The Asia Pacific market for geostationary satellites, the largest regional market in the world prior to the recentcrisis, has been depressed since 1997. The number of transponders in service in January 2000 will be lessthan a year earlier, for the first time. The last two years have been difficult for operators, their customers, andmanufacturers.Now however economic growth has resumed and satellite procurements are increasing again. There aremore than 25 satellite procurements now active in the region: thirteen are manifested for launch in 2000, twomore are already in manufacture, three are under bid and seven are publicly known to be in planning. Acommon feature of these satellites is a capability to handle high data speeds and Internet traffic. Theproportion of high-powered Ku-band transponders being specified for these applications continues a trend ofa steady annual increase over recent years.The Internet will be the strongest driver for transponder demand in the immediate future. High rates of growthof Internet use in the region indicate a strong demand for transponders both for backbone and direct highspeeddelivery of content. In addition high growth in DTH TV is expected to resume soon after 2000, driven inpart by encouraging signs that the Chinese and Indian markets may soon become accessible.
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