Cable & Wireless Plc has begun operation of its satellite earth station in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator. The six metre dish carries telephone and telex via the AsiaSat satellite to Hong Kong but it is capable of carrying only a limited amount of phone traffic. A second, larger dish nine and a half metres in diameter is planned for installation in 1991, and a network of VSats – very small aperture terminals – is also to be implemented by Cable & Wireless. International direct dialling to Ulan Bator should be available at the end of the year and as a result of the modernisation, the number of lines on the Mongolian network should be doebled in the next few years from its present 52,000.
