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

To: Ramsey Su who wrote (2892)	5/9/1998 4:39:00 PM
From: Jamse	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Here is an summary of an article put out yesterday by: Agence France-Presse; 05/08/98 Singapore-Chinese partners launch satellite mobile project Singapore and Chinese partners formally launched a 640-million-US-dollar venture to provide mobile communication services by satellite for the Asia-Pacific region by 2000. US firm Hughes Space and Communications International Inc. will be the infrastructure supplier for the Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications Satellite (APMT) Pte. Ltd. system. The APMT system, said to offer cheaper services than rivals like the Iridium or Globalstar projects, would allow subscribers to tap into the satellite system in remote areas, or use local cellular systems where available. Zhou Zehe, chairman of China APMT, told a news conference that because of lower start-up costs, APMT would be able to provide cheaper services than the Iridium and Globalstar satellite consortiums which are to be in commercial operation earlier than APMT. He estimated that APMT call tariffs would cost about one-third those of the five-billion-dollar Iridium project, which he predicted would be between five and seven US dollars a minute. The system has capacity for two million users. There are some big corps behind the project such as Nippon Telegraph and Mitsubishi Corp. The article is rather lengthy and I don't think I can just copy it because of an agreement with my service provider. There was another article in the Twin Cities Star-Tribune tearing Globalstar and Iridium to shreds. The main critic was Herschel Shosteck, whose communications consulting company in Wheaton, Md., has conducted seven market studies on Iridium. Shosteck said "A few years after the launch of Iridium they will have to shut it down. Globalstar will hang around longer. Its costs are lower. "I am dubious squared for Iridium," Shosteck added. "For Globalstar I am just dubious." Looks like the skies are going to get crowded. Could be that investors are waiting to see how many projects like this are going to develop jamse.