Time Warner Cable Is Prepared to Deal With the Rogue Satellite

May 13 2010

Time Warner Cable Is Prepared to Deal With the Rogue Satellite

You may have heard that a rogue satellite is drifting out of its orbit and threatening to disrupt America’s cable television service. That sentence is one I never, ever, thought I would type.

From the Associated Press:

Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15 satellite on April 5, possibly because the satellite’s systems were knocked out by a solar storm. Intelsat cannot remotely steer the satellite to remain in its orbit, so Galaxy 15 is creeping toward the adjacent path of another TV communications satellite that serves U.S. cable companies.

Galaxy 15 continues to receive and transmit satellite signals, and they will probably overlap and interfere with signals from the second satellite, known as AMC 11, if Galaxy 15 drifts into its orbit as expected around May 23, according to the two satellite companies.

AMC 11 receives digital programming from cable television channels and transmits it to all U.S. cable systems from its orbit 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the equator, SES World Skies said.

We’ve got an official statement on this, which follows:

Time Warner Cable engineers are monitoring the situation and are confident that we have a solution or a series of solutions should a programming satellite be impacted. Our goal is to minimize customer impact.

We all want to see the Lost finale, too, and we want to see it in HD and be able to fast-forward through the commercials we don’t like. What I’m saying here is that we’ve got some serious skin in this game. We’re on this, we’re on this with backup plans, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that this doesn’t effect your television service.

If this thing goes rogue for real and starts hosing America with death rays from outer space, you’re on your own.

Categories: Cool Stuff, Outages/Service Issues

6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Time Warner Cable Is Prepared to Deal With the Rogue Satellite”

Lynn Ellen Mendes
Oct 28, 2011
at 4:45 pm

So Time Warner cable engineers do have control of satellite. Is cable programming their only forte…. I am still being bothered by females who harnessed this capability patterned after an Internet article written by John Fleming the shocking menace of satellite surveillance. What do you know about this attempt to misuse satellites? Who owns this misdirected use of satellites that is killing the American people? Which satellite to we have to disarm although I don’t blame the satellites.
Jeff Simmermon
Oct 28, 2011
at 6:36 pm

Um. I really don’t think I am qualified to give you the help that you need here.
John
Oct 30, 2011
at 11:01 am

Does TW have a timeline to correct this? I am visiting here in NYC with my sister and the cable reception is horrendous. Everyone complains about it. Really unacceptable by today’s standards. They are going to take it in the shorts when the fiber optic service increases throughout the city.DTV is already losing business to companies such as Infinity, UVerse, and the likes.
John
Oct 30, 2011
at 11:33 am

P.S. What the hell is Lynn talking about? She needs to remove the tinfoil hat and take her meds.
Jeff Simmermon
Oct 30, 2011
at 10:40 pm

John – there could be a lot of factors contributing to the “reception” that have very little to do with our service. If the cable box was moved in the home, disconnected or reconnected by someone who is not a cable tech, the connections could be looser than usual. I’d recommend making a call or contacting @twcablehelp to look into it.
Anna Maria
Jan 30, 2012
at 8:00 pm

Hmmmm, Does this mean that I will get compensated or my money re-imbursed now?…just saying =C