our three principal customer sets of network services, media and government. Our sales team includes technical marketing and sales engineering application expertise and a sales approach focused on creating integrated solutions for our customers’ communications requirements.

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We use a range of direct and wholesale distribution methods to sell our services, depending upon the region, applicable regulatory requirements and customer application.

Our Network

Our global network is comprised of approximately 50 satellites and ground facilities, including teleports, access to Internet PoPs and leased fiber that support our commercial services and the operation and control of our satellites.

Our customers depend on our global communications network and our operational and engineering leadership. Highlights of our network include:

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As we design our new satellites, we work closely with our strategic customers to incorporate technology and service coverage that provides them with a cost-effective platform for their respective requirements.

The table below provides a summary of our satellite fleet as of December 31, 2015, except where noted.

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Satellite Systems

There are three primary types of commercial communications satellite systems: low-earth orbit systems, medium-earth orbit systems and geosynchronous systems. All of our satellites are geosynchronous satellites and are located approximately 22,200 miles, or 35,800 kilometers, above the equator. These satellites can receive radio frequency communications from an origination point, relay those signals over great distances and distribute those signals to a single receiver or multiple receivers within the coverage areas of the satellites’ transmission beams.

Geosynchronous satellites send these signals using various parts of the radio frequency spectrum. The spectrum available for use at each orbital location includes the following frequency bands in which most commercial satellite services are offered today:

Substantially all of the station-kept satellites in our fleet are designed to provide capacity using the C- and/or Ku-bands of this spectrum.

A geosynchronous satellite is referred to as geostationary, or station-kept, when it is operated within an assigned orbital control, or station-keeping box, which is defined by a specific range of latitudes and longitudes. Geostationary satellites revolve around the earth with a speed that corresponds to that of the earth’s rotation and appear to remain above a fixed point on the earth’s surface at all times. Geosynchronous satellites that are not station-kept are in inclined orbit. The daily north south motion of a satellite in inclined orbit exceeds the specified range of latitudes of its assigned station-keeping box, and the satellite appears to oscillate slowly, moving above and below the equator every day. An operator will typically operate a satellite in inclined orbit toward the end of its service life because the operator is able to save significant amounts of fuel by not controlling the north-south position of the satellite and is thereby able to substantially extend the service life of the satellite. The types of services and customers that can access an inclined orbit satellite have traditionally been limited due to the movement of the satellite relative to a fixed ground antenna. However, recent technology innovations now allow the use of inclined orbit capacity for certain applications. As a result, we anticipate demand for inclined orbit capacity may increase over the next few years if these applications are successfully introduced. As of December 31, 2015, eight of our satellites were operating in an inclined orbit, with most continuing to earn revenue beyond our original estimated life for each of these satellites.

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In-Orbit Satellites

We believe that our strong operational performance is due primarily to our satellite procurement and operations philosophy. Our operations and engineering staff is involved from the design through the decommissioning of each satellite that we procure. Our staff works at the manufacturers’ and launchers’ sites to monitor progress, allowing us to maintain close technical collaboration with our contractors during the process of designing, manufacturing and launching a satellite. We continue our engineering involvement throughout the operating lifetime of each satellite. Extensive monitoring of earth station operations and around-the-clock satellite control and network operations support ensure our consistent operational quality, as well as timely corrections when problems occur. In addition, we have in place contingency plans for technical problems that may occur during the lifetime of a satellite.

These features also contribute to the resilience of our network, which enables us to ensure the continuity of service that is important for our customers and to retain revenue in the event that we need to move customers to alternative capacity. The design flexibility of some of our satellites enables us to meet customer demand and respond to changing market conditions.

As of December 31, 2015, our in-orbit fleet of satellites had approximately 1,225 and 900 36-MHz equivalent transponders available for transmitting in the C-band and the Ku-band, respectively. These totals measure transponders on station-kept satellites. The average system fill factor for our satellites, which represents the percentage of our total available transponder capacity that is in use or that is reserved at a given time (including guaranteed reservations for service), was 75%, 75%, 75% and 76% in the quarters ended March 31, 2015; June 30, 2015; September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2015, respectively. The factors resulting in the trends in average system fill factor over this period were primarily related to a net decline of in-use transponders related to the release of restoration capacity following the resolution of an anomaly, the non-renewal and terminations of certain services and a decision to relocate a satellite, which resulted in it being temporarily out of service, partially offset by new and expanded customer services. Total available capacity decreased slightly over this period as a result of a new satellite launch offset by satellites deorbited and satellites temporarily out of service due to relocation at the end of the period.

