Satellite Service Sets Sights on 1999

Globalstar, a satellite-based communications system designed to enable customers to make phone calls and transmit data and faxes on the go in more than 100 countries, will begin service Jan. 1, 1999, an executive at one of the project’s partners and suppliers said. Alcatel Espace Chairman Jean-Claude Husson also said that nearly all of the financing for Globalstar, a San Jose-based international effort expected to cost $2.5 billion, is in place. Globalstar will make a variety of global communications possible via a network of 48 satellites in low orbit plus eight backup satellites. Among the communications available will be phone calls, data transmission and faxes via hand-held, vehicle-mounted or fixed terminals. The satellites are to be put in orbit by September 1998. Alcatel Espace is a unit of French electrical engineering company Alcatel Alsthom.