Single-number cellular service about to be launched worldwide.

Los Angeles cellular telephone users, who already make up one of the largest cellular markets in the world, may be able to call anywhere in the world and conduct all their telecommunications business with a single cellular phone number by 1998.

Companies in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan have expressed interest in providing the same type of single-number "personal communications networks," also known as PCNs, within a single country.

But Washington, D.C.-based Iridium Inc., a subsidiary of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc., is working to create the first low-orbit satellite network to provide single-number cellular service throughout the world, said John Windolph, a spokesman for Iridium.

Existing cellular networks link states or countries with ground-based cellular systems that may be linked to overseas destinations through underwater cable, the existing network of satellites, or a combination of both. However, Iridium is proposing to link the whole world through its own as-yet-unlaunched satellite network.

Iridium's proposed satellites would pick up signals from cellular customers and bounce them off other satellites to the appropriate parties anywhere on earth. That same technology already exists on a limited basis through existing satellites and ground stations. But Iridium is proposing to make cellular service available throughout the world by launching 66 of its own satellites into orbit.

Iridium's plan calls for it to share the fees they would collect with private and government-owned local telephone companies throughout the world, Iridium's Windolph said.

Iridium users could have one telephone number to take with them anywhere on earth. But initially, the tab for such convenience would be steep -- about $3 per minute, Windolph said.

"If we only get 1 percent of the projected 100 million global cellular users by the year 2002, our $3.4 billion program will be an economic success," Windolph estimated.

PCNs, as currently envisioned, would supply a broad range of radio communications to provide mobile users with a viable alternative to the existing wire-line networks they use to make international calls from home or work. In turn, that wireless network would pave the way for each customer to be assigned a single phone number.

Most people now need a number for their car phone, one for their home phone, one for their office phone and one for their fax line, said Ian Schapiro, a partner in West Los Angeles Venture Associates, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arthur Andersen & Co., a Big Six accounting firm. Consolidating all telecommunications functions into a single account will provide administrative savings that potentially can be passed on to customers, Schapiro said.

Global PCNs are of particular interest locally because, besides being one of the largest cellular markets in the world, Los Angeles also has some of the world's biggest aerospace companies. And several of those local aerospace giants are positioning themselves to compete for the contracts on satellite-based PCNs, said Iridium's Windolph. Among those jockeying to compete are the Los Angeles County divisions of McDonnell Douglas Corp., TRW Inc., Lockheed Corp. and the communications division of Hughes Aircraft Co.

Despite all that supposed positioning, two major hitches stand in the way of making the global PCN into a reality. The first hitch is that governments around the world must agree on a standard frequency or bandwidth and license the PCN service provider. The second hitch is that one company or a consortium of companies must invest billions of dollars to launch communications satellites and build ground stations to relay the messages, Schapiro said.

Telecommunications experts say Iridium is the front runner in the competition to provide personal communications networks. But competitors, such as El Segundo-based Hughes Aircraft Co., are working on multi-faceted satellite networks that will compete for PCN customers.

"The process has slowed somewhat under the new (Clinton) administration. But I think standards will be approved on a global basis in the next few years," Schapiro said.

Fred Thomas, a Washington, D.C.-based engineer in the Federal Communications Commission frequency allocation branch, said Japan and England are each working on their own cellular-based PCNs. And those networks are not necessarily compatible with each other, or with Iridium's proposed network, or with other PCNs.

"There is nothing to keep a company from forming its own international network of satellites and ground stations," Thomas said. "It does not look like there will be any near-term international agreement that would standardize international cellular-based personal communications networks so that a PCN satellite network assembled in one country would be compatible with a PCN in another country."

Regardless, satellite-based PCN providers are expected to spend billions of dollars building and launching satellites into orbit. For example, the Iridium program will directly or indirectly affect the future profitability of several Los Angeles County aerospace companies, said local aerospace experts. Local operations of Hughes, Douglas, TRW and other aerospace companies are expected to benefit from the PCN movement because Iridium and its parent company Motorola plan to rely on such companies to manufacture the satellites and tracking stations needed for the global satellite network.

The Huntington Beach-based McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Division is in final negotiations to launch some of the Iridium satellites, said spokeswoman Anne McCauley.

"We have made it down to the final cut and hope we will be able to make an announcement that we have an Iridium contract in May or June," McCauley said.

McDonnell Douglas would launch the Iridium satellites on its Delta 2-class rockets, which McCauley said sell for $50 million, "give or take a few million, depending on the distance of the orbit and the type of satellites launched."

The Iridium contract would be particularly sweet for McDonnell Douglas because replacement satellites would have to be launched every year. That is because the Iridium satellites would orbit only 420 miles above the earth. At such a low altitude, the satellites would start falling out of orbit in five years. But since the satellites would be launched gradually, rather than all at one time, replacement satellites would need to be launched each year, said Iridium officials.

However, McDonnell Douglas, if selected, would not be the sole launcher. Iridium in February awarded a contract to Khrunichev Enterprise of the Russian Federation to launch 21 satellites on three of its Proton rockets, said Iridium's Windolph.

Iridium conceptualized the global satellite network years ago, but must raise at least $800 million in joint-venture financing before it moves ahead. Windolph said he expects to have those financing commitments by July. Once the financing is in place, he said, Iridium will start soliciting bids from manufacturers interested in building the network's components.

International cellular economist Herschel Shosteck said satellite-based PCN programs such as Iridium's are badly flawed because the greatest number of potential customers who can afford to buy the $3,000 cellular phones needed to access the satellite network live in the industrialized nations that already are served by existing cellular networks.

"The technology is there for this to happen, but if it does, it will be only because (Iridium's parent company) Motorola wants it to, not because there is a strong global market," said Shosteck, who owns Silverspring, Md.-based Herschel Shosteck Associates Ltd. "What good does it do to establish cellular service to countries where nobody can afford to use them?"

Challenging Shosteck's harsh assessment of satellite-based PCNs, Iridium's Windolph countered: "The truth is, Iridium augments the existing telephone infrastructure. But it will make (cellular telephone service) available in developing countries which have no reason to recreate an antiquated copper or fiber optic cable transmission line for long-distance data or voice transmission."

But areas with existing cellular service will not necessarily get better service if Iridium becomes a reality, said Jonathan J. Joseph, an analyst with the New York City securities firm Kidder, Peabody & Co.

"One important thing to remember is that just because a network of satellites is launched does not mean Los Angeles cellular service will improve," he said. "Local users still will send and pick up long-distance calls through the existing ground-based cellular network, even though the calls will be beamed around the world by the satellites."