The design life of a satellite is the length of time that the satellite’s hardware is designed by the manufacturer to remain operational under normal operating conditions. In contrast, a satellite’s orbital maneuver life is the length of time the satellite has enough fuel to remain operational. A satellite’s service life is based upon fuel levels and other considerations, including power. Satellites launched in the recent past are generally expected to remain in service for the lesser of maneuver life and 16 years. Satellites typically have enough fuel to maintain between 16 and 18 years of station-kept operations. The average remaining service life of our satellites was approximately 7.7 years as of December 31, 2015, weighted on the basis of nominally available capacity for the station-kept satellites we own.

In addition to these ordered satellites, we have custom payloads being built on third party-owned satellites, one of which will be known as IS-32e, a small Intelsat Epic ^NG payload, and another is IS-38. IS-32e will be located at 43.1°W; the satellite is planned for launch in the first quarter of 2017. A launch date is not yet set for IS-38, which will be located at 45°E. Further, we have a joint venture satellite, Horizons 3e, which is in development and will be located at 169°E; the satellite is planned for launch in 2018.

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Future Satellites

We would expect to replace other existing satellites, as necessary, with satellites that meet customer needs and that have a compelling economic rationale. We periodically conduct evaluations to determine the current and projected strategic and economic value of our existing and any planned satellites and to guide us in redeploying satellite resources as appropriate.

Network Operations and Current Ground Facilities

We control and operate each of our satellites and manage the communications services for which each satellite is used from the time of its initial deployment through the end of its operational life, and we believe that our technical skill in performing these critical operations differentiates us from our competition. We provide most of these services from our satellite operations centers in McLean, Virginia and Long Beach, California, and our customer service center in Ellenwood, Georgia. In the event of a natural disaster or other situation disabling one of the facilities, each satellite operations center has the functional ability to provide instantaneous restoration of services on behalf of the other, demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of our network. Utilizing state of the art satellite command and control hardware and software, our satellite operations centers analyze telemetry from our satellites in order to monitor their status and track their location.

Our satellite operations centers use a network of ground facilities to perform their functions. This network includes 19 earth stations that provide tracking, telemetry and commanding (“TT&C”) services for our satellites and various other earth stations worldwide. Through our ground facilities, we constantly monitor signal quality, protect bandwidth from piracy or other interference and maintain customer installed equipment.

Our customer service center located in Ellenwood, Georgia includes an RF Operations Center, a Managed Services Operations Center and an Intelsat Secured Operations Center. This facility is responsible for managing the communications services that we provide to our customers and is the first point of contact for customers needing assistance in using our network. We also maintain a back-up operations facility and data center a relatively short distance from our McLean, Virginia facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. This facility provides back-up emergency operational services in the event that our Ellenwood, Georgia customer service center experiences an interruption.

We have invested heavily in our fully integrated IntelsatOne terrestrial network which complements our satellite network. Our network includes teleport, leased fiber and network performance monitoring systems and enables us to provide end-to-end managed solutions to our customers. In addition to leased fiber connecting high-density routes, our ground network also features strategically located PoPs, which are drop-off points for our customers’ traffic that are close to major interconnection hubs for telecommunications applications, video transmissions and trunking to the Internet backbone. Our terrestrial network is an all IP network environment that results in improved ground support of high bandwidth applications such as HD video. The network architecture allows us to converge our media and network services terrestrial network infrastructures, resulting in reduced costs, and provides opportunities for generating additional revenue from existing and new customers by bundling combinations of media and network services products that can be offered through a single access circuit into our network.

Capacity Sparing and Backup and General Satellite Risk Management

As part of our satellite risk management, we continually evaluate, and design plans to mitigate, the areas of greatest risk within our fleet, especially for those satellites with known technical risks. We believe that the availability of spare transponder services capacity, together with the overlapping coverage areas of our satellites and flexible satellite design features described in—Our Network—Satellite Systems above, are important aspects of our ability to provide reliable service to our customers. In addition, these factors could help us to mitigate the financial impact to our operations attributable to the occurrence of a major satellite anomaly, including the loss of a satellite. Although we do not maintain backup for all of our transponder services operating capacity, we generally maintain some form of backup capacity for each satellite designated as being in primary operating service. Our restoration backup capacity may include any one or more of the following:

In addition, we provide some capacity on a preemptible basis and could preempt the use of this capacity to provide backup capacity in the event of a loss of a satellite.

We typically obtain launch insurance for our satellites before launch and will decide whether or not to obtain such insurance taking into consideration launch insurance rates, terms of available coverage and alternative risk management strategies, including the

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availability of backup satellites and transponders in the event of a launch failure. Launch insurance coverage is typically in an amount equal to the fully capitalized cost of the satellite, which generally includes the construction costs, the portion of the insurance premium related to launch, the cost of the launch services and capitalized interest (but may exclude any unpaid incentive payments to the manufacturer).

As of December 31, 2015, four of the satellites in our fleet were covered by in-orbit insurance. In-orbit insurance coverage may initially be for an amount comparable to launch insurance levels, generally decreases over time and is typically based on the declining book value of the satellite. We do not currently insure against lost revenue in the event of a total or partial loss of a satellite.

