More on ACeS
The dual-mode system (Satellite-GSM900) offers voice, facsimile and data services with the lightest and smallest shirt pocket-sized handset from Ericsson. Operating from the high-orbit geostationary Garuda 1, satellite coverage is over a wide area of Asia, plus the added capability to roam on GSM networks. This satellite supports up to 11, 000 simultaneous telephone channels, able to serve 2 million subscribers any where in the Asia Pacific, whether in the deep forests, mountains or offshore locations, or where the conventional telecommunication services are not available.

ACeS has 4 shareholders - Pasifik Satelit Nusantara of Indonesia, PLDT of the Philippines, Lockheed Martin of USA and Jasmine International of Thailand.

The seamless reach of satellite and GS coverage makes ACeS an effective communications solution. It provides the cheapest airtime rates compared with other satellite mobile phone systems. The network presently covers 24 countries and provides the following capabilities:

• High quality, digitally encoded voice.
• Data transmission with speeds of 2.4, 4.8 and 9.6 kbps.
• Group III facsimile transmission.
• GSM standard options, such as call divert, call waiting and call holding.
• High penetration alerting (HPA) - This alert feature, for incoming call which cannot be received
due to weak satellite signal strength, will facilitate the user to move to a better line-of-sight location and so receive the call.