Satellite operator Intelsat SA said yesterday that it filed for chapter 11 protection, Reuters reported. The company listed assets and liabilities in the range of $10 billion to $50 billion, according to a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Intelsat also said that it had received $1 billion in debtor-in-possession financing. The company’s chapter 11 filing comes more than a month after it suspended its 2020 outlook and said it would delay filing its first-quarter results. Intelsat is among a number of companies that will participate in the accelerated clearing of C-band spectrum under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order to support a build-out of 5G wireless infrastructure in the U.S. “To meet the FCC’s accelerated clearing deadlines and ultimately be eligible to receive $4.87 billion of accelerated relocation payments, Intelsat needs to spend more than $1 billion on clearing activities,” the Luxembourg-based company said in a statement. Intelsat General, which serves the company’s U.S. commercial, government and allied military customers, is not part of the chapter 11 proceedings, the company said.
