Spain

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## JPRS-TTP-B9-003i

8 March 1989

# FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

B500037 London THE GUARDIAN in English

25 Dec 88 p 8—FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Ministers have acknowledged the existence of such plans, although they have been shelved—at least for the time being—but denied using Skynet as a cover. Three satellites are needed, an official said yesterday, so as to have two operational and one in orbit as a spare.

[Article by David Fairhall, Defence Correspondent]

Skynet 4B, now being manoeuvred into its final position above the Atlantic, is intended to cover the NATO area. Skynet 4A will go up in August next year aboard an American Titan 3 rocket to provide the orbiting back-up. 1st initial position will also be above the Atlantic.

The last in the series, Skynet 4C, will be launched by a French Ariane rocket in May 1990 and positioned off East Africa, level with the Equator.

[Text] The first of the Ministry of Defence's L50 million Skynet communications satellites moved into orbit above the Equator last night.

Plans to develop a radio surveillance satellite were disclosed by the journalist, Duncan Campbell. He suggested the launch of Skynet 4C, scheduled for orbit above the Indian Ocean in May 1990, was a perfect cover for the Zircon project, whose costing and justification was deliberately hidden from Parliament.

The Skynet 4 programme acquired notoriety last year when it was alleged that one of its three satellites would be equipped not for communications, but for spying on the Soviet Union, under the code-name Zibcon.

It has never been entirely clear how the expense for the third satellite was being justified when Britain no longer had a serious military role east of Suez and would be withdrawing from Hong Kong in the 1990s.

"We have withdrawn from the Far East," a Ministry of Defence official said yesterday, "but we still need to retain some capability to communicate with naval ships out there."

UK Database Service Reportedly Worth LS46m

35500035 London THE TIMES in English

33 Dec 88 p 31—FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

[Article by Ken young, Editor of COMMUNICATE Magazine]

This puts Britain in a market-leading position with around 54 per cent of the European market, valued at nearly L1.1 billion. This is due mainly, says EPS, to its load in supplying equity trading and foreign exchange services.

[Text] According to EPS, a specialist consultancy in information markets, the UK information service market is worth L546.5 million and has more than 800 services on offer.

UK service providers are beginning to market their services in Europe, but penetration is relatively low.

EPS says: "Due to international telephone and data connections most services are potentially available throughout Europe, but in practice most services are only targeting one or two countries."

By far the fastest growing sector of the on-line market is financial information services. These provide around 45 per cent of the UK revenue. A typical example is Compass Online, which holds data on 110 companies. Users can search for information relating to a company or a country, or by choosing one of the 45,000 produce categories.

Language barriers are also a problem. "Some databases offer multi-lingual services, but language will continue to be a barrier until English becomes the standard business language."

In Britain, space frequency is available from the BBC and the IBA for the transmission of data throughout the TV network-effectively 98 per cent of the British Isles. One of the key users in the UK is the Stock Exchange which uses the system to transmit its Market Eye, service, comprising data on UK equities, gilt-edged securities and London-traded international stocks.