BOLDT's core business until now has been production of official documents for the Argentine government (official diaries, checks, and bank notes), and recently its activities have evolved to include the country's lottery business, in which they hold 90 percent of the market share. With deregulation of the telecommunications industry in Argentina expected by the end of the year, BOLDT and SPTI expect there will be many large corporations like Centrales Electricas de Santa Fe wanting to build their own private telecom networks.

``With deregulation of the telecom sector in Argentina, we anticipate many more companies to become strategic customers,'' said Carlos Biderman, operations director at SPTI. ``And ComStream's VSAT product line is very well suited to these kinds of networks because it creates robust, adaptable, and expandable telecommunications infrastructure for organizations that are just building their communication systems. The Santa Fe company is just one of the many companies in the market.''

``We are pleased to enter the Argentine market with partners like BOLDT and SPTI,'' said Hank Macchio, vice president and general manager of ComStream's Satellite Global Access division. ``The potential application of our VSATPlus II systems for new private networks is great. VSATPlus II is an advanced multiservice system that lowers complexity and cost.'' Among its features are a full-mesh, expandable, multiservice TDMA-DAMA capability. This makes it possible for direct connection from any remote site to any other remote site within the entire network, eliminating the need for an expensive central hub and also eliminating any single point of failure that could take the entire network down. The system also offers direct connectivity for a wide variety of data services at a variety of data rates.