A satellite for illuminating a geographic area with signals, the satellite comprising: a power source; an antenna; a plurality of spot beams emanating from the antenna to service a plurality of service links, wherein: the plurality of spot beams includes a first spot beam and a second spot beam, the first spot beam illuminates a first region within the geographic area, in order to send information to a first plurality of subscriber terminals, the second spot beam illuminates a second region within the geographic area and adjacent to the first region, in order to send information to a second plurality of subscriber terminals, whereby the first and second regions overlap, the first spot beam as sent to at least one of the first plurality of subscriber terminals is affected by interference from other signal sources including the second spot beam at a signal-to-interference ratio C/I, the first spot beam as sent to the at least one of the first plurality of subscriber terminals is further affected by noise at a signal-to-noise ratio C/N, whereby reception of signals from the first spot beam by the at least one of the first plurality of subscriber terminals is interference-dominated such that C/I is less than C/N, and the satellite is operated to maximize data-carrying capacity of the plurality of spot beams as measured in bits/Hz, by utilizing a beam pattern having a specific number of color(s) of frequency and polarization and specific beam spacing that results in higher data-carrying capacity of the plurality of spot beams than achieved with other alternative numbers of color(s) of frequency and polarization and beam spacings. view more

The satellite for illuminating a geographic area with signals of claim 1, wherein the plurality of spot beams comprise adaptive coding and modulation (ACM) signals, and the data-carrying capacity of the plurality of spot beams is maximized by maximizing average data-carrying capacity within the plurality of spot beams. view more

The satellite for illuminating a geographic area with signals of claim 7, wherein the first coding and modulation combination and second coding and modulation combination are selected according to an adaptive coding and modulation (ACM) scheme.

A geostationary orbit (GSO), satellite comprising: a receiver configured to receive from one or more ground stations signals in a GSO frequency band and in an extended frequency spectrum, the extended frequency spectrum including the GSO frequency band and a non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) frequency band; circuitry configured to establish an activated frequency mode to activate one of a GSO frequency band mode and an extended frequency spectrum mode based on information indicating a presence or an absence of an interference situation with an NGSO satellite system; and a transmitter configured to transmit in one of the GSO frequency band and in the NGSO frequency spectrum based on the activated frequency spectrum mode. view more

The satellite of claim 7 further comprising: a control device configured to decode instructions from a command module to couple the output of the switch to the first input or the second input according to the decoded instructions, the control module providing the information indicating presence or absence of an interference situation with an NGSO satellite system. view more

The spot beam satellite of claim 1 wherein the satellite is configured to receive data from a second at least one feeder beam, the second at least one feeder beam being associated with a second feeder beam coverage area, wherein the second feeder beam coverage area is not proximate to any of the service beam coverage areas, and wherein the second at least one feeder beam is allocated all of the colors of the beam pattern. view more