Asia Cellular Satellite project runs smoothly
By I Christianto
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pennsylvania (JP): The Asia Cellular Satellite (ACeS) system, a mobile satellite telecommunications project of the Indonesia-based PT ACeS, will operate in the second quarter of 1999, according to the system contractor.
Aerospace, defense and telecommunications giant Lockheed Martin of the United States said Saturday that its Management and Data System (MDS) in Valley Forge, King of Prussia, was working on a program development for the ground segment of the ACeS system.
"It's running on schedule and is going very well. We have some issues that are going to work normally, also tests and other issues," said Lockheed Martin's vice president of communication systems, Michael Barbee.
Lockheed Martin has developed the US$700 million mobile geostationary satellite system since 1995. MDS is providing the system's satellite gateways, ground-based processing and overall system on engineering and integration.
Indonesian Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave is scheduled to inspect ACeS's development projects at some Lockheed Martin facilities later this week.
Through ACeS's satellite, named Garuda, the system will be able to provide voice, facsimile and data services covering an area from India in the west to Indochina in the east and from China in the north to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the south.
First system
ACeS president, Adi Rahman Adiwoso, said the company aimed to provide links between cellular telephone networks and the existing fixed-lines in several Asian countries including Bangladesh, Brunei, Burma, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
With the operation covering the most important regions in Asia, any person with a handheld device will be able to directly communicate with another person carrying a similar device within the satellite coverage through ground station gateways and normal public switch telephone networks, or with any person with a cellular or normal fixed telephone anywhere in the world.
The project is claimed to be simpler and cheaper than other satellite-based cellular telecommunications projects like the ICO of Inmarsat, Iridium, Globalstar, Odyssey or Teledesic.
"This is because ACeS will focus on regional, not global, coverage," Adiwoso said.
Adiwoso said the ACeS project, purely initiated by Asian nations, would be the first system of its kind in the world.
"We're already a couple of years ahead compared to other systems like the Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications (APMT) of Singapore and China or the Afro-Asian satellite system," he said.
PT ACeS is equally owned by PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) of Indonesia, Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) of the Philippines and Jasmine International of Thailand.
Fully funded
The project began in 1992 when "we were looking for a technical solution on how a satellite network can cover the areas uncovered by the cellular network," Adiwoso said.
He said a geosynchronous satellite system was then selected.
"The government filed in 1993 the orbital slots for four Garuda satellites at the International Telecommunications Union," he said, adding the first satellite will be launched next year by Integrated Launch Services (ILS), a joint venture between Lockheed and Krunichev Energia, on a Proton rocket.
He said ACeS was fully funded with some loan syndications from several banks and financial institutions.
ACeS has signed an underwriting agreement with PT Danareksa Finance to raise $250 million in loans to finance the entire project.
It has secured $210 million in stockholders' equity and another $210 million in loans from stockholders.
The ACeS system is based on a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard and will apply dual-mode handsets (ACeS-GSM and ACeS-AMPS). The handset's contract was awarded in September 1996 to Ericsson of Sweden.
Ericsson's development manager for satellite phones, Richard E. Weiss, said there was no exclusivity for the contract but for a standard product.
He said ACeS is free to order handsets from other firms.