Thai communication major Shin Satellite has reported consolidated revenues for the first quarter of 2002 of 1,303 million Baht, and EBITDA of 592 million baht. Total net profit for the quarter was 389 million Baht, a rise of 39 per cent from 279 million Baht in the first quarter of 2001. The company experienced a foreign exchange gain of 31 million Baht for the quarter.

Shin Satellite executive chairman Dr Dumrong Kasemset said, "Revenue from the transponder service business grew to 968 million Baht, and our Internet backbone business, called ProTrunk, played an important role in driving Ku-band utilisation up from 47% to 52%. Also noteworthy was the performance of Cambodia Shinawatra, a telecoms subsidiary in Cambodia, which achieved 240 per cent growth subscriber growth, mainly with prepaid customers, and lifted its revenue 23 per cent over the same period last year, to 134 million Baht."

Recent developments made by the company in broadband Internet technology, namely the iPSTAR system, have resulted in more orders coming for services, equipment and consequently more use of bandwidth on our satellites from international as well as domestic clients."