31 July 2003
India’s latest communication satellite, INSAT-3E, has been flown out for an end-August launch aboard an Ariane launch vehicle from the French Guyanese spaceport of Kourou in South America.
INSAT-3E is the fourth satellite to be launched in the INSAT-3 series. INSAT-3E carries 24 C-band transponders and 12 extended C-band transponders. When commissioned, the satellite will substantially enhance the INSAT system capacity, which now provides about 120 transponders in C-band, extended C-band, Ku-band and S-band.
Flight 162 from Kourou is slated to launch INSAT-3E, meant for telecom and TV coverage, and two other payloads – Eutelsat’s e-BIRD and European Space Agency’s SMART-1, Arianespace sources said. INSAT-3E’s scheduled launch comes around four-and-half months after the successful launch of INSAT-3A on 10 April.
31 July 2003
The Pakistan government is to lift the ban on print media owners and other groups which barred them from setting up satellite channels. The lifting of the ban will help establish nearly a dozen new Pakistani-owned satellite channels.
The ban has been preventing a group of entrepreneurs with the requisite background and experience from entering this sector, which has seen a tremendous growth elsewhere in the world and in South Asia. The print media groups, more than any other, already have the necessary know-how, skill and talent that any TV and radio networks require.
The decision paves the way for some healthy competition to take place between the state-owned PTV and new private channels.
31 July 2003
The difficult political situation in Liberia has forced the abandonment of plans by High Adventure Ministries (part of AIB member NASB) to set up a short wave station there.
But now permission has been received from the Ugandan government to set up the station in Uganda instead. This will enable High Adventure Ministries to resume short wave broadcasts to the Middle East. Three years ago, the organization was forced out of its station on the Israeli/Lebanese border, which had been operating for 30 years, when Israeli troops who had been protecting the area were pulled out.
(BBC Monitoring)
31 July 2003
China had 68 million Internet users as at the end of June, 8.9 million more than half a year ago, according to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC).
China’s netizens now constitute 5.3 per cent of its 1.3 billion population, said the information centre in its latest assessment of the Internet industry.
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Netizens surfing the Internet via telephone accounted for 45.01 per cent of total users, while broadband Internet users reached 9.8 million, a significant rise from 6.6 million.
30 July 2003
The planned move of AIB member Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from the centre of Prague cannot be carried out in haste, said spokeswoman Sonia Winterova.
Winterova said that the transfer of RFE/RL was an expensive matter and, in addition, the money for it must be first approved by the US Congress.
Meanwhile Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said that the Czech Republic would somehow contribute to the move of RFE/RL. “It can be just a contribution. We contribute to the USA just by having it here. All our trade relations with Iran are frozen,” Svoboda said.