Satellite Health and Technology

Our satellite fleet is diversified by manufacturer and satellite type, and is generally healthy, with 99.998% availability of station-kept satellite capacity during the year ended December 31, 2015. We have experienced some technical problems with our current fleet but have been able to minimize the impact of these problems on our customers, our operations and our business in recent years. Many of these problems have been component failures and anomalies that have had little long-term impact to date on the overall transponder availability in our satellite fleet. All of our satellites have been designed to accommodate an anticipated rate of equipment failures with adequate redundancy to meet or exceed their orbital design lives, and to date, this redundancy design scheme has proven effective. After each anomaly we have generally restored services for our customers on the affected satellite, provided alternative capacity on other satellites in our fleet, or provided capacity that we purchased from other satellite operators.

Significant Anomalies

On January 14, 2005, our IS-804 satellite experienced a sudden and unexpected electrical power system anomaly that resulted in the total loss of the satellite. IS-804 was a Lockheed Martin 7000 series (the “LM 7000 series”) satellite, and as of December 31, 2015 we operated one other satellite in the LM 7000 series, IS-805, which is currently being relocated to a new orbital role. Based on the report of the failure review board that we established with Lockheed Martin Corporation, we believe that the IS-804 failure was not likely to have been caused by an IS-804 specific workmanship or hardware element, but was most likely caused by a high current event in the battery circuitry triggered by an electrostatic discharge that propagated to cause the sudden failure of the high voltage power system. We therefore believe that although this risk exists for our other LM 7000 series satellite, the risk of any individual satellite having a similar anomaly is low.

On April 5, 2010, our Galaxy 15 satellite experienced an anomaly resulting in our inability to command the satellite. Galaxy 15 is a Star-2 satellite manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation. On December 23, 2010, we recovered command of the spacecraft and we have since uploaded flight software code to protect against future anomalies of this type. As of December 31, 2015, Galaxy 15 continues to provide normal service.

On April 22, 2011, our IS-28 satellite, formerly known as the Intelsat New Dawn satellite, was launched into orbit. Subsequent to the launch, the satellite experienced an anomaly during the deployment of its west antenna reflector, which controls communications in the C-band frequency. The anomaly had not been experienced previously on other STAR satellites manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation, including those in our fleet. The New Dawn joint venture filed a partial loss claim with its insurers relating to the C-band antenna reflector anomaly and all of the insurance proceeds from the partial loss claim were received in 2011. The Ku-band antenna reflector deployed and that portion of the satellite is operating as planned, entering service in June 2011. A Failure Review Board established to determine the cause of the anomaly, completed its investigation in July 2011 and concluded that the deployment anomaly of the C-band reflector was most likely due to a malfunction of the reflector sunshield. As a result, the sunshield interfered with the ejection release mechanism, and prevented the deployment of the C-band antenna. The Failure Review Board also recommended corrective actions for Orbital Sciences Corporation satellites not yet launched to prevent reoccurrence of the anomaly. Appropriate corrective actions were implemented on IS-18, which was successfully launched on October 5, 2011, and on IS-23, which was launched in October 2012.

During launch operations of IS-19 on June 1, 2012, the satellite experienced damage to its south solar array. Although both solar arrays are deployed, the power available to the satellite is less than is required to operate 100% of the payload capacity. The Independent Oversight Board (“IOB”) formed by SSL and Sea Launch to investigate the solar array deployment anomaly. The IOB concluded that the anomaly occurred before the spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle, during the ascent phase of the launch, and originated in one of the satellite’s two solar array wings due to a rare combination of factors in the panel fabrication and unrelated to the launch vehicle. While the satellite is operational, the anomaly resulted in structural and electrical damage to one solar array wing, which reduced the amount of power available for payload operation. Additionally, we filed a partial loss claim with our insurers relating to the solar array anomaly. We received $84.8 million of insurance proceeds related to the claim in 2013. As planned, IS-19 followed IS-8 at 166°E, in August 2012.

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On February 1, 2013, the launch vehicle for our IS-27 satellite failed shortly after liftoff and the satellite was completely destroyed. A Failure Review Board was established and subsequently concluded that the launch failed due to the mechanical failure of one of the first stage engine’s thrust control components. The satellite and launch vehicle were fully insured, and we received $406.2 million of insurance proceeds in 2013.

Other Anomalies

We have also identified five other types of common anomalies among the satellite models in our fleet, which have had an operational impact in the past and could, if they materialize, have an impact in the future. These are:

SCP Failures. Many of our satellites use an on-board SCP to provide automatic on-board control of many operational functions. SCPs are a critical component in the operation of such satellites. Each such satellite has a backup SCP, which is available in the event of a failure of the primary SCP. Certain BSS 601 satellites have experienced SCP failures. The risk of SCP failure appears to decline as these satellites age.

