The plot, which ran from 1988 to 1996, was organized by Michael Clinger and involved selling smart cards from various offshore companies set up by the defendant. Liberian company Phoenix Micro Inc. EchoStar, Loral Launch SkyVista EchoStar and Loral launched SkyVista, the joint satellite service offering up to 26 digital channels of programming and CD-quality audio to viewers in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Originally, service was scheduled for launch in October.
Installation is available at an additional cost.
EchoStar plans to expand SkyVista's program offerings soon by offering ethnic programming services to customers in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories in the Caribbean. SkyVista's services will be transmitted from Loral Skynet's Telstar 5 satellite positioned at 97 degrees West Longitude with uplinking and programming distribution services based in Cheyenne, Wyo. Star TV Box Deal Zenith Electronics will supply digital set-top boxes to News Corp.'s Star TV programming venture in Asia under a deal in which financial terms were not disclosed. Zenith also builds boxes for the Sky Latin America satellite venture in Mexico and Brazil, and for Sky Network Television in New Zealand. The company uses AsiaSat 1, AsiaSat 2 and Palapa C2 as its satellite platforms.