ICO plans to market its service between $1 and $3 (Rs 42 to Rs 126) per minute, ICO regional director marketing (cellular services) Andy YB Chong said.

ICO is seeking a service partner for India and is in talks with a number of cellular service providers. Company executives made a presentation to about 40 cellular industry representatives on Thursday in the capital.

ICO, which comprises a consortium of 59 telecom and technology companies, has entered into a partnership with the VSNL for providing global mobile personal communication service (GMPCS) in the country. VSNL, the largest stakeholder in the company, is providing its support to the service.

Chong told The Financial Express that demand forsatellite services comprised 5 per cent of the total cellular telephony market. "Our services will be used by international and domestic cellular users," he added. Commercial trials have started among European business travellers.

Discounting the affect of the country's economic slump on demand, Chong said, "We have the right service in place catering to a large number of business and leisure travellers."

ICO is developing and commercialising a medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite-based global communications service. The system is designed to enable local service providers to offer high quality wireless voice telephony and data services virtually anywhere in the world. The service offering will be complementary to terrestrial fixed and mobile networks around the world. ICO's full fledged satellite service is slated to be launched in the year 2000.