The Deutsche Bundespost Telekom has confirmed reports in Die Welt that it and other West German telecommunications companies are negotiating to supply a satellite telecommunications system to the former Soviet Union. A working group comprising ANT Nachrichtentechnik GmbH – part of Robert Bosch GmbH; Messerschmitt Blkow Bloehm GmbH and Dornier GmbH – both part of Daimler-Benz AG; and Bundespost Telekom was set up in the middle of last year under the name Romantis, and the consortium is now in discussion with the individual republics, notably Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine, after a delay caused by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The proposal is for three orbiting communication satellites in geo-synchronous orbit, which would provide an extra 3m telephone links, and might also be used for television transmissions – though an unconfirmed Reuters report suggests that most capacity will be given over to data traffic. The satellites would be built in Germany and launched in Russia, while additional satellites and ground stations could be built under licence by local industry after 1995. Satellite uplinks and downlinks would be via 1.5 metre dishes linked to strategic exchanges in remote areas, as well as larger two-way dishes at major city exchanges. International satellite signals could then be routed to Germany to take advantage of Telekom’s existing international networks. If everything goes to plan, the system could be operational by 1995. The project is expected to have a price tag of between $1,670m and $3,890m, though the higher figure would be reached only if the system was constructed to Western standards and with a Western workforce. It is estimated, however, that this price is significantly cheaper than the cost of installing land lines to serve the same number of subscribers, and with a greatly reduced installation time. There are fears about the safety of the investment, though, and the consortium is hoping to obtain export credit guarantees from the German government. If it is successful, the government would pay out anything up to two-thirds of the cost of the project, if any of the republics backed out of the deal. Telekom is reported to be investing some $90m this year in support of the negotiations.
