L.M. Ericsson announced its subsidiary, Ericsson Australia Pty. Ltd., has signed a contract to install a switching system for 4,000 mobile telephones in Rangoon, Burma’s capital. Ericsson said it will also build four radio transmitting stations to expand the city’s phone network. This is Ericsson’s third agreement with the Burmese government.
Comsat RSI announced it has signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to provide equipment and services for the Asia Satellite system (ACeS), a consortium that includes PT Pasifik Satellite Nusantara of Indonesia, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Jasmine International plc of Thailand. ACeS plans to provide voice, fax and data services through a new satellite to handheld, mobile and fixed subscriber terminals throughout Southeast Asia, India and China beginning in 1998, Comsat said. ACeS is based on the Global System for Mobile communication cellular telephony standard and offers roaming between mobile and terrestrial systems using dual-mode handsets.
Orbitel Mobile Communications Ltd. has signed a worldwide handset license agreement to use Qualcomm Inc.’s Code Division Multiple Access technology. The agreement allows Orbitel to design, develop, manufacture and sell handsets for use within the Globalstar satellite system. The companies said they also signed a subcontract for Orbitel to design and manufacture pre-production Globalstar handsets incorporating Qualcomm’s CDMA technology and Orbitel’s Global System for Mobile Communications terrestrial-based technology and expertise.
Northern Telecom Ltd. said it was awarded three contracts from China United Telecommunications Corp. for Global System for Mobile communications cellular networks. Nortel said it will install two integrated networks in the Zhejiang province covering the Hangzhou, Wenzhou and Ningbo regions. The initial network capacity will be 60,000 subscribers. Nortel also will install a network in Yantai with an initial capacity of 20,000 subscribers. Both networks are scheduled to begin operation by mid-1996.
