ACeS to sign deal with Russian firm

ACeS to sign deal with Russian firm

JAKARTA (JP): PT Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACeS), a
Jakarta-based satellite telecommunications provider, is to sign a
contract on Sep. 24 to launch its satellite in 1998 with Russia's
Krunichev Enterprise.

ACeS's chief executive officer, Adi Rahman Adiwoso, told
reporters here yesterday that the launch costs would be about
US$70 million, far lower than the prices charged by other launch
providers such as Arianespace of France.

Under the contract, Krunichev will use its Proton rocket to
launch ACeS's satellite from the Krunichev Space Center in
Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Proton was developed by Krunichev in
cooperation with Lockheed Martin Corporation of the United
States.

Adiwoso said the ACeS's satellite, Garuda, was being
manufactured by Lockheed. The satellite is to be launched between
July and September 1998.

"The first Garuda satellite, weighing 4,400 kilograms, will be
placed at 123.5 degrees longitude east in a geo-stationary orbit.
A second satellite is expected to be launched a year later at 119
degrees longitude east," he said after attending a two-day postal
and telecommunications meeting at the Ministry of Tourism, Post
and Telecommunications.

ACeS was set up in 1995 to provide digital telecommunications
services using geo-stationary satellites. It is equally owned by
three parties: PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, Philippines Long
Distance Telephone Co. of the Philippines and Jasmine
International Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand. (icn)