Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.980302113817.5387H-100000@user2.infinet.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 11:41:35 -0500
Sender: "African Network of IT Experts and Professionals (ANITEP) List" <AFRIK-IT@LISTSERV.HEA.IE>
From: "F. Leon Wilson" <flwilson@INFINET.COM>
Subject: U.S. firms scramble for Africa satellite deal
To: AFRIK-IT@LISTSERV.HEA.IE

U.S. firms scramble for Africa satellite deal

Reuters, 2 March 1998

Twelve telecommunications companies submitted preliminary bids February 27 for a $1.2 billion African satellite project.

All 12 bidders were represented at the public opening of bid submissions at the headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (Rascom).

The satellite--expected to be launched in 2001--is intended to provide Africa with reliable and cheaper telephone links at home and with the rest of the world.

U.S. companies seeking to join the Rascom consortium are: Intelsat, Hughes Space and Communications Intl, African Continental Telecommunications Ltd and Comsat RSI. Two companies bid from France--Alcatel Alsthom and East. Other bidders were Germany's Deutsches-Zentrum fur Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V, China Great Wall Industry Corp, Italy's Alenia Aerospazio, Inmarsat of Britain, Plessey Corp Ltd of South Africa and Norway's Nera Telecommunications.

See: Reuters
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FLeonW