According to a Feb. 21 Dow Jones wire report. Thailand is looking to spend between $90 million and $100 million on two satellites that will replace Thaicom 1 and 2, which are due to retire in 2008 and 2009, respectively. A government official was quoted in the report as saying the government has not decided whether it will build one or two satellites as replacements for the retiring spacecraft. The official said that part of the funding will come from an insurance claim from the temporary failure of transponders on the Thaicom 3 satellite.

In other news, Shin Satellite has delayed the launch of its iPSTAR broadband satellite until the middle of 2005. It had been scheduled for a mid-March launch.