NEW YORK-Get ready for “PSC”-not to be confused with PCS, and for the “information sky way”-not to be mistaken for the information superhighway. Comsat Mobile Communications announced last week that it will launch the first two-way “personal satellite communications” system by mid-year.
Known by the brand name Planet 1, Comsat’s new PSC system will include notebook computer-size (and weight) terminals manufactured by NEC America Inc. Planet 1 will provide digital voice, fax, data and paging communications. Comsat has requested permission from the Federal Communications Commission to charge an all-inclusive retail peak-period talk time rate of $3 per minute to and from anywhere on the globe. Initially, the service will be sold to international travelers.
“Despite the significant and continuing buildout of wireless and PCS systems, there are and will be an awful lot of places where these systems can’t reach,” said Bruce L. Crockett, president and chief executive officer of Comsat Corp., based in Bethesda, Md.
Addressing a news conference in New York City, Crockett said that Comsat’s “distribution strategies will focus on cellular and wireless providers, whom we see not as competitors but as complementary to our business.”
Virginia L. Brooks, manager of network access technologies for Aberdeen Group Inc., a Boston market research firm, called Comsat’s Planet 1, “a wireless public information highway that brings the power of voice and data communications technologies down to a personal level throughout the world.”
Roberta C. Wiggins, director of wireless/mobile communications for the Yankee Group, another Boston research firm, said that Comsat-at enormous development cost-has entered a risky environment to develop “seamless cellular roaming anywhere.”
Comsat has invested $350 million in the launch of Planet 1, money raised through equity, cash flow and debt, according to Crockett. This includes its $300 million stake in the International Mobile Satellite Organization, an international satellite launching organization with members from 77 countries. Comsat’s 22 percent ownership stake makes it the largest Inmarsat signatory.
At five-month intervals starting in March, Comsat will launch each of four Inmarsat-3 satellites to provide blanket global coverage by late 1997. Regional service will begin within three months of each launch, beginning with India, the Middle East, Russia, Asia and portions of Africa and Australia.
