PanAmSat Partners With Nuera Communications to Debut Satellite-Based Voice Over IP Services.

GENEVA, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 11, 1999--

Packet Voice Telephony Service Employing PanAmSat's

Atlantic Ocean Region Satellites and Advanced Nuera Communications

Technology Debuts at Telecom '99 Exhibition

PanAmSat Corporation (NASDAQ: SPOT) today announced that the company has teamed with Nuera Communications, Inc., a leader in integrated voice and data systems, for the satellite delivery of packet voice telephony services throughout the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The advanced satellite-based voice over IP (VoIP) platform employs PanAmSat's Atlantic Ocean Region satellites, the company's Homestead, Fla., teleport and Nuera Communications' F200ip VoIP gateway. PanAmSat is providing continuous demonstrations of the service, which is offered through the company's SPOTel(TM) line of voice and data services, for attendees of the Telecom '99 exhibition this week.

"Voice over IP offers telecommunications carriers a cost-effective alternative solution to the public switched telephone network by providing high-quality voice services utilizing the Internet Protocol. In addition, satellites maintain the Quality of Service by avoiding the congested public network and transmitting packet voice signals over pure IP rather than the Internet," said Alvaro T. Gazzolo, PanAmSat's senior vice president, Atlantic Ocean Region. "By combining the company's comprehensive, state-of-the-art satellite technology with Nuera's industry-leading VoIP hardware, PanAmSat is well-positioned to meet the strong demand for IP-based telecommunications services throughout the Atlantic Ocean Region."

"This relationship with PanAmSat better enables Nuera to meet demand in the fast-growing IP telephony market," said Steve Visconti, Nuera Communications, vice president of sales. "Linking satellite services with Nuera's IP products provides a comprehensive solution set for our current and potential customers."

VoIP consists of the transmission of voice information in compressed digital packets using the Internet Protocol rather than the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network.

PanAmSat is demonstrating the service and technology this week at the Telecom '99 exhibition. The demonstration employs capacity aboard PanAmSat's PAS-3 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite. Attendees are able to place calls from two demonstration telephone booths linked to a Nuera F200ip VoIP gateway, which compresses and splits the voice signals into packets for transmission to the Homestead teleport via PAS-3. The teleport then assembles the packets and routes the signals to their final destinations along the public switched telephone network, utilizing the F200ip VoIP gateway and a switch.

PanAmSat's new satellite-based VoIP platform utilizes Nuera's F200D unit, consisting of eight award-winning F200ip VoIP gateways, each capable of supporting digital transmissions up to a full E1, or 2.048 Megabytes per second, for voice, fax and modem traffic. The unit, which compresses and processes the voice signals into discrete packets, is located at PanAmSat's Homestead teleport outside Miami, Fla. The facility provides gateway services for the platform via an international gateway switch, directing traffic to and from the IP telephony network as well as transmitting and receiving packet voice signals via the PAS-1, PAS-3 and PAS-5 satellites. Services are provided over the satellites on a per-minute basis, using digital single-channel-per-carrier (SCPC) satellite links to interconnect to VoIP nodes equipped with compatible Nuera technology. PanAmSat and Nuera Communications will market the service and technology together.

PanAmSat will offer VoIP services through the company's SPOTel line of voice and data services for telecommunications service providers and corporations. SPOTel is PanAmSat's solution to meet the demand for switched voice services and digital data links. The service offers on-demand, dedicated, international voice and data services anywhere within the PanAmSat satellite system, employing either SCPC or demand assigned multiple access (DAMA) platforms that allow telecommunications carriers and companies to create private telephony networks.

Nuera Communications is the leading provider of high-quality packet voice communications systems and technology for voice/fax/data/video networking over frame relay, IP and circuit-switched networks. A co-founder of the Voice over IP Forum and member of the Frame Relay Forum, Nuera serves carrier, corporate and OEM customers with industry-leading DSP-based solutions that optimize bandwidth utilization while maintaining communications quality for voice, fax, data, signaling, modem and video traffic. For additional information, please visit Nuera's web site at http://www.nuera.com.

PanAmSat is the world's leading commercial provider of satellite-based communications services. The company operates a global network of 19 satellites supported by PanAmSat professionals on five continents. These resources enable PanAmSat to provide video and telecommunications services to hundreds of customers worldwide. PanAmSat plans to launch seven additional satellites by mid-2001. For more information on the company and its services, visit the PanAmSat web site at http://www.panamsat.com.