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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (7011)	11/17/1999 9:32:00 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10852

Neil Bauer, president of Cyberstar interview. (Thanks to Phillips Telecon) Jeff Vayda From The Boardroom: Neil Bauer Shares Plans For Leading Loral Cyberstar Into Broadband Era The use of satellites to offer broadband, Internet-related services is one of the hottest growth areas in the industry. Neil Bauer, president of Loral Cyberstar, has analyzed the best opportunities for satellite services providers to capture revenues from the Internet and data services. He recently met with Satellite News Senior Analyst Paul Dykewicz to discuss the best ways satellites can support Internet applications and how his company is pursuing those niche markets. Here's what he had to say: Satellite News: Your Loral Cyberstar unit is responsible for developing global IP multicast, broadband Internet services. Briefly summarize your strategic plan for fulfilling the company's mission. Neil Bauer: We've looked at the business in two clear segments: the enterprise segment and the consumer segment. Within the enterprise segment, we are focused on three basic business thrusts. Those are our businesses today: VSAT business communications for private networks; ISP Services for backbone connectivity to the Internet; and infomedia services delivered to the desktop, built around media streaming for information and media-type applications through the LAN direct to the desktop. This is our extension of the existing business television market to move it to the new IP-based technologies and to push this directly down to the desktop from the conference room. We believe this will be a tremendous opportunity for communications companies. We're focused on those three segments and likewise we are developing our thrust into the consumer market. We define this consumer market as our future platforms to provide Internet access services, primarily beginning here in the U.S. and then evolving that model to other markets overseas. We are looking to build upon our experience in the VSAT market about how to enter countries, how to provide international communications, and how to service customers in countries around the globe. We also want to build upon our Internet experience, our routing capability and our other capabilities to mix that IP technology and the Internet services along with services to our enterprise customers and ultimately be able to take those skill sets and create this desktop service that pushes streaming media directly to users. This will allow us to move deeper into content packaging and content distribution through our network to these desktops. SN: Among these opportunities, which do you think offers the greatest growth potential? Bauer: I think clearly the Internet drives a lot of growth. Today, the Internet is one of our largest bandwidth users. A lot of this depends on the horizon that you are looking at. Today, we are really focused on servicing the ISPs for gaining larger bandwidth transactions and evolving into a value-added service offering, including caching services and pushing content to the edge of the net. Longer term, we believe that pushing services beyond the edge of the net direct to the desktop is where the true value would be and the potential for greater upside as we can add more value into that distribution and packaging of content. So, this path goes to building on early adopters in the technology field to move down to the desktop. These are things we have begun with our Mountain View, Calif., operation and we are building upon that now with the acquisition of additional skill resources through the acquisition of Global Access, which was previously an operating unit of Williams Communications. SN: Recently, Loral President Gregory Clark announced that he planned to leave the company. Aside from Dr. Clark's reduced role as he becomes a consultant, has any change occurred in Loral's strategic multimedia plan? Bauer: No, we are pushing forward. His vision was to be able to link together a streaming media for both Internet-type content and media services into one distribution service. We are on that path as we link together our ISP services with our desktop business-to-business services, blending together those two capabilities all delivered through IP streams to the desktop. SN: Is the vision now for multimedia and broadband development your own or is that something you work with the other members of the executive team at Loral? Bauer: This is not simply a Loral Cyberstar mission. This is very important to Loral Space and Communications. This is something that has the involvement of all of top management to develop and roll out our broadband strategy. SN: You were with Orion before Loral acquired it. Orion was a satellite services operator. Explain why your mission and business were restructured and how the transition has gone. Bauer: That was really something logical to put all the operations of the satellites in one area for responsibility and matching like sales with like sales. All we simply did was move the satellite operations to Loral Skynet and move to them the responsibility for the bandwidth or wholesale leasing to media and other large customers. That allowed what was then Loral Orion to focus clearly on end-to-end data services and pursue the value-added applications that we will need to uncover and implement in the field to drive the business to where we want to get it. SN: Usually in a situation like that, there is a change in the team and the composition of skills that you need. Was there transition in terms of personnel? Bauer: It really impacted just those people who were primarily in the technical side who operated the satellites. It didn't filter and change the organization too much, with the exception of the satellite engineering and operations. Many of those people have gone to Skynet, while others had the opportunity to stay here in the Washington, D.C., area. SN: How did it affect your overall staffing in Loral Orion? Bauer: It reduced it by about 20 percent. With all our units we now have 400 people throughout the world. Our primary offices are in Rockville, with others in Mountain View, Calif.; Plano, Texas; London; Hanover, Germany; Singapore; and St. Paul, Minn. We also have sales offices in other parts of Europe. We're rather well dispersed and that is what you would expect of a communications services company that serves the globe. SN: Do you expect Loral Cyberstar to become Loral's top-performing business subsidiary and, if so, how soon? Bauer: Well, clearly we want to be the top-performing business unit, as you would expect. That is a goal that we wish to hold out there for us. We don't really look at it in that way. We are looking to build and grow our business. If it becomes the top performer, that's great. However, we want all the other units to continue to have rapid growth. Everything is relative. We would view our own success with how we meet our own internal objectives rather than to compare our growth with that of another unit. Success is our business segment. It is what we're focused on. SN: Loral is making a big investment in satellite telephone services through its Globalstar unit. Is Globalstar potential slow start due to handset production delays a strain on rest of Loral's operations or is it following expectations of any start-up? Bauer: From the Loral Cyberstar perspective, we don't really see any impact on us as a result of what is going on with Globalstar. As you know, it is an independent public company with its own board, as is Loral Space and Communications. We are wedded at the hip with the Loral Space and Communications investment in Globalstar, so clearly we are focused on seeing them become successful. However, we are running our business independently of what Globalstar is doing.

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (7011)	11/17/1999 2:45:00 PM
From: Wally Mastroly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

NOVEMBER 17, 13:22 EST- Japan Rocket May Have Leaked Fuel By GINNY PARKER Associated Press Writer TOKYO (AP) — This week's loss of a $94 million satellite just minutes after launch may have been caused by fuel leaking from a rocket booster, Japanese space officials said Wednesday. The failed launch of the MTSAT satellite on Monday was the second this year caused by problems with the H-2 rocket, the key to Japan's space program. The program is competing with Europe and the United States for a share of the commercial satellite-launching market. Officials at the National Space Development Agency ordered the rocket destroyed after launch Monday when engine trouble developed and they feared the rocket might veer out of control. Liquid hydrogen fuel flowing from cracked pipes probably caused the engine trouble, NASDA spokeswoman Makiko Nishihara said. A video of the launch showed abnormal jets of gas shooting from the rocket's main engine shortly after takeoff. This, along with flight data transmitted during the launch, provided clues about why the rocket malfunctioned, Nishihara said. She said the agency was still investigating what might have caused the cracks in the pipes. The failed launch was a major setback for Japan's government-run program. ''This doesn't just reflect poorly on the National Space Development Agency, it leaves serious doubts for Japan about the future of space as a business,'' said an editorial in the Nihon Keizai newspaper, Japan's main business daily. U.S. companies considering launching satellites with Japanese rockets might now reconsider, it said. Over the past few years, Japan's space program has been plagued by bureaucratic wrangling, cost overruns and technical difficulties. Still, it has successfully put a satellite in orbit around the moon and was the first to dock two satellites in space by remote control. Concerned by the development of long-range missiles by its predictable communist neighbor, North Korea, Japan has promised to launch its first spy satellites in 2003.