The wiki entry says Loyds of London would not pay for the satellite loss
> because it was NOT an act of God.
I saw that and was quite surprised. At first I thought LofL should've paid but then I realized it was a technical problem, not something like a hurricane, earthquake, lightning, etc.
Of course, the question then becomes why they didn't insure themselves against a technical malfunction, provided such insurance was available. Maybe it was seen as too high a risk. From time to time launches do fail.
As an aside, WU leased out channels on a satellite that it didn't have need for, and the income nearly paid for the satellite, yet they still had their channels to use. I am curious as to how much of their microwave network they used in the 1980s, how much of their own pole lines were still in use, and how much they had to lease from AT&T.