ABSTRACT
Asia's vast land area, its population of more than 3 billion, a teledensity of fewer than 3 lines per 100 inhabitants in the lower income countries, and its unserved rural areas and isolated islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific all make the Asia-Pacific region attractive for satellite communications. In fact, the Asia-Pacific region now lags behind only North America in number of commercial satellites in orbit, and leads the world in the number of satellites on order (Boeke & Fernandez, 1997).