As of December 31, 2015, we operated one BSS 601 satellite, IS-26. This satellite was identified as having heightened susceptibility to the SCP problem. IS-26 has been in continuous operation since 1997. Both primary and backup SCPs on this satellite are monitored regularly and remain fully functional. Accordingly, we believe it is unlikely that additional SCP failures will occur; however, should they occur, we do not anticipate an interruption in business or early replacement of this satellite as a result.

BSS 601 HP XIPS. The BSS 601 HP satellite uses XIPS as its primary propulsion system. There are two separate XIPS on each BSS 601 HP, each one of which is capable of maintaining the satellite in its orbital position. The satellite also has a completely independent chemical propulsion system as a backup to the XIPS. As a result, the failure of a XIPS on a BSS 601 HP typically would have no effect on the satellite’s performance or its operating life. However, the failure of both XIPS would require the use of the backup chemical propulsion system, which could result in a shorter operating life for the satellite depending on the amount of chemical fuel remaining. XIPS failures do not typically result in a catastrophic failure of the satellite or affect the communications capability of the satellite.

As of December 31, 2015, we operated four BSS 601 HP satellites, IS-5, IS-9, and IS-10 are now in inclined-orbit, and Galaxy 13/Horizons-1. Galaxy 13/Horizons-1 continues to have both XIPS available as its primary propulsion system. IS-5, IS-9 and IS-10 have experienced the failure of both XIPS and are operating on their backup chemical propulsion systems. IS-5 was redeployed in 2012 following its replacement by IS-8, which was subsequently replaced by IS-19. Also in 2012, IS-9 and IS-10 were redeployed following their replacements by IS-21 and IS-20, respectively. No assurance can be given that we will not have further XIPS failures that result in shortened satellite lives. We have decommissioned three satellites that had experienced failure of both XIPS. IS-6B was replaced by IS-11 during the first quarter of 2008, Galaxy 10R was replaced by Galaxy 18 during the second quarter of 2008, and Galaxy 4R was decommissioned in March 2009.

BSS 702 HP Solar Arrays. All of our satellites have solar arrays that power their operating systems and transponders and recharge the batteries used when solar power is not available. Solar array performance typically degrades over time in a predictable manner. Additional power margins and other operational flexibility are designed into satellites to allow for such degradation without loss of performance or operating life. Certain BSS 702 HP satellites have experienced greater than anticipated degradation of their solar arrays resulting from the design of the solar arrays. Such degradation, if continued, results in a shortened operating life of a satellite or the need to reduce the use of the communications payload.

As of December 31, 2015, we operated three BSS 702 HP satellites, two of which are affected by accelerated solar array degradation, Galaxy 11 and IS-1R. Service to customers has not been affected, and we expect that both of these satellites will continue to serve customers until we replace or supplement them with new satellites. Along with the manufacturer, we continually monitor the problem to determine its cause and its expected effect. Due to this continued degradation, Galaxy 11’s estimated end of service life is in the first quarter of 2019 and IS-1R’s estimated end of service life is in the second quarter of 2017. Galaxy 11 is currently operating in a primary orbital role and was replaced by IS-34 in 2015. IS-1R was redeployed following its replacement by IS-14. The third

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BSS 702 HP satellite that we operated as of December 31, 2015, Galaxy 3C, was launched after the solar array anomaly was identified, and it has a substantially different solar array design intended to eliminate the problem. This satellite has been in service since September 2002 and has not experienced similar degradation problems.

SSL FS 1300 Electrical Anomalies. We have experienced past anomalies in the electrical distribution systems of certain SSL FS 1300 satellites. In November 2004, our Galaxy 27 satellite experienced a sudden anomaly in the north electrical distribution system resulting in loss of control and customer service interruptions. We determined that the satellite lost some degree of functionality and as of December 31, 2015, Galaxy 27 is kept in inclined orbit. In June 2008, our Galaxy 26 satellite experienced an unexpected electrical distribution anomaly which significantly reduced the power generating capability, resulting in some customer service interruptions. In June 2014, Galaxy 26 was decommissioned. With respect to both of these satellites, it was determined that the anomalies were likely due to a design flaw which is affected by a number of parameters and in some extreme cases can result in an electrical system anomaly. Along with SSL, we continue to monitor this problem. As of December 31, 2015, we operated one other SSL FS 1300 satellite, IS-8, which contains this design flaw. IS-8 has been in service since 1998 and has not experienced an electrical distribution anomaly. We believe that while the risk of an electrical distribution anomaly still exists for IS-8, this risk diminishes over time.

