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)