News from India (from Yahoo thread): Asia Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2000 BUSINESS LINE
January 11, 2000
SECTION: Business
LENGTH: 414 words
HEADLINE: India- Globalstar decision on gateways by Feb
BODY:
Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, Jan. 10: EUROPEAN satellite phone company, Globalstar, is negotiating with more than one domestic firm to establish its three gateways in the country.
A decision was likely by February, before the company approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for requisite approvals, Mr. Peter Bacon, Director, Regional Marketing, told Business Line.
Globalstar's partners in its previous failed Indian venture, Hyundai and Pertech, are not expected to join the team this time. But talks are on with more than one firm, domestic as well as foreign institutional investors. The company expects the project cost to be as much as (USDollar) 80 millions. Globalstar will not pick any equity in the joint venture as a matter of policy. The three gateways, to be set up near Dehradun, Calcutta and Bangalore, will be built by Qualcomm, one of the partners in Globalstar, the other major partner being Loral Space and Communications Ltd.
The phones will be provided by Ericsson, and will cost around (USDollar) 750 -(USDollar) 1,000.
The air-time charge is likely to be around (USDollar) 1. But Mr. Bacon said these were only ball-park figures and efforts were on to bring down the costs. "In any case, prices are expected to fall over the next one-two years," he added.
Mr. Bacon also said Globalstar would start operating out of India by the end of 2000. The company has 48 low-earth orbiting (LEO) satellites which cover virtually every populated area on earth, routing calls back to Globalstar gateways, into terrestrial phone networks and on to their destinations.
The system's patented CDMA (code division multiple access) technology not only increases system capacity but allows each call to be supported by multiple satellites simultaneously, a function available exclusively through Globalstar. Thus, if a caller moves out of range of the satellite, the call is seamlessly handed off to another.
Globalstar's multi-mode phones can be used in cellular as well as satellite modes. The phones first automatically search for a terrestrial cellular connection wherever available but switch to satellite mode whenever the user is out of cellular range, effectively expanding the reach of the cellular network. |
