Abu Dhabi, 30 Oct, 05 (WAM) - Thuraya Satellite TelecommunicationsCompany is drawing up plans to launch its third satellite in2007 but the company will float a tender for competitive bidding,the company's chief said yesterday.

Yousuf Al Sayed, chief executive of Thuraya, also said the thirdsatellite may be delivered earlier than expected, according toa report in Gulf News.

"Construction of Thuraya 3 is on track and delivery might bea few months earlier than the scheduled June 2006 date. But wedoubt the commercial launch would take place in 2006 becausewe plan to issue a tender and get bids for the launch," he said.

Boeing Satellite Systems is building Thuraya 3.

While the company is financing the purchase of Thuraya 3, variousoptions are being examined to finance the launch.

"The satellite itself will be self-financed but for the launchwe are looking at different options. It could be debt or equityor a mix of both and this would be finalised in the coming months."Al Sayed said there are compelling reasons for launching Thuraya3. "Basically it would serve two big needs one, as a back-upfor the existing satellite and second, to extend coverage toAsia. In terms of risk management, the back-up is necessary.

All the reasons are there to go ahead and launch." He said Thurayahas begun rolling out its PCOs (public call offices) in Africanmarkets and the company is on track to install 4,500 PCOs bythis year-end.

Currently over 3,000 PCOs have been installed in various marketsin Asia and Africa.

"We have already installed more than 600 PCOs in Libya and weare on track to reach 1,500 by this year-end. The demand andusage is high in Libya due to wide community use." Shipmentsof about 500 units to Uganda will begin shortly and work is inprogress to begin installations in Angola and the DemocraticRepublic of Congo.

"Some issues relating to licensing need to be sorted out there,he said.

Thuraya will be receiving the second generation handsets inMarch 2006, something that would change the perception of usersdue to the additional features.

"The new handsets will bring us closer to the rest of the handheldcommunication devices as they include several new features includingGPRS." Thuraya has so far sold about 375,000 handsets.

He said the response to Thuraya's new DSL (satellite broadbandservice) is positive, but there are requests for marine usageand solutions are being worked out.

Service Provider Agreements (SPAs) are being drawn up in severalmarkets to launch DSL services.