....satellite gateway ground station located in Saudi Arabia and the establishment of a Satellite Services Agreement. The gateway, which is already constructed, will provide Globalstar mobile satellite voice and data services to all of Saudi Arabia and throughout parts of the surrounding Middle East region. The transaction would also provide SAS as the independent service provider, with access to one of the world's largest remote petrochemical exploration markets. Globalstar and SAS expect to enter into definitive agreements in the near future and request the necessary licensing approvals from the Saudi Arabian telecommunication regulatory authority.
Globalstar is the first mobile satellite service provider to launch a new second-generation constellation of low Earth orbit satellites. The Company has contracted with launch services provider Arianespace to conduct four launches of six satellites each. Three of the launches have been successfully completed with the fourth launch expected later this year. Once the new constellation is deployed, Globalstar expects to provide the world's finest quality mobile satellite voice and fastest mobile satellite handset data services to customers in more than 120 countries. Combined with its affordable suite of consumer retail SPOT products, Globalstar expects to offer the world's most extensive lineup of high quality mobile satellite services to the broadest range of commercial and retail consumer customers around the globe.