Exciting article in the October 1, 1997 WSJ on page B7, not indexed.
Satellite Projects Filed With FCC by Several Groups:
Several high-profile groups working on satellite communications networks are planning much more ambitious projects even before they begin receiving revenues from their first global systems.
Consortia that include Iridium LLC, Globalstar L.P., and Mobile Communications Holdings, Inc. last week informed the FCC of plans for second-generation networks that offer dramatic increases in the number of satellites and communications speeds of their systems. Iridium, for example is proposing a 96-satellite system that can send voice and data up to 80 times as fast as the $4 billion, 66 satellite network it is now building.
The FCc filings, which the groups made in an effort to secure rights to operate on a 2 gigahertz communications frequencey don't guarantee that all the systems will be built exactly as proposed. None of the companies disclosed the value of the second-generation systems.
But the filings suggest the groups are even more bullish about demand for data delivery than when they planned their initial systems, which were largely conceived before the explosive growth of corporate computer networks and the Internet. The number and increased size of satellites the companies are planning to use also bodes well for the satellite-construction and launch industries.
Iridium, a Washington, D.C., consortium that is 20% owned my Motorola, Inc. said its next-generation system will carry data at variable rates up to 384,000 bits per second, compared with 4,800 bits per second in Iridium's current configuration. Its second-generation satellites are also larger than the satellites Iridium is now launching.
Iridium, which has put 34 of its first generation satellites in orbit and plans to begin commercial operations in September 1998, hopes to have its second-generation system in commercial operation by 2002.
Globalstar, a San Jose CA, joint venture of Loral Space & Communication Ltd., Qualcomm, Inc. and 10 other companies, proposed a system of 64 low-orbit satellites and four larger geo-stationary satellites. The Geo-stationary satellites Globalstar said, would be used to supplement the system's communications traffic in high-density areas.
Globalstar is scheduled to begin launching the first satellites in its $2.5 billion , 48-satellite firs-generation system this December.
MCHI, which hopes to hve its $910 million, 17-satellite Ellipso voice and data satellites in commercial service in 2000, proposed a 26-satellite system capable of handling two to three times the capacity of its first system. |
