From what I gathered from PanAmSat's NOC, they lost contact with Galaxy 4's primary and backup controllers, but are still in communication with it via omnimode. They've turned off power to the payload to conserve energy, and are suggesting to people to implement their contingency plans.
MobileComm apparently has plans to use a backup satellite, but they don't expect their service to be online for another 7 or 8 hours. -G On Tue, 19 May 1998, TTSG wrote:
Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 23:54:25 -0400 (EDT) From: TTSG <ttsg@ttsg.com> To: Mark Allan Rizzo <mrizzo@origin.ea.com> Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: SkyTel 2Way pagers DOWN all US
Just wanted to inform anyone that relies on this for system notifications etc. Skytel lost a satellite feed and all of their 2-Way pagers are down. I called them and they told me that it had been down since 5:00pm CST and they hoped to have it back 'soon'.
As well as regular "Skyword" pagers. We confirm your time, as we saw it about 7p Eastern, and a VERY WEIRD (Completely garbled, no time stamp) message at 5p Eastern. Saw on the local news tonite that it was "knocked out of orbit". The phone person just has said "Satellite problems".
Both TV and Skytel say they are NOT the only ones that count on that satellite, so it might be worth some peace of mind to run a test of your pager.
Tuc/TTSG