Two Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) satellites with the highest capacity of any commercial payloads in space were delivered into orbit in 1995 and 1996 and are now providing a variety of fixed and mobile domestic communications services to customers throughout Japan.

These satellites, N-STAR-a and -b, replace the service of the SS/L CS satellites, which have now exceeded their expected lifetimes, and will also provide significant new services, which range from providing alternate routes for telephones to emergency communications to marine and terrestrial mobile services, and ISDN. The N-STARs were built for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and NTT Mobile Communication Network Inc. (NTT DoCoMo). Dubbed “switchboards in the sky,” for their wide range of abilities, these 26-transponder satellites each carry five separate communications payloads operating in four frequency bands.