Abstract: A method and a system are disclosed for synchronizing within a recurrent time frame the starting points of the transmissions from the various stations in a TDMA network wherein N stations distributed among M separate zones covered by M different down-link frequencies exchange pulse bursts through a satellite, each pulse burst being comprised of a preamble, a unique word, the transmitting station's address, and traffic data. The satellite includes a global beam antenna which covers all of the M zones and is adapted to receive M different up-link frequencies, means for converting these M up-link frequencies to M corresponding down-link frequencies, and M directional beam antennas covering the M zones, each of said M antennas being adapted to transmit the down-link frequency associated with the particular zone it covers. The bursts transmitted by the various stations are assigned a predetermined position within the frame.