REVISITED

P> PeopleSoft Captures First Two Major Federal Contracts
Client/server software vendor PeopleSoft Inc. (WT, Aug. 24, 1995) announced on Feb. 12 that it had captured contracts to sell its commercial, off-the-shelf software packages to the departments of Veterans Affairs and Justice.

Sales Slow on BTG-Manufactured PC
All that BTG Inc. touches does not turn to gold. Sales of the Vienna, Va.-based company's high-performance BTG Alpha AXP 275 personal computer (WT, Jan. 11) have been slow, according to Jack Hughes, vice president and chief financial officer.
Both BTG and Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor Tech Data Corp., which carries the product, have been disappointed by the sales of BTG computers. Hughes said the company is trying to target vertical markets such as telemedicine that might need the extra computing power that the 64-bit Alpha microprocessor chip, produced by Maynard, Mass.-based Digital Equipment Corp., gives the 275 Mhz machine.

INTELSAT Satellite in China Crashes
In its first total launch failure in 10 years, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization's most recently launched satellite crashed within seconds of takeoff in China on Feb. 14 (WT, Jan. 25) .
INTELSAT's Irving Goldstein, director general and chief executive officer, said, "We want to reassure our customers that there will be minimal disruption in service. We have contingency plans in place to ensure we can continue to meet our customer's needs.
INTELSAT has 23 satellites in orbit, and the recently crashed satellite was to provide service for Latin America. The organization has eight additional launches over the next two years planned and is working with China Great Wall Industry, its launch vehicle service provider in China, to determine the cause of the failure. The satellite was insured for $204.7 million.
The $800 million INTELSAT, based in Washington, D.C., owns and operates the world's most extensive global communications satellite system. The cooperative international organization provides voice/data and video services via satellite.

Freeing the Airwaves
To free more spectrum for the communications industry, Sen. Larry Pressler, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, says he may try to create a new panel modeled on the three Base Realignment and Closure Commissions. (WT, Jan. 25)
The commissions were created by Congress in 1991, 1993 and 1995, and successfully closed hundreds of military bases overseas and at home -- despite near-universal opposition by lawmakers to the closure of bases within their districts.
Pressler's suggested spectrum reallocation panel might loosen the TV industry's tight grip on the spectrum that it uses for TV broadcasts. That grip has proved strong enough to stymie past efforts by Pressler and Republican leader Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., to sell the TV spectrum, largely because lawmakers are reluctant to force their local TV stations to pay for the spectrum that they now use free.