Orbcomm Extends Service to Europe

DULLES, Va. — Recent rulings by European authorities will help move Orbcomm Global closer to providing service across Europe.

In December, the European Regulatory Commission ruled that it would permit satellite communication systems to be used in the 43 countries that comprise the Council of European Posts and Telecommunications, and that subscribers could be used and licensed across national borders.

The council also has been working on a provision to ensure that all wireless communications devices operate on the same radio frequencies and that they share the spectrum with existing users without causing interference or operating problems.

The European Union is expected to adopt the standard proposed by the European Technical Standards Institute for low-earth-orbit satellite devices, which works with Orbcomm’s standard. The company plans to provide service through MCS Europe and other partners.

Orbcomm also announced it has signed a service license with GPSS (Gibraltar) Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of Cambridge Research Advisory Group, England, to provide data and messaging communications to Russia, Belarus and Mongolia. It expects to begin service during 1999 through the Gibraltar firm’s Russian branch, Radio Engineering Corp.

Orbcomm will operate stations in Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk and a main control center in Moscow. Service will cover 17 million square kilometers (about 6.6 million square miles) and 11 time zones.