PanAmSat Gives Up on Galaxy 4

PanAmSat Corp., owner of the crippled Galaxy 4 communications satellite, said it shifted service to other satellites after concluding that it would not try to fix the satellite that rolled out of position Tuesday night. The changes helped millions of Americans reenter the communications age, restoring pager services, video links and electronic communications. Company spokesman Dan Marcus said “several hundred thousand antennas” that had been pointed at Galaxy 4 were being redirected. “It’s an aggressive effort across the country” that should be completed within days, he said. All video customers, including television broadcasters, had either moved to their backup plans or had been provided alternative satellite capacity for the short term, the company said. By Friday afternoon, more than 90% of the afflicted pagers were back in operation, according to the trade group Personal Communications Industry Assn. Chevron said it had restored its “FastPay” service at most of the 5,400 stations that lost the pay-at-the-pump convenience after the satellite failed.