Loral Corp says its Globalstar LP low earth orbit satellite telephony initiative, raised $275m from its initial partners, and that the offering was oversubscribed: Globalstar is expected to have revenues of $1,600m and 2.7m subscribers by the year 2002, growing to 16m by 2012 – better take all those figures with a whole sackful of salt; the current Globalstar partners will provide service in 33 countries, including 14 countries in Europe, eight in Asia, five in Africa and six in North and South America, and will franchise other local service providers to be exclusive operators in the remaining areas of the world; Loral will be designing and integrating the satellite operation control centre and the telemetry, tracking and command stations; Alcatel Espace SA is responsible for the design and delivery of the 56 Globalstar payload modules; Vodafone Group Plc, Newbury, Berkshire, which has taken 10%, will contribute to the design and implementation of the telecommunications network and will apply for licences wherever it has cellular interests currently the UK, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Malta and Greece.
