US communications company IDB International Inc last week transferred its Moscow communications service from Intelsat to the Soviet satellite organisation Intersputnik. It is the first Western company to do so. IDB International has the only permanent digital link to the Soviet Union and caters for heavy users including Cable News Network, CBS, the Associated Press and the Washington Post. It has the broadest, and probably the most expensive, service in and out of Moscow with voice, data and video links at 9.6Kbps, 19.2Kbps, 56.64Kbps, and AVD. The service went live via Intersputnik on June 20. IDB has leased a transponder on one of the Statsionnar class communications satellites. Vice-president of commercial sales Dennis Mallon says he trusts Soviet technology to perform as expected. Intelsat offers 99% availability and a bit error rate of 10 to the minus 6 – we are confident this is possible using Intersputnik. IDB has a three-year relationship with the Soviet organisation and has occasionally used the service for one-off video transmissions. The company has had a Moscow link since 1989 and started in 1987 when it transmitted the Billy Joel concert from Leningrad. Although users of the link will not notice the change (either financially or in terms of quality) both partners have much to gain from the venture. IDB’s Soviet partner, The Moscow Telephone Company, is now able to buy its space segment time in roubles instead of dollars, greatly reducing its costs. The US company is now poised to expand its service across most of Eastern Europe, making use of the network of Intersputnik base stations installed there. Mallon says dial-up services to Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria are planned for this summer.