SSL gyroscopes. All of our satellites use gyroscopes to provide 3-axes attitude information during orbit inclination maneuvers. Certain SSL satellites use gyroscopes that have been identified as having a higher probability of failing. There are four gyroscopes on each of these SSL satellites, three of which are needed for normal operation, and the fourth is a spare. The failure of a single gyroscope on a given satellite would have no effect on the satellite’s performance or its operating life. A failure of two or more gyroscopes on a given satellite would require us to use an alternative method for inclination control. This alternative method would likely result in a reduction in the remaining life of the satellite. As of December 31, 2015, we operated 16 SSL satellites that use these gyroscopes, four of which are in inclined orbit. While in inclined orbit, inclination maneuvers are no longer required. Of the 12 satellites in station-kept orbit, one satellite had two gyro failures and is being operated through an alternative method for inclination control, five satellites have experienced the failure of a single gyroscope, while the other six satellites have not experienced any gyroscope failure.

Competition

We compete in the communications market for the provision of video, data and voice connectivity worldwide. Communications services are provided using various communications technologies, including satellite networks, which provide services as a substitute for, or as a complement to, the capabilities of terrestrial networks. We also face competition from suppliers of terrestrial communications capacity.

We operate at a global scale. Our competition includes providers of fixed satellite services of varying size. We compete with other satellite operators for both point-to-multipoint and point-to-point services.

We also compete with providers of terrestrial fiber optic cable capacity on certain routes and networks, principally for point-to-point services. As a result, we have been experiencing, and expect to continue to experience, a decline in certain of our revenues due to the build-out of fiber optic cable capacity. However, we believe that satellites have advantages over fiber optic cables in certain regions and for certain applications. The primary use of fiber optic cable is carrying high-volume communications traffic from point to point, and fiber capacity is available at substantially lower prices than satellite capacity once operational. Consequently, the growth in fiber optic cable capacity has led voice, data and video contribution customers that require service between major city hubs to migrate from satellite to fiber optic cable. However, satellite capacity remains competitive for signals that need to be transmitted beyond the main termination points of fiber optic cable for point-to-multipoint transmissions, such as for video broadcast, and for signals seeking to bypass congested terrestrial networks. Satellite capacity is also competitive in parts of the world where providing fiber optic cable capacity is not yet cost-effective, reliable or is physically not feasible. We believe that in those applications and regions where we do compete with fiber optic cable companies, the basis for competition is primarily price. See—Our Sector for a description of the FSS sector generally and the advantages of satellite communications.

Recently, a number of providers of commercial satellite services, selling traditional and high throughput capacity, entered the African market, significantly increasing the amount of fixed satellite services capacity. Concurrent to this market dynamic, the region benefitted from newly established sea and land fiber connectivity. These two events have resulted in heightened competition in this region, the effect of which has been significant price reductions for both fiber and satellite connectivity used for fixed and mobile data networking applications. As a result, Intelsat’s revenues have been reduced as services were terminated by customers moving to fiber alternatives, and also due to lower pricing. We continue to adjust our strategies with some of our largest network services customers to ensure that they can remain price competitive in the sectors they serve.

We also face competition from resellers of satellite and fiber capacity. Resellers purchase FSS or fiber capacity from current or future providers and then resell the capacity to their customers.

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Regulation

As an operator of a privately owned global satellite system, we are subject to U.S. government regulation, regulation by foreign national telecommunications authorities and the ITU frequency coordination process and regulations.

U.S. Government Regulation

FCC Regulation . The majority of the satellites in our current constellation are licensed and regulated by the FCC. We have final or temporary FCC authorization for all of our U.S.-licensed operating satellites. The special temporary authorizations (“STAs”) in effect relating to our satellites cover various time periods, and thus the number held at any given time varies. In some cases, we have sought STAs because we needed temporary operational authority while we are awaiting grant of identical permanent authority. In others, we sought STAs because the activity was temporary in nature, and thus no permanent authority was needed. Historically we have been able to obtain the STAs that we have needed on a timely basis. FCC satellite licenses have a fifteen-year term. At the end of a license term, we can request an extension to continue operating a satellite. In addition, our FCC satellite licenses that relate to use of those orbital locations and associated frequencies that were transferred to the United States at the time of our privatization in July 2001 are conditioned on our remaining a signatory to the Public Services Agreement with ITSO. Furthermore, any transfer of these licenses by us to a successor-in-interest is only permitted if such successor-in-interest has undertaken to perform our obligations under the Public Services Agreement. Some of our authorizations contain waivers of technical regulations. Many of our technical waivers were required when our satellites were initially licensed by the United States at privatization in 2001 because, as satellites previously operated by an intergovernmental entity, they had not been built in compliance with certain U.S. regulations. Since privatization, several replacement satellites for satellites licensed at privatization also have needed technical waivers as they are technically similar to the satellites they are replacing.

