Eurobird was a series of

satellites A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientif ...

owned and operated by

Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it has been the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Its subsidiary E ...

. The Eurobird satellites provided broadcasting and telecommunication services primarily to the Western and Central European region from orbital positions of 9, 25.5 and 33 degrees East. The Eurobird brand was phased out on 1 March 2012, with the satellites becoming part of Eutelsat's main fleet in a company-wide rebranding. Eurobirds still in operation: * Eutelsat 33C (formerly Eurobird 1 and Eutelsat 28A), located at 33° East, carries no services at the moment. * Eutelsat 25B / Es'hail (formerly Eurobird 2), located at 25.5° East, was formerly Hot Bird 5 at 13° East. It is more commonly referred to as Arabsat 2D, and carries mostly

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

television. * Eutelsat 33A (formerly Eurobird 3), located at 33° East, mainly used for

satellite internet Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites; if it can sustain high speeds, it is termed satellite broadband. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual use ...

access. *Eutelsat 9A (formerly Eurobird 9A), located at 9° East, carries the German KabelKiosk package, the Russian Platform HD package, and

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...

Europe. Eurobirds no longer in operation: * Eutelsat 4A (formerly Eurobird 4A), located at 4° East since June 2009, retired in 2012. Pending investigation of damage caused to the craft, the retired Hot Bird 3 will become Eurobird 10, positioned at 10E alongside Eutelsat W1.

List of providers

References

Communications satellites {{France-spacecraft-stub