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Another satellite to replace wayward pager relay
Illustration of Galaxy IV orbiting the Earth Some pager, TV service restored
May 20, 1998
Web posted at: 3:13 p.m. EDT (1913 GMT)In this story:
(CNN) -- Disrupted pager and television signals were slowly being restored on Wednesday after a wayward satellite kept millions of people from communicating with one another in the United States and the Caribbean. But it was not clear when full service would return for all those who lost it.
The problem also interrupted the operations of some bank automated teller machines (ATMs) and systems that allow credit card payments at gas stations and food stores.
Some public radio stations went off the air for lack of programming.
Libby Barnett, of CNN Satellites, explains the problem
2 min. VXtreme video
The owner of the satellite started transferring services to other satellites and decided to move another satellite into position in orbit.
The Galaxy IV satellite stopped relaying pager messages and media feeds at about 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday when its onboard control system and a backup switch failed and the satellite rotated out of position.
As of midday on Wednesday, technicians had been unable to restore its orientation toward Earth, said Robert Bednarek, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Greenwich, Connecticut-based PanAmSat, which owns the satellite.
He said the orbit of another satellite, Galaxy VI, will be changed over the next six days so it can take over operations of the crippled Galaxy IV.
Pager problems
A majority of pager companies rely on Galaxy IV.
Scott Baradell, a spokesman for PageNet, one of several paging companies whose services were interrupted, estimated that 80 to 90 percent of the 40 million to 45 million U.S. pager users lost service.
By midday Wednesday, PageNet had rerouted some of its service. Coverage was partially restored to a number of major cities but full coverage had not resumed in any metropolitan market.
CNN Interactive provides news headlines and other information via pagers to some PageNet customers.
Paging services' voice-mail function was still operating, but pagers were not beeping or vibrating to indicate a message was received. People with pagers must call in to see if any voice-mail messages were recorded.
"This is the first time in 35 years that pagers have gone silent," said John D. Beletic, chairman and chief executive officer of Dallas-based PageMart Wireless Inc. "Virtually all paging companies have been affected."
PageMart announced on its Web page on Wednesday that service had been moved to backup satellites for customers in major cities including Boston, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Philadelphia, and it was working to move service for other customers.
Baradell said it would take about a day for his company to finish switching service for most of its 10.5 million customers.
The only customers not affected were those whose connections are through ground-based radio transmitters, Baradell said.
TV troubles, too
Several television and radio networks also use Galaxy IV to transmit feeds to their affiliates. National Public Radio said it was unable to deliver its programming to affiliates via satellite but continued to broadcast on its Web page.
Six National Public Radio affiliates in West Virginia shut down because they received their feeds via the stricken satellite.
CBS radio and television, the Chinese Television Network and the CNN Airport Network also send feeds through Galaxy IV. In addition, news stories sent electronically by the Reuters news service were not being received by news organizations and other customers.
CNN Airport Network was operating normally on Wednesday morning after the feed from Atlanta to airports around the country were rerouted to the Galaxy 3-R satellite.
CBS relied most heavily on Galaxy IV but said it had a backup plan switch over to the Galaxy 7 satellite.
The problem caused a disruption lasting a few seconds during the beginning of Tuesday's 6:30 p.m. EDT feed of the CBS Evening News. The image of anchorman Dan Rather was frozen on the screen while the audio continued normally. ABC News had a similar disruption at the same time. The networks switched to backup signals.
NBC reported its operations have not been affected.
Doctors on call on alert
The pager problem was of particular concern to doctors. Dr. Steve Dickens, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said he was spending the night at the hospital because of the problem.
"I have to tell (the hospital) what to do and how to respond," he said. "We have a good support staff, but protocol says they can't make a decision without first calling the doctor."
Dickens also talked to his brother, an obstetrician, about the pager problem. "He says it's a nightmare," Dickens said. "He's got eight ladies in labor right now. Thank God for cell phones."
Galaxy IV was launched in June 1993 aboard an Ariane rocket. Its coverage area is primarily the United States and the Caribbean, according to PanAmSat's World Wide Web sites.
PanAmSat is 81 percent owned by Los Angeles-based Hughes Communications Inc.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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