Changes to our satellite system generally require prior FCC approval. From time to time, we have pending applications for permanent or temporary changes in orbital locations, frequencies and technical design. From time to time, we also file applications for replacement or additional satellites. Replacement satellite applications are eligible for streamlined processing if they seek authority for the same orbital location, frequency bands and coverage area as an existing satellite and will be brought into use at approximately the same time, but no later than, the existing satellite is retired. The FCC processes satellite applications for new orbital locations or frequencies on a first come, first served basis. Under recently revised rules that are expected to become effective in 2016, the FCC will require licensees of new, non-replacement, geostationary satellites to post a bond and to comply with a milestone to launch and operate the satellite within five years of the license grant. The bond will start at $1 million and will increase, pro rata, in proportion to the time that has elapsed since the license was granted to the time of the launch and operate milestone. At the end of the five-year period, the bond amount will be $3 million. A satellite licensee that does not satisfy the launch and operate milestone will lose its license and must forfeit the bond absent circumstances warranting a milestone extension under the FCC’s rules and policies. An operator that elects to relinquish its license prior to the five-year launch and operate milestone will forfeit the amount of accrued bond as of the date the license is relinquished. We hold other FCC licenses, including earth station licenses associated with technical facilities located in several states. We must pay FCC filing fees in connection with our space station and earth station applications, and we must also pay annual regulatory fees to the FCC. Violations of the FCC’s rules can result in various sanctions including fines, loss of authorizations or the denial of applications for new authorizations or the renewal of existing authorizations.

We are not regulated as a common carrier for most of our activities. Therefore, we are not subject to rate regulation or the obligation not to discriminate among customers, and we operate most of our activities with minimal governmental scrutiny of our business decisions. One of our subsidiaries is regulated as a common carrier. Common carriers are subject to FCC requirements, which include: traffic and revenue reports, international circuit status reports, international interconnected private line reports, notification and approval for foreign carrier affiliations, filing of contracts with international carriers, annual financial reports, equal employment opportunity reports, assistance for law enforcement and maintenance of customer billing records for 18 months. We currently qualify for exemptions from several of these reporting requirements. In addition, other common carrier requirements (e.g. certain foreign ownership restrictions) do not apply to us because our common carrier affiliate does not hold any FCC spectrum licenses.

U.S. Export Control Requirements and Sanctions Regulation . Intelsat must comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations as follows:

Under the ongoing Export Control Reform (“ECR”) effort, authorized by Congress and the President, the control of commercial communications satellites along with their associated ground control equipment, related software, and technology was moved, effective November 10, 2014, from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) to the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). Intelsat continues with the transition of regulatory licensing requirements created by this move. Originally there was a two year timeframe allowed for companies to make this change; this has since been extended to allow an additional year for the transition. Intelsat has moved all programs to EAR authorizations, as needed, except those that include Airbus because of issues internal to Airbus. Intelsat continues to work with Airbus to resolve this issue.

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The Arms Export Control Act, implemented by ITAR and administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”), regulates the export of certain satellites with defined military and government end use capabilities and characteristics, certain associated hardware, defense services, and technical information relating to satellites to non-U.S. persons (including satellite manufacturers, component suppliers, launch services providers, insurers, customers, Intelsat employees, and other non-U.S. persons). Intelsat has begun the regulatory transition from the ITAR to the EAR, and little of our controlled exports currently remain under our obtained ITAR licenses. Standard satellite operations were de-controlled as part of the regulatory update, and that technology is now being transferred without license use. Certain of Intelsat’s contracts for consulting, manufacture, launch, and insurance of Intelsat’s and third party satellites involve the export to non-U.S. persons of technical data and/or hardware; these exports are those that were regulated by the ITAR, are now controlled under the EAR, and other than the Airbus TAAs noted above have been transitioned to EAR authorizations. We believe that we have obtained all of the ITAR authorizations currently needed in order to fulfill our obligations under contracts with non-U.S. entities, and we believe that the terms of these licenses are sufficient given the scope and duration of the contracts to which they pertain.

The Export Administration Act/International Emergency Economic Powers Act, implemented by the EAR and administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”), regulates exports of non-ITAR, dual-use, controlled equipment, which now includes commercial communications satellites, associated ground equipment, related software, and technology. As a result of the ECR regulatory update, Intelsat now uses EAR allowed licensing exceptions for many of our export controlled programs and EAR licenses when required. The EAR also control non-ITAR equipment exported to earth stations in our ground network located outside of the United States and to customers as needed. It is our practice to obtain all licenses necessary, or correctly document the license exception authorized, for the furnishing of original or spare equipment for the operation of our TT&C ground stations, other network stations, and customer locations in a timely manner in order to facilitate the shipment of this equipment when needed.

Trade sanctions laws and regulations administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) regulate the provision of services to certain countries subject to U.S. trade sanctions. As required, Intelsat holds the authorizations needed to provide satellite capacity and related administrative services to U.S.-sanctioned countries.

