With the ramshackle terrestrial telephone systems bequeathed by the departing Communist regimes, which didn’t really believe in the freedom of communication offered by the telephone anyway, the various forms of radio communication, led by cellular telephony and satellite, are by far the most promising technologies for creating a modern telecommunications network quickly. So it is that the Polish news agency Polska Agencja Prasowa, PAP, in Warsaw has announced that it has chosen GTE Spacenet Corp to set up a satellite communication system in Poland, whic was due for installation by the end of last month. Polska Agencja Prasowa director Jerzy Wysokinski said PAP had bought 30 Very Small Aperture Terminals from the Stamford, Connecticut company to speed the distribution of its information services across the country. He declined to give any financial details. VSATs have been used to provide data communications internationally for remote applications in countries such as Indonesia and China. Wysokinski said the new system should be used to distribute news to all media clients and other subscribers. PAP is state-owned but independent in its content, Reuter notes. It is the only large Polish news agency.
