[chat-future]
Hi Pat -
Take a look at what Louderback thinks about future possibilities....these sure are exciting times.....
Regards,
Ed...
<<snip>> from an article on ZD
On the horizon: The recent satellite launch by Globalstar didn't get a lot of press coverage, but it signals a sea change in telecommunications.
Globalstar is owned by 10 communications giants, including Qualcomm, Loral, AirTouch and France Telecom. The company plans to blanket the Earth with 44 satellites by the end of this year, all in low Earth orbit. Unlike traditional geostationary satellites, which orbit at 22,000 miles, these units operate only 878 miles above the Earth. That means small and low-powered devices can communicate with them easily.
By early next year, if all goes well, you'll be able to use a single phone, no bigger than today's cellular phones, almost anywhere in the world, and get faxes or e-mail anywhere as well.
And if a similar system from Teledesic, which is funded partially by Bill Gates and Craig McCaw, gets built in the early '00s, competition will drive prices down and bandwidth up. Maybe we won't need ADSL or cable modems after all.
Jim Louderback is the editorial director of ZDTV and a contributing editor to PC Week. He can be reached at jim_louderback@zd.com. |
