Mobile phone satellite grid planned

Mobile phone satellite grid planned

SINGAPORE (Reuter): A four-nation consortium signed a series of agreements yesterday to set up the first pan-Asian satellite- based mobile telephone network.

The Asia Pacific Mobile Telecommunications (APMT) project will be capable of reaching subscribers across a huge swathe of Asia from Pakistan in the west to Japan and Indonesia in the east, the head of satellite development at Singapore Telecom, Ho Siaw Hong, told a news conference.

Ho said the project, which would begin with six participants from China and Singapore and would later include companies from Thailand and Japan, would involve an initial investment of between US$500 million and US$800 million.

The network should be running by 1998, he said.

"A day will come when there will be nowhere in the Asian region where you cannot be reached (by telephone)," Ho said.

Singapore Telecom, STIC unit Singapore Technologies Telemedia, and four Chinese telecommunications companies signed a deal setting up the APMT project.

Asia Mobile Telecommunications (Thailand) Co Ltd (AMT) and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp then signed memorandums of understanding with the six APMT companies indicating their intention to join the project at an unspecified later stage.

Singapore's Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan said at the signing ceremony that satellite systems were poised to play an important role in the region.

"Satellite telecommunications will make communications more accessible in countries where the...infrastructure is not so developed. This way, the economic dynamism of the region can be further enhanced," Mah said.

Capital

Ho said the six APMT founding companies had each agreed to put around US$20 million into the project as start-up capital and would each hold initial stakes of 15 percent.

He said APMT would raise the rest of its initial funds by borrowing and by investment from other participants.

AMT had said it wanted eventually to take a stake of up to 10 percent in the project and Mitsubishi also wanted to participate, a statement from the consortium said. It gave no other details.

Yeo Chee Tong, vice-president of the satellite division of Singapore Technologies Telemedia, said at least four other Asian countries had also indicated interest in investing in APMT but declined to identify them.

He said part of the initial investment would be spent on a network of ground stations across Asia, with the biggest portion on a dedicated satellite for the project.

"We are in an advanced stage of negotiations with potential satellite suppliers," Yeo said. "We have invited three bidders (to tender) but we have not (yet) made any decision...We cannot give you exact details of the bidders."

He said APMT would start with five ground gateway stations to the satellite: three in China, one in Singapore and one in Thailand.

The director of one of the Chinese participants, China Satellite Launch & Tracking Control General, Li Bao Ming, said APMT would probably face competition from other companies racing to provide Asia's first dedicated telecommunications satellite.

But he said APMT would almost certainly be the first such service to be launched.

"Later, I am sure APMT will get into more and more countries," Li said.

The other Chinese participants in APMT are China Aero-space Corp, China Unicom Satellite Telecommunication Co Ltd and China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp.

AMT is owned 80 percent by Future Hi Tech, and 10 percent each by the Telephone Organization of Thailand and the Communications Authority of Thailand.