The air time charges, according to company officials, would command around 20 to 25 per cent premium over the prevailing STD/ISD rates. The Iridium phones, targetted at the travelling business class, would be launched all over the world including India at 1 pm on September 23.

Iridium, which will provide its services using a constellation of 66 low earth orbit satellites, has also tied up cellular operators around the world and with Global 1 network in India to provide a seamless interconnection so that users can use either the Iridium or the cellular service. The company will also be offering paging services with the help of its satellites. The pagers will cost $ 500 (Rs 21,000) in India, besides the monthlyrentals.

In order to create awareness of its brand name, Iridium LLC, the Motorola-led worldwide consortium, has drawn up a $ 140 million (Rs 540 crore) advertisement campaign as a run up to the launch of its services.

Unveiling the ad campaign before the media in Mumbai, Iridium India Telecom Ltd managing director, Jaydev H Raja, said that the campaign will use both the print as well as television media. In fact, Iridium has already tied up major newspapers, magazines and television companies around the world for launching its brand.

Iridium has also appointed Ammirati Puris Lintas as its global advertising agency, which has prepared the print and television campaigns.

According to the company, the campaign will roll out with a slogan "Calling Planet Earth" and will initially educate the prospective users about Iridium's services and its advantages. The launch of the Iridium brand name is said to be the world's first global brand launch.

"From the time of the launch, Iridium brand is to bepositioned to mean the same thing to everyone, everywhere. The challenge was to reach a wide target segment with one global positioning that could easily be expressed in any language or culture," said Raja.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.