Sam and RB, excellent discussion, and both points are valid. Sam, you wrote:
+$+$ I think we're seeing the same data, but have different perspectives. You and I are contemporaries so I know you've seen technological promises that never succeeded in any substantial way such as flywheel energy storage, fusion electrical power, rotary engined autos, fission electrical power, etc. While some of these technologies had limited success, they quickly peaked and then were relegated to niche markets at best. The costs are always higher then predicted, the regulations grew the way a gas expands to fill its container, limits were discovered once the the boundaries were approached. +$+$
What I've been trying to sort out, among other things, is how far can this "enabling technology" FTEL has carry them and the Internet into the future. Sam, your words describe what I've often heard describing technological "leapfrogs" into the future. The rest of the world just couldn't or wouldn't keep up with the promise and decided to stay with "tried and true" technology, even if it was less capable.
For example, your highway analogy works fine with automobiles. After all, no matter how fast your car (rotary engine or otherwise) could take you, you still could only go so fast on the pavement. Throw in the requirements for machine and human fuel, roadblocks, detours and our friendly boys and girls in blue and it didn't really matter how fast your car could go, you were only going to average about 60 miles an hour. So the futuristic technology floundered in part because the manufacturers and users were comfortable, and profitable, with factories which were tooled to regular piston engines. And the inventor / developer of the technology lost money and went out of business cause no one was interested in his stuff, no matter how great it could've been.
What's different with FTEL, I believe, is (1) -- its enabling technology will (has?) bypass those aforementioned roadblocks and technology killers, and (2) -- they have (apparently) convinced those who will make the rules and decisions and spend "real money" on making the future of communications the way they think it should work...they are in the cahoots together, now. If FTEL has sold the enabling technology and the idea to those companies which will likely take the Internet where THEY need it to go, without waiting for the bureaucratic "rules and regulations," then it has leapfrogged or bypassed or overcome the obstacles which caused other enabling technologies to fail. That is, the inability to convince those who could really make the product a part of the future.
Seems FTEL has partners who have the resources to go where they want to go, and where THOSE companies think they NEED to go. And who have they gotten to help them?
ftel. Not many companies really put up and own their own satellites. Rather a powerful statement and vote of confidence for a little company of < 60 people to be in business with them.
Might not be the case, but then, it appears to be.
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