China to join Asian satellite project
CHINA will join several Asian nations in developing a satellite system with a total investment of US$650 million to provide the mobile telecommunication service for the region's 3.1 billion people.
The Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications Satellite (APMT) system is being developed by China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia, said Feng Ruming, member of the board of directors of the China APMT company, yesterday in Beijing.
The system, which is expected to be put into operation in the middle of 2000, will cover 22 countries in the region.
"One APMT operation centre and one satellite operation centre will be located in Beijing to monitor and manage the APMT network and satellite resources," said Feng.
Hughes Space and Communications International is responsible for supplying the APMT satellite, and China's Long March 3B will put the satellite into orbit.
The satellite is designed to have a life span of 12 years.
Using the geo-stationary APMT satellite and a pocket-sized satellite handphone, APMT users will be able to make phone calls at anytime and anywhere within the Asia-Pacific region, according to Feng.
APMT services include telephone and other data transferring services, as well as continuous position tracking and reporting for specially equipped vehicles on both land and sea. The satellite will also be able to pinpoint the position that calls have been made from, useful in emergencies.
Each APMT satellite capacity will be greater than 16,000 duplex voice circuits and will be able to support 2 million subscribers.
The APMT handphone will be manufactured by a joint venture in China which has been established by China, Singapore and the United States.
It will support APMT/GSM dual mode, which means users will use the GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) cellular service while in GSM coverage, and will switch to APMT satellite mode once they are out of cellular coverage.
Li Baoming, president of China APMT, said the price of the APMT service will be cheaper than such satellite telecommunication systems as the Motorola-proposed Iridium system, or the Global Star and ICO systems. But he did not give details.
"According to our market forecasts, APMT will have 400,000 subscribers in its first two years of operation, and this will expand to 1 million in the medium-term of its operation," said Li.
APMT will co-operate with similar satellite mobile telecommunications systems in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
In this way, APMT subscribers can also enjoy telecommunication services when they travel to these regions.
China APMT, which is officially established today in Beijing, is formed by the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the former Commission of Science, the Technology and Industry for National Defence, the former Ministry of the Electronics Industry, China Aero-Space Corp and China Resources (Holding) Co, Ltd.
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Date: 04/22/98
Author: Sun Shangwu
Copyrightc by China Daily |
