THAILAND: The Shin Satellite Public Company Limited is deploying iPSTAR Service in China with Shanghai VSAT Network Systems Co, with the first iPSTAR Gateway to be setup in Shanghai, China.

The company will give a service demonstration will be given at the China Satellite 2002 Exhibition on 28 August in Shanghai. SVC is iPSTAR's National Service Provider (NSP) in China and will use the company's First Generation iPSTAR broadband technology to provide broadband services to customers throughout China starting from the third quarter of 2002. SVC expects to deploy more than 5,000 iPSTAR user terminals by 2003. When launched at end 2003, iPSTAR-1 will cover the entire Asia-Pacific region and will be capable of providing broadband access service to millions of users competitively to other terrestrial solutions such as DSL and cable modem.

Under the Framework Agreement signed with SVC in April 2002, SVC will deploy the iPSTAR Service using the gateway provided by Shin Satellite at its teleport in Shanghai using a Ku-band transponder on a Chinese satellite. SVC plans to provide broad range of broadband applications and services such as high speed Internet access, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) and Video Conferencing.

Shanghai VSAT Network Systems Co., Ltd. (SVC) is one of the largest VSAT service provider companies licensed by China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to supply domestic VSAT services, according to a company release. The iPSTAR satellite broadband project is one of the first satellite broadband systems to have a full funding closure, and to commence its first generation commercial service deployment.