Satellite projects appear to figure prominently in Cyprus Telecommunications Authority’s (CYTA) strategy to move quickly beyond the confines of Cyprus, and finding the right MSS project in which to invest is one area the company is actively investigating.

CYTA had planned, since 1997, to invest $60 million in a 15 percent stake in EAST, the $800-million geostationary mobile satellite project led by France’s Matra Hautes Technologies, which controls satellite builder Matra Marconi Space.

As we went to press, however, CYTA was expected to have formally withdrawn from that project. "I do not think we will be participating," Michalakis Zivanaris, CYTA chairman, told Via Satellite in advance of an EAST board meeting. Zivanaris says the principal sticking point was the refusals of other shareholders, which also include Norwegian mobile terminal manufacturer A/S Nera, to incorporate EAST in Cyprus, where the government was counting on tax revenues. Moreover, Dr. Vassos Pyrgos, permanent secretary of the ministry of Communications and Works added that the government, which "wanted at least two major telecommunication operators to participate in the project" before it approved CYTA’s investment, was disappointed that EAST had attracted only "some interests in Oman and Syria" rather than powerhouses such as France Telecom or British Telecom.

Nevertheless, Zivanaris says, "we believe in mobile satellites," especially regional systems, which he says seem more likely to succeed than global constellations.

This may conceivably revive Cyprus Gem, a rival mobile satellite project initiated by Hughes Space and Communications with the Cyprus Development Bank (CDB), which had made little visible progress over the past year. Savvakis C. Savvides, manager of the CDB’s project financing department, had acknowledged during Euroconsult’s recent annual satellite finance conference that Cyprus Gem was "back at the drawing board" after its supplier’s agreement with Hughes expired.