U.S. Department of Defense Security Clearances. To participate in classified U.S. government programs, we entered into a proxy agreement with the U.S. government that allows one of our subsidiaries to obtain security clearance from the U.S. Department of Defense as required under the national security laws and regulations of the United States. Such a proxy agreement is required to insulate the subsidiary performing this work from inappropriate foreign influence and control by Intelsat S.A., a Luxembourg company with significant non-U.S. investment and employees. Security clearances are subject to ongoing scrutiny by the issuing agency, as well as renewal every five years. Intelsat must maintain the security clearances obtained from the U.S. Department of Defense, or else lose the ability to perform our obligations under any classified U.S. government contracts to which our subsidiary is a party. Under those circumstances, the U.S. government would have the right to terminate our contracts requiring access to classified information and we would not be able to enter into new classified contracts. Compliance with the proxy agreement is regularly monitored by the U.S. Department of Defense and reviewed at least annually, and if we materially violate the terms of the proxy agreement, the subsidiary holding the security clearances may be suspended or debarred from performing any government contracts, whether classified or unclassified. Our current proxy agreement is subject to extension every five years with the agreement of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Regulation by Non-U.S. National Telecommunications Authorities

U.K. Regulation . The United Kingdom is the licensing jurisdiction for the IS-12, IS-26 and Galaxy 27 satellites, as well as the BSS portion of the Ku-band on the Intelsat 805 satellite. Satellite operators in the United Kingdom are regulated by the U.K.’s Office of Communications (“Ofcom”) and by the U.K. Space Agency (“UKSA”).

Papua New Guinea Regulation . The National Information & Communications Technology Authority of Papua New Guinea (“NICTA”) regulates the use of certain spectrum and orbital resources associated with the operation of the IS-26 and Galaxy 23 satellites and with future satellites. We are required to pay annual fees to NICTA in connection with our use of the orbital locations at which these satellites operate. In 2003, the FCC added the C-band payload of the Galaxy 23 satellite to its “Permitted Space Station List,” enabling use of the payload to provide non-DTH services in the United States.

German Regulation . We hold licenses from the BNetzA for several earth stations in Germany, as well as authorizations to use spectrum and orbital resources associated with the operation of the IS-10 and IS-12 satellites and with future satellites.

Australian Regulation.  We hold licenses from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (“ACMA”) for several earth stations in Australia, as well as a Carrier License.

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South African Regulation . We hold a license from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (“ICASA”) for an earth station in South Africa.

Japan Regulation . We hold licenses from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for several earth stations in Japan, as well as a Carrier registration. We and JSAT are the sole members of Horizons, and in 2002 the Japanese telecommunications ministry authorized Horizons to operate the Ku-band payload on the Galaxy 13/Horizons-1 satellite. In 2003, the FCC added this Ku-band payload to its “Permitted Space Station List,” enabling Horizons to use the payload to provide non-DTH services in the United States. In May 2004, the FCC expanded this authority to include one-way DTH services. We are the exclusive owner of the C-band payload on Galaxy 13/Horizons-1, which the FCC has licensed us to operate.

Other National Telecommunications Authorities . As a provider of satellite capacity, we are also subject to the national communications and broadcasting laws and regulations of many other countries in which we operate. In addition, in some cases our ability to operate a satellite in a non-U.S. jurisdiction also arises from a contractual arrangement with a third party. Some countries require us to obtain a license or other form of written authorization from the regulator prior to offering satellite capacity services. We have obtained these licenses or written authorizations in all countries that have required us to obtain them. As satellites are launched or relocated, we determine whether such licenses or written authorizations are required and, if so, we obtain them. Most countries allow authorized telecommunications providers to own their own transmission facilities and to purchase satellite capacity without restriction, facilitating customer access to our services. Other countries maintain strict monopoly regimes or otherwise regulate the provision of our services. In order to provide services in these countries, we may need to negotiate an operating agreement with a monopoly entity that covers the types of services to be offered by each party, the contractual terms for service and each party’s rates. As we have developed our ground network and expanded our service offerings, we have been required to obtain additional licenses and authorizations. To date, we believe that we have identified and complied with all of the regulatory requirements applicable to us in connection with our ground network and expanded services.

The International Telecommunication Union Frequency Coordination Process and Associated Regulations

Our use of orbital locations is subject to the frequency coordination and recording process of the International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”). In order to protect satellite networks from harmful radio frequency interference from other satellite networks, the ITU maintains a Master International Frequency Register (“MIFR”) of radio frequency assignments and their associated orbital locations. Each ITU notifying administration is required by treaty to give notice of, coordinate and record its proposed use of radio frequency assignments and associated orbital locations with the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau.

