Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.telcom From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: telcom Tue, Feb 25 1992 Date: Tue, 25 Feb 92 06:35:01 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: Telecommunications USA TODAY Update Feb. 25, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network 3.6 MILLION OWN DISHES: For a TV junkie, a satellite dish is the ultimate experience. It provides the ability to receive all that TV has to offer, across the globe, from Nebraska to Nairobi. The nation's 3.6 million dish owners are most often people who live in rural areas that can't receive TV signals clearly and consumers who are disgusted with their monopoly cable service. (For more, see special Dish package below.) GALAXY V SET FOR LAUNCH: Hughes Aircraft Co. technicians are preparing a major cable television satellite for launch aboard an Atlas Centaur rocket Thursday evening, Hughes says. The craft, called Galaxy V, will be used for cable television program distribution. It replaces Westar V in HCI's fleet of C-band and Ku-band satellites serving the USA. It is scheduled to be operational in early May. GALAXY V PART OF HS 376 SERIES: The Galaxy V satellite carries 24 C-band transponders, Hughes Aircraft says. Each transponder is powered by a 16-watt traveling-wave tube amplifier. A transponder is capable of carrying one analog television channel, or a combination of video, voice and data signals. Galaxy V is part of Hughes Aircraft Company's HS 376 series. It will be the 33rd in the series to be launched. CABLE REVENUE CONTINUES TO RISE: Cable TV industry revenue reached an estimated record $20 billion last year, according to Paul Kagan Associaties. Total monthly revenue per subscriber, which was $14.17 in 1981, was $31.67 in 1991. Between 1982 and 1991, revenue per subsciber went up each year. The average rose above $20 in 1985. It was $29.46 in 1990. ARKANSAS RATES TO FALL: Long-distance, in-state phone rates in Arkansas must be cut by 25% starting April 1 under order from state Public Service Commission. The commission says the rates are too high and must be reduced by $19.1 million per year. The order affects 900,000 customers and 28 phone companies. U.S. CELLULAR SEES INCREASE: United States Cellular Corp. says its number of customers increased by 69% in 1991. Since Jan. 1, 1990, USM has acquired 69 new markets, commenced cellular service in 59 areas in those markets and added 107 cell sites and 60,900 cellular telephones. BOARD OF TRADE TO TEST SYSTEM: The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) says it will begin testing the first of three AUDIT prototypes on the trading floor in the wheat pit Wednesday. AUDIT is the hand-held electronic trading card being developed by CBOT and Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The first prototype to be tested has been developed by Spectrix Inc. and utilizes touchscreen technology and infrared communication. MARTIN MARIETTA TO BUILD SENSOR: Martin Marietta Corporation said Monday it has received a $20.8 million, 29-month contract from General Dynamics Corporation to build two prototype smart sensor systems for flight tests. The package will enable autonomous air vehicles to locate, identify and attack mobile targets. The system will detect targets using either millimeter wave radar or infrared sensor, or both simultaneously. MILITARY SATELLITE LAUNCHED: A $65 million military navigation and communications satellite was hurled into orbit late Sunday night atop a U.S. Air Force Delta 2 rocket. The $110 million mission marked only the second flight since November 1990 of a Navstar Global Positioning System spacecraft. It is part of an $8.5 billion system that ultimately will consist of 24 spacecraft ringing Earth in six groups of four. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON DISH: BUSINESS EXPECTED TO PICK UP: Despite the recession, which dragged satellite dish sales down 10.5% last year (380,000 dishes sold in '90; 340,000 in '91), many in the industry predict that home satellite systems will eventually be as common as the VCR. Most dish owners now have systems that receive signals from high-power C-Band satellites. These systems require 8-foot or 10-foot dishes, and cost $2,000-$5,000. KU-BAND SYSTEMS READY TO GO: Low-power KU-Band systems are emerging that require 3-foot, less-expensive dishes. Several firms are ready to take advantage of this technology. SkyPix says it will begin national distribution in April of low-power Direct Broadcast Satellite service. For $850, subscribers get a 3-foot dish, a receiver and access to 80 channels of mostly pay-per-view movies and several pay-super stations. NEW DESCRAMBLING SYSTEM READY: About 70% of dish owners see for free what cable viewers have to pay for - despite attempts by the industry to scramble signals. To counter the problem, General Instrument will unveil a descrambling system this fall that they claim is pirate-proof. That'll mean devious dish owners will have pay $400 for a new descrambling device, plus pay monthly fees for services they had been pirating. OWNERS CAN BUY NETWORK BLOCKS: Currently, dish owners can buy blocks of popular cable networks, such as MTV and CNN - usually in 20-channel packages - for about $1 per channel per month. Satellites, however, also beam down hundreds of unscrambled channels for free. Those include the Monitor Channel, the Nostalgia Network, Home Shopping Network, C-SPAN, BET, E!, Canada's CBC and Court TV. (End of package.) Telecommunications Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 08:0002250000D0225 TREN- R J Second-animated-series-debuts......... A D0225 This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM