Loral Orion announced today that it has entered into a joint venture with Natelco, one of India¿s leading telecommunications providers, to deliver satellite-based Internet and private network services to India¿s domestic and international markets.
The joint venture, to be called Loral Orion-India, Ltd., will provide high-speed Internet access via satellite to and from India for business customers, Internet services providers (ISPs) and software development companies. Loral Orion will hold a 49 percent stake in the venture, with the other 51% to be held by Natelco.
Software development groups in India are creating some of the world¿s
most advanced computer technology and software. In 1997, software
exports from India to the United States totaled approximately US$1.8
billion. Indian software development companies need fast, reliable and
efficient Internet access in order to send their software and technology
products to locations both within and outside India. Loral Orion is
pursuing the provision of additional telecommunications capacity in
India to meet this growing demand.
Hans Giner, president of Loral Orion-Asia Pacific, Inc., said,
¿Throughout Asia, Loral Orion is seeing untapped demand for reliable
business communications, including high-speed Internet access to the
United States. Loral Orion and Natelco anticipate even greater demand as
more and more software technology parks are established and as new ISPs
enter the market. Even now, Indian ISPs are adding about 10 percent
more users each month. In the corporate community, high-technology
businesses in India are looking for ways to connect to other technology
centers around the world and Loral Orion and Natelco can offer them a
high-speed highway to those locations.¿
Loral Orion-India, Ltd. will focus on delivering Internet access
services in the coming months as regulations in India are being
liberalized to allow these services to be provided from India to other
countries. The joint venture will offer Loral Orion¿s WorldCast
Internet access services, and valued-added services including Internet
bursting services that allow customers to expand the bandwidth as
needed. Loral Orion will also offer advanced transmission technologies
to the joint venture, including Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) which
deliver more efficient and secure transmissions. To provide these
services, the joint venture company will initially use international
satellites, which cover the Indian region and then transition to the
powerful Orion 3 satellite once it becomes operational in early 1999.
Loral Orion¿s partner, Natelco, with corporate offices in Mumbai,
currently provides radio paging service in 25 cities throughout India.
Natelco is also licensed to provide turnkey VSAT services using its
gateway earth stations in Delhi. Natelco¿s activities include
manufacturing, infrastructure development and value-added services
companies in more than 30 major cities in India. Natelco¿s
manufacturing facility is ISO 9002 certified, supplying state of the art
telecommunications products for the Indian Department of
Telecommunications and other major users in India.