When a frequency assignment is recorded in the MIFR, the ITU publishes this information so that all potential users of frequencies and orbital locations are aware of the need to protect the recorded assignments associated with a given orbital location from subsequent or nonconforming interfering uses by Member States of the ITU. The ITU’s Radio Regulations do not contain mandatory dispute resolution or enforcement mechanisms. The Radio Regulations’ arbitration procedure is voluntary and neither the ITU specifically, nor international law generally, provides clear remedies if this voluntary process fails. Only nations have full standing as ITU members. Therefore, we must rely on governments to represent our interests before the ITU, including obtaining new rights to use orbital locations and resolving disputes relating to the ITU’s regulations.

Once the FCC’s new rules become effective, an operator may submit an ITU satellite network filing to the FCC for forwarding to the ITU prior to the operator filing a complete FCC license application. Submission of such an ITU filing will reserve for the operator a place in the FCC’s first come, first served licensing queue provided the operator posts a $500,000 bond. If the operator fails within two years to file a complete FCC license application for the orbital location, frequencies and polarization proposed in the ITU satellite network filing, the bond will be forfeited.

Environmental Matters

Our operations are subject to various laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, including those governing the management, storage and disposal of hazardous materials and the cleanup of contamination. As an owner or operator of property and in connection with current and historical operations at some of our sites, we could incur significant costs, including cleanup costs, fines, sanctions and third-party claims, as a result of violations of or liabilities under environmental laws and regulations. For instance, some of our operations require continuous power supply, and, as a result, current and past operations at our teleport and other technical facilities include fuel storage and batteries for back-up power generators. We believe, however, that our operations are in substantial compliance with environmental laws and regulations.

Intelsat S.A. is a holding company with 56 subsidiaries incorporated in the U.S., Luxembourg, Bermuda, Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, France, Germany, Gibraltar, India, Ireland, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. All of the aforementioned subsidiaries are wholly-owned by us. A list of our subsidiaries as of December 31, 2015 is set forth in Exhibit 8.1 to this Annual Report.

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We lease approximately 212,572 square feet of office space in McLean, Virginia for our permanent U.S. administrative headquarters and primary satellite operations center in a new building that was completed in June 2014. The building also houses the majority of our sales and marketing support staff and other administrative personnel. The lease for the building expires on July 31, 2029.

We own a facility in Ellenwood, Georgia in which our primary customer service center is located, together with our Atlanta Teleport. The facility has approximately 129,000 square feet of office space and operations facilities, which are based in two buildings and multiple antenna shelters and 65 antennas on the property. See Item 4B—Business Overview—Our Network—Network Operations and Current Ground Facilities for a description of this facility.

We also lease approximately 33,000 square feet in Bethesda, Maryland where the employees of our Intelsat General subsidiary were located. The lease expires on January 31, 2017. We have subleased 14,068 square of the space and continue to market for sublease the balance.

Our backup satellite operations center is located at a facility that we own in Long Beach, California, which includes approximately 68,875 square feet for administrative and operational facilities. We have entered into two lease agreements for 21,549 square feet with two third party tenants.

We use a worldwide ground network to operate our satellite fleet and to manage the communications services that we provide to our customers. This network is comprised of 54 owned and leased earth station and teleport facilities around the world, including 19 teleports that allows us to perform TT&C services.

The eight teleports in our ground network that we own are located in Hagerstown, Maryland, Ellenwood, Georgia, Castle Rock, Colorado, Fillmore, Napa and Riverside, California, Paumalu, Hawaii and Fuchsstadt, Germany. We lease facilities at 46 other locations for satellite and commercial operations worldwide. We also contract with the owners of some of these facilities for the provision of additional services. The locations of other earth stations in our ground network include Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, South Korea, South Africa, French Polynesia, Taiwan, Uruguay and the United Arab Emirates. Our network also consists of the leased communications links that connect the earth stations to our satellite operations center located at our McLean, Virginia location and to our back-up operations facility.

We have established PoPs connected by leased fiber at key traffic exchange points around the world, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, McLean, Hong Kong, and London. We lease our facilities at these traffic exchange points. We have also established video PoPs connected by leased fiber at key video exchange points around the world, including Los Angeles, Denver, New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, Palo Alto, and London. We lease our facilities at these video exchange points. We use our teleports and PoPs in combination with our satellite network to provide our customers with managed data and video services.

We lease office space in Luxembourg and London, England. Our Luxembourg office serves as the global headquarters for us and our Luxembourg parents and subsidiaries. Our London office houses the employees of Intelsat Global Sales and Marketing Ltd., our sales and marketing subsidiary, and administrative support, and functions as our global sales headquarters.

We also lease office space in Florida, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Senegal and the United Arab Emirates for our local sales and marketing and administrative support offices.

The leases relating to our TT&C earth stations, teleports, PoPs and office space expire at various times. We do not believe that any such properties are individually material to our business or operations, and we expect that we could find suitable properties to replace such locations if the leases were not renewed at the end of their respective terms.