With this new alliance, COMSAT customers have access to T-Mobil's earth station in Germany for messaging in the Indian Ocean Region (COMSAT already provides COMSAT-C data messaging through its own earth stations in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean Regions). In addition, T-Mobil customers will be able to use COMSAT-C data messaging service worldwide, by accessing COMSAT's earth stations in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean Regions where T-Mobil previously did not offer service.

``COMSAT is dedicated to providing our customers with the highest quality and most innovative product offerings to meet their data communications needs,'' said Tom Collins, vice president and general manager of COMSAT Mobile Communications. ``Our relationship with T-Mobil is an example of the alliances we are forming worldwide to provide our customers with distinct advantages in today's increasingly competitive worldwide marketplace.''

``The alliance is a natural fit for both companies,'' said Wolfram Kantorek, product manager at T-Mobil. ``We both share the business goal of positioning our service offerings to take advantage of the strong growth in the global mobile communications market, and our relationship with COMSAT positions T-Mobil to quickly and efficiently achieve that goal.''

COMSAT-C is used for data messaging in maritime and land transport applications such as commercial fishing and shipping, leisure boating, and disaster relief. The service is rapidly growing because it meets standards for the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), which is being implemented on ships worldwide by an international deadline of February 1, 1999.

The global service with T-Mobil for data messaging supplements COMSAT's existing Internet E-mail capability on COMSAT-C, which is already available worldwide (see COMSAT press release dated July 8, 1997).

Headquartered in Bonn, T-Mobil is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. T-Mobil employs 4,500 staff and in 1996 had revenues of approximately $3 billion, with over 4 million customers in Germany alone.

COMSAT Mobile Communications, a business unit of COMSAT Corporation, provides maritime, aeronautical and land mobile satellite services to customers around the world via the Inmarsat satellite system.