Asian mobile satellite system set

Asian mobile satellite system set

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian, Singaporean and U.S. companies
yesterday agreed to start a feasibility study on the launching of
the world's second mobile geo-stationary satellite
telecommunication system which will cover major parts of Asia.

Under the agreement signed here by the president of PT Pasifik
Satelit Nusantara (PSN) of Indonesia, Adi Rahman Adiwoso, the
chief executive of the Singapore Technologies Ventures, Ho Ching,
the president of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Wong Hung
Kim, and the president of Hughes Communications Inc. Kevin N.
McGrath, the four companies will complete the study of the US$900
million project by the end of September.

Adiwoso said that the project, named Asian Mobile Satellite
System, will allow any person with a handheld device to directly
communicate with another person carrying a similar device within
the satellite coverage and, through ground station gateways and
normal public switch telephone networks, to any person with a
cellular or normal fixed telephone anywhere in the world.

The project will cover 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,
he said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand.

McGrath said that the first of such a project in the world
will be officially introduced next year in the United States. The
project, called American Mobile Satellite System, is developed
jointly by Hughes, McCall, MTell of the United States and
Singapore Telecommunications.

Simple

Setyanto P. Santosa, president of PT Telkom, one of PSN's
shareholders, said that the Asian project will be simpler and
cheaper than telecommunication projects using the international
maritime satellites (Inmarsat) or iridium technology. An iridium
project in Taiwan, for example, will spend about $4 billion to
create a telephone network based on 66 satellites that will be
sent into orbit by 1998.

According to Adiwoso, the costs of the Asian geo-stationary
satellite system will be shared among the members in the
partnership.

"The four parties signing the agreement will share the costs
of the project but we hope other parties from other countries
within the Asian region will participate in the project," he
said.

Adiwoso said the project, which has been approved by the
government, will use four satellites to be called Garuda.

The planned satellites, which will be able to serve about one
million subscribers, will be placed at 80.5, 118, 123.5 or 135
degrees in geo-stationary orbit.

He also said that a tender for the satellite construction will
be announced in December, while the operation of the system is
expected to start in 1998.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave, who
witnessed the signing of the agreement together with Singapore
Minister of Communication and Environment Mah Bow Tan, said that
the partnership shows a most significant advance for
telecommunications in the Asian region.

PSN, operating in satellite recycling and management, is 30
percent owned by the state-owned domestic telecommunications
company PT Telkom and 20 percent by PT Electrindo Nusantara, a
subsidiary of the diversified Bimantara Group owned by President
Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo. The other shareholders
include Hughes, Telesat of Canada, Adiwoso, PSN executive
Iskandar and a number of other executives.

PSN, which acquires used-satellites and reactivates them, has
total assets of $20 million, which will increase to about $70
million when the Palapa-C satellites are in orbit. The launching
of Palapa-C1 is scheduled for late next year and Palapa-C2 six
months later. (icn)

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