Belgium-based EDC will begin operations out of Johannesburg, South Africa, and expects to begin offering service late this year. OrbComm now has service distribution partners serving 190 countries and dependent territories worldwide.

EDC plans to complete construction of its terrestrial OrbComm Gateway, consisting of a gateway Earth station (GES) and a gateway control center (GCC), in 1999. The GCC, which routes messages to and from OrbComm satellites and their terrestrial destinations, will be based in Johannesburg.

After installing the terrestrial infrastructure and securing the necessary regulatory approval, EDC plans to offer a wide range of satellite-based tracking and monitoring services, including utility resource management, fleet management, commercial and consumer messaging, stolen vehicle recovery, home and field security, marine communications and monitoring, and locomotive/rail car tracking and monitoring.

EDC will offer these applications to industries and individuals in 60 countries and territories across sub-Saharan Africa, including Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote D'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe and others.

"Africa is an enormous market that has been traditionally underserved by standard telecommunications systems," said Scott L. Webster, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OrbComm.

"OrbComm is an ideal data communications option for African businesses because the system is low cost, well-proven and its coverage is essentially ubiquitous. Working with our European licensee, MCS Europe, as its Benelux In-Country Representative, EDC has shown both the technical expertise and the marketing capabilities to successfully deliver OrbComm services to Africa."

OrbComm applications include monitoring of fixed assets such as electric utility meters, oil and gas storage tanks, wells and pipelines and environmental projects; tracking of mobile assets such as trailers, rail cars, heavy equipment, fishing vessels, barges and government assets; and messaging services for consumers and commercial and government entities.

Orbital Plans Fixed Broadband Satnet

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