Globalstar L.P. [GSTRF] service partner Telecommunications par Satellites Mobiles (TE.SA.M.) opened the newest Globalstar gateway in Los Velasquez, Venezuela, bringing the total number of fully operational gateways to 13.

The facility will provide mobile satellite telephone service across all of Venezuela as well as several neighboring countries, including French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and a number of French southern Caribbean islands.

TE.SA.M., which is a joint venture between France Telecom [FTE] and Alcatel [ALA], is now conducting detailed commissioning and system tests on gateway 13, to be followed by a period of “friendly user” trials.

Once full commercial service is introduced, TE.SA.M. Venezuela will aim its marketing effort initially at the petroleum, mining and agricultural industries that are based in areas outside the range of existing cellular service. TE.SA.M. also owns and operates Globalstar gateways in France and Argentina, and soon will open gateways in Peru, Senegal, and Turkey.

In other news, Globalstar de Mexico and leading Mexican cellular provider Nuevo Grupo Iusacell, S.A. de C.V. [CEL] are forming an alliance in Mexico. Under the agreement, Iusacell will market Globalstar mobile satellite telephone products and services in Mexico, while also offering its existing and potential customers a combined service that would use land-based digital CDMA technology within Iusacell’s cellular coverage area and Globalstar satellite telephony where cellular coverage is unavailable. Iusacell also will provide Globalstar with certain administrative services.

“Globalstar will extend our coverage to those areas that are currently lacking a means of communication through the use of mobile and fixed Globalstar equipment. These systems will be cellular or satellite depending on the coverage available in a particular area,” said Amaury Rivera, vice president of marketing for Iusacell. Through its alliance with Globalstar, Iusacell also becomes an authorized distributor of satellite communications systems that offer cellular and satellite coverage in a single unit.