United Arab Emirates telecommunications company Etisalat will pump $65m into the planned Inmarsat-P cellular satellite telephone system, a United Arab Emirates newspaper said on Sunday. The English-language Gulf News said Etisalat will join the Intermediate Circular Orbit satellite system at a total cost of about $89m. The project, part of the Inmarsat London-based 76- country satellite communication consortium, was set up last year with a capital base of $1,400m from 46 partners. Telecommunications authorities from all six Gulf Co-operation Council states, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, are direct investors in the network. The service is now expected to hit the market by the beginning of the next century